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  • From: "Lon J. Rombough" <lonrom@hevanet.com>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] apricots and sweetness
  • Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2004 09:14:24 -0700

Title: Re: [NAFEX] apricots and sweetness
Your tastebuds aren't off.  Most commercial apricots are not exceptionally sweet, and the ones that can get sweet have to be dead ripe, too ripe to handle even for a farmer's market.   Then there are ones like the Hunza apricots that were selected for drying.  Craig Ledbetter, who is working with them in California, says that some of the Hunza seedlings actually went off the scale on his refractometer.  Most refractometers go to either 28 or 32 Brix.  Either way, that's an extremely sweet fruit.  Grapes used for raisins may be picked at 22 to 24 Brix.
-Lon Rombough



I have read about apricots being sweet or super sweet, but every fresh apricot I have tried recently has been a disappointment.  I have tried fresh apricots from various trees around town, but they were all bland.  I paid a premium for some at a farmers market.  These were billed as super sweet.  That farmer had some really nice peaches, but the apricots only tasted slightly fruity and not at all sweet.  Not something I would seek out again.  I was starting to think maybe there is a genetic thing going on with my tastebuds that makes fresh apricots seem bland to me.  That¹s what I was thinking until I tasted some new apricot varieties straight off the tree at a Washington State University field day held over the weekend in Mt Vernon.  I am trying to track down the name of the varieties, but these apricots were super sweet as advertised.  I wonder if the sweetness in apricots rapidly decreases after the fruit is picked.  I know that sweet corn works that way (sugars turn to starch if not eaten soon after picking).  I may grow some apricots now after having a good experience with them fresh off the tree.



Has anyone noticed super sweet apricots losing sweetness after sitting around off the tree for a few days?

-Mark Lee, Seattle

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