Big things are happening in the cider and processing industry. The University of Guelph has developed and is getting ready to release a new apple cider for the cider industry and world to try. For this cider, scientists used the red flesh apples with the goal of producing bright red cider. This is an excellent opportunity for apple and fruit companies to take part in new innovations.
Red flesh apples are crabapples that have a flesh interior that ranges from bright pink, red and orange. Recently, they’ve been gaining more and more popularity in the fresh produce industry. “The apple has several unique features well-suited for the apple cider industry and processing industries,” wrote Dr. John Cline, professor of Pomology and Tree Fruit Physiology at U of G. “The apple has crimson red flesh that produces crimson coloured juice for cider, jams and jellies.”
This new apple called “Providence” was developed by Dr. Cline and tested for almost 20 years. According to Cline, American cider producers were producing red juice apples and it led his team at Guelph to go down a similar route.
The Providence apple has red-purple skin, has a similar shape to a plum, has bright red flesh on the inside and ranges from 20-43 grams. When extracted, the juice is high in acidity and can have a bitter flavour. Due to its high acidity and flavour, this type of crabapple makes it ideal for ciders. Under license by Warwick Orchards and Nursery, a farm located between Sarnia and London in Ontario, the Providence apples are already being grown in Canada.
While crabapples begin to rise in popularity, according to Cline, there are still more challenges to overcome in the meantime. Although crab apples are better for ciders, they’re also very small compared to apples and aren’t as easy to harvest. For this reason, research is being done not just on developing better and more apples for cider, but also improving harvesting techniques.
“Horticulturally one of the challenges with crab apples is the size is so small, so in order to move this forward in a big way we have to find a way to mechanically harvest them,” Cline says. “To handpick them, it would be like cherries, and you don’t have to keep them in perfect condition because you aren’t marketing them as fresh fruit, so mechanical harvesting makes sense.”
According to Cline’s research, if you shake the trees using various technologies, the ruit will automatically be placed in a bin and then off to the press. This will help speed up the process and make these specific apples more accessible. Cline believes this new apple will be a great and valuable addition to the industry due to its excellent flavour and attractive colour.
There’s tons of innovation occurring in the cider and winery business. Experts in the industry are always looking for new ways to experiment and say there’s a growing popularity of rosé wines and ciders. Using fresh produce for new flavours for products will only continue the upward curve for craft cider.
Photo Credit: Rianne Gerrits
Source: http://www.orchardandvine.net/articles/‘providence’a-new-red-fleshed-apple-for-the-cider-and-proces/
