Pink Lady

之前提到今年採蘋果時多了一種叫 Pink Lady 的新品種，凡凡很愛吃。本來我們把所有採的 Pink Lady 蘋果都留給凡凡吃，後來好心的凡凡分我吃了一口，現在 Pink Lady 已經取代了 Golden Delicious，變成我最喜歡吃的蘋果了。

不同於 Delicious, Fuji, Gala, Macoun 這些蘋果很容易在超市買到，我們似乎沒看過超市有賣 Pink Lady 的，至少家附近的 Star/Shaw markets, Market Basket, Stop & Shop 確定都沒有；據說 whole food 可能有，改天再去看一看。

查了一下資料，原來 Pink Lady 的販賣還真的經過嚴格控管，只有合乎一定標準的 Pink Lady 才能冠上 Pink Lady 的名字販賣，其它不及格的就叫做 Cripps Pink。

去年在同一個果園還沒見到這些 Pink Lady apple trees，應該是今年新栽的，不曉得還有哪些果園也有 Pink Lady？

資料說有 65% 的 Pink Lady 蘋果因為沒達到標準只能夠叫作 Cripps Pink，我們採了這麼多顆應該總有一些可以夠資格吧。

你今天蘋果了嗎？

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Check the following information if you like to know more about Pink Lady

Pink Lady apple
Perhaps more than any other modern apple, Pink Lady epitomises the trend towards agressive product marketing and branding. Pink Lady was one of the first apple varieties to be marketed as a "club". The variety is grown under a strictly controlled licence, and then marketed through a limited number of resellers to the supermarkets. This tight control is intended to keep quality and prices high, and it is portrayed as a premium product.

You may have sometimes seen another variety called Cripps Pink in the shops and noticed the similarity ... it is actually the same variety. In order to preserve the premium appeal of Pink Lady, about 65% of the production which does not meet the standards required for Pink Lady is sold as Cripps Pink instead. The distinction is primarily made on colour intensity and the sugar/acid balance. Whilst this might at first appear to be a cynical marketing ploy, it arguably benefits consumers because it means that the variability of quality of Pink Lady is less than you might find in other varieties.

The marketing effort has particularly targeted young women, and has resulted in Pink Lady apples being promoted in such unlikely settings as the Glastonbury music festival, as well as in women's magazines, and cross-marketed with Barbie dolls. Pink Lady even has its own website - www.pinkladyapples.co.uk.

Pink Lady comes from Australia, and is a cross between Golden Delicious and Lady Williams. Lady Williams is not a particularly well known apple variety in Europe, but has been quite widely grown in Australia, having been discovered as a chance seedling in the 1930s. It is probably from Lady Williams that Pink Lady gets its distinct colouring. (However it is interesting that another modern "blush" apple, the orange-coloured Tentation, is also a Golden Delicious cross). It requires a very long growing period and a hot climate, and hence is not grown commercially in the UK.

Pink Lady apples from the northern hemisphere tend to arrive in shops from late November - but the very long storage life means they are available almost all year round from northern or southern hemisphere orchards.

Does Pink Lady match up with the marketing ? Visually, it probably does - it is still unusual to see an apple that is genuinely pink. We are not so sure the flavour is quite up there with the best modern varieties (take Jazz for example), and it certainly will struggle to compete with some of the more complex older varieties. Having said that, the flavour is perfectly acceptable, and is slightly more acidic than Golden Delicious. Pink Lady is also a fairly juicy apple, and the texture is solid and bites cleanly. However, this is in some ways missing the point. The marketing effort for Pink Lady focusses on lifestyle rather than flavour, and having achieved about 10% of the UK market in a very short space of time, it is clearly doing something right and is deservedly popular.