Imagine an apple that tastes like grapes! Now, this is a fruit you won’t find on trees: grapple-flavoured apples. With the crunch of apples and the flavour of Concord grapes, the Grapple hits grocery stores in the US this fall, billed as a healthy, kid-friendly snack for its sweetness and distinct flavour. The fruit begins as either a Gala or Fuji apple from Washington state, and is then ‘gently bathed’ in a mix of concentrated grape flavour and water to take on the unique taste and aroma.
Even health buffs would love biting into, as in spite of it being scientifically modified, there’s nothing in it that can harm your waistline. No additional sugars are added in the process, nor is the reinvented fruit the result of genetic modification.
Like regular apples, the Grapple clocks in at 95 calories and the company says the fruit maintains its vitamin and fibre content. While the Grapple is just the result of a heady spa treatment, apples such as the Gala, Fuji and Golden Delicious that are now common mainstream fruits are actually hybrids.
And it’s not just Grapple that’s the result of fusion. Other fruit fusions include the boysenberry, which is a hybrid between a blackberry, raspberry and loganberry, and the Meyer lemon, which comes from the lemon and Mandarin orange. Grapple brand apples are sold in four-pack clamshells at an average retail price of about $5 (Rs.245).