How do grapes taste

Cain grew up in Maine, among grape varieties that belong to the Vitis labrusca species, which are bred mostly in the eastern US and boast a richer array of flavors. The Concord grape, used to make jelly and juice, is a V. The problem is, Concord grapes contain seeds, and their tough skins pull apart easily from the flesh.

As a result, the sugar and flavors are concentrated near the skin, while the center is fairly acidic. To breed the two, Cain and his team undertook the tedious task of plucking the pollen-producing parts from the flowers of the V. When the embryos neared maturity, they picked and grew them in test tubes in a lab. If they had seeds, the embryos would have fed on the starches inside the seed, but since they were seedless, they needed to rely on food supplied to them in test tubes.

The roughly , embryos resulted in around 10, plants, which Cain and colleagues ultimately winnowed to just one, a process that can take around a decade.

To make the Cotton Candy grape , Cain and his colleagues hybridized two grape species: a type of Concord-like grape the grape used in Welch's jams, jellies and juices and a variety of Vitis vinifera , a common grape found at grocery stores across the country, Cain told NPR. The result was a sugary-sweet hybrid: for every grams 0. That's about 12 percent more sugar than typical store-bought grapes, NPR said. Besides the Cotton Candy grape, researchers are also working on breeding hybrid grapes that taste like strawberries, pineapples and mangos, Cain said.

The result may be sweet, but making them was laborious. Because seedless grapes are unable to reproduce without help, horticulturalists had to remove the grapes' embryos from the plants and transfer them to individual test tubes, where they grew before being planted in a field, according to NPR. And in case you were wondering, the CEO of Grapery told me he tried making wine with them and it was not good! My wife always wondered why white grape juice didn't taste like grapes - that's because she never tasted a grape like the Niagara grape that companies like Welch's uses for white grape juice.

The table grape selection is no where near the selection of flavors available as juice, whether fermented or not. But when chilled and taste tested by potential consumers, the overwhelming response they got was that these grapes taste just like cotton candy. So you see they weren't trying to create a grape with that exact flavor profile, the people who tasted the grape felt it had that profile, hence the name "Cotton Candy grapes" was born.

Grapery didn't name the grape, we - the consumer named the grape. That's why I am such a big fan of this company and talk about them so much. Not only are they going hard after flavor, they are listening to what the people want.

If you are looking to know when Cotton Candy grapes are in season or are just a fan of Cotton Candy grapes and want to know all you can about them sign up below for our Cotton Candy grape mailing list. As I said above they didn't even think they tasted like Cotton Candy until they were chilled. So I always recommend putting them in the fridge before you eat them.

The flavor will always be better. If you had them and didn't think they tasted like Cotton Candy, then make sure you have tried them cold. Also see our when they are in season post.