My hosted Cosmic Crisp® apple tour in Wenatchee Washington began high on the hills of central Washington. The air was crisp and the views were amazing. It was an incredible scene and everything you would imagine as the perfect backdrop for this iconic fruit. I had the honor of partnering with my friends from Cosmic Crisp® to take a personal tour of three Cosmic Crisp® Apple Orchards.
Apple Capital
Just for context, Washington is the world’s center of the apple industry. The expertise and passion for apples in this community is supreme. While at the orchard, I had the pleasure of eating a Cosmic Crisp® apple right off the tree. You better believe that an apple right off the tree is as delicious as it sounds.
I also learned that, due to the outstanding harvesting technology, and 20 years of traditional and non-GMO breeding, the Cosmic Crisp® apples you can buy in the store will taste even better because they are harvested at the perfect time for optimal flavors.
Fun facts
The Cosmic Crisp® stores well in the produce drawer of your refrigerator! Growers store the fruit in their warehouses for prolonged periods of time to bring out the best of its flavor and texture. This tickled me because before this trip I often would toss an apple that had been in my fridge for a week because it was “expired.” I’ll stop doing that now! Lol
While touring Cosmic Crisp® orchards, we did several apple studies including an apple taste test. We tasted and compared apples from warehouses that were as young as 2 months old (post-harvesting) and as old as 12 months old (post-harvesting). To the untrained palette, the differences were subtle, but all were delicious. The apple that won the taste test was the Cosmic Crisp® that had been properly stored for 12 months!
Cosmic Crisp®
The star of our tour was the Cosmic Crisp® apple. It is a gorgeous apple with starburst-like lenticels, or pores, that look just like the cosmos! This color pattern gives it a distinct and stunning presentation and the apple’s unique name.
The texture is firm and crisp. The flavor is the perfect balance of sweet and tangy while offering an incredible juicy mouthful. I can’t wait for you to experience it when it releases in early December.
More about the Apple tour
When I imagined going on a Cosmic Crisp® apple orchard tour, I thought I would see extra-large trees with a huge canopy and beautiful shiny apples. Let me point out that, modern apple orchards are beautiful and do have round and shiny (once dusted with your sleeve) apples, but one major difference between the apple orchards you imagine and a commercial orchard is that the commercial orchards are grown on trellises in neat rows instead of large canopies.
Surprising facts
Can you imagine the potential hazards of handpicking apples from a twenty-foot ladder??? Enough said right???
Apple trees grown on trellises also have a more even color. The Cosmic Crisp® apple has a beautiful deep red color that is very distinct. Another color characteristic is the yellow spots that look like “cosmos” hence the name Cosmic Crisp®.
Cosmic Crisp® Release
It’s not often as an adult you get to go on a “field trip” to an apple orchard! I felt like a kid in an apple candy store learning all these great details about how apples go from farm to table.
Many of you ask me when you will get to experience the incredible texture and flavor of the Cosmic Crisp® apple. And the answer is soon! Right now is the apple harvesting season, and they are scheduled to be ready and in stores in early December. You can follow Cosmic Crisp® Apples on Instagram or on their website for up to date information.
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