Australian Financial Review – By securing the Australian rights to the variety, Victorian growers are hoping to emulate the success of the Cosmic Crisp® in the US, where it has consistently set sales records since launching in 2019.
By Necia Wilden, AFR Contributor
“It’s the end of truffle season, and, boy, has it been big this year, with truffle festivals, truffle dogs and hunts, truffle products and $265-a-head dinners.
Nothing against the precious little black tubers, of course, but it does make you wonder: at what point do we hit peak truffle? I was noodling on this question when an email trumpeting the new season of another, rather less celebrated, culinary icon landed in my inbox.
A new, premium variety of apple has just launched in Australia, the culmination of 20 years’ development in the US, five years from planting to harvest here and a $27 million investment by Victorian-based growers Red Rich Fruits.
A hybrid of the HoneyCrisp and Enterprise varieties, the Cosmic Crisp apple is apparently set to light a fire under its many competitors in the commercial apple space, and it’s just hit the shops.
Well, that was the gist of the press release, followed by the offer of an orchard tour in the Yarra Valley, ground zero for Cosmic Crisp.
Apples? When I could be joining the faithful at some gastronomic temple to truffles instead? You’d have to be a hardcore apple fancier, with a child needing to be unglued from that other Apple variety, to say yes to spending a freezing day in Coldstream in the teeth of a Melbourne winter.
So I did.”
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This article first appeared in the Australian Financial Review on Aug 30, 2024.
