If I told you that grapes could taste like candy, you would probably be thinking, “Okay, but what chemicals are in them? That can’t be healthy!” But a team of horticulturalists are creating delicious flavors, including cotton candy and gumdrop, and they’re doing it the all-natural old-fashioned way: cross-pollination.
Read more:
How to turn “garbage” into food for the hungry (and there’s an app for that)
These unique flavors are made by combining more than one species of grape. The vast majority of grapes consumed by Americans come from the same species (Vitis vinifera), but most people don’t know that there are actually dozens of species. The team at Grapery, the only farm in the U.S. growing these innovative flavors, are hoping to bring back natural flavor, which has been lost due to chemicals and premature cultivation.
Jim Beagle, CEO of Grapery, told CBS News that when it comes to fruit, retailers “want cheaper, they want bigger, they want prettier, they want shelf life.”
David Cain, fruit geneticist at Grapery, tried over 100,000 combinations before finding the famous cotton candy flavor. Because these geneticists don’t genetically modify the plants but rather cross-pollinate them, the process takes a minimum of six years and often more.
Their newest venture, Flavor Pops, is currently undergoing taste-testing in Los Angeles.
But in the meantime, click to find where to buy Grapery grapes near you.
And today we celebrate...