Day 63 - Organic Green Dragon

Chasing the dragon, eating an organic Green Dragon and listening to Nick Nutter's podcast, The Top Albums of 2017.  See below links to part 1 and 2.  Witness some spiky, edgy, fluffy and funly commentary on the music or 2017 that was the music of 2017!

 https://soundcloud.com/nick-nutter/the-top-albums-of-2017-part-i
https://soundcloud.com/nick-nutter/the-top-albums-of-2017-part-ii

The Green Dragon originated in 1920 at the famous (I'm sure you heard of it, dah!) Aomori Apple Research Center in Japan.  It is a cross between the Golden Delicious and the Indo, apples that also yielded the Mutsu and Shizuka.  

Green Dragon apples resemble a lime green Golden Delicious dotted with very small brown freckles. The skin is thinner than most green apples, yet also resistant to bruising.  It is one of the most aromatic apples on the market due to a plentitude of chemicals know as fruit esters.  Refrigerated, they will last for 2-3 weeks.

The flavor is very sweet, not too tart with some exotic fruit undertones of pineapple and pear.  At first, I found the inner flesh lacked crispness but as I continued eating, I realized it reminded me of the texture of a pear and it was good.  

Green Dragon, roar, twas' good!  Next time I hope for sky rockets in flight, an afternoon delight with the Rockit apple.  Crunch on!

Day 62 - Ginger Gold and Weihenstephaner Vitus

Ed Sheeran is doing a STADIUM tour!  I met this famous ginger just a few years ago when he was an up and coming singer/songwriting.  He performed on the Wakeup News at WITI, the Fox affiliate where I work.  He may be a more famous ginger but I was more excited when we had a rock star of fruit, Bob Barthel from Barthel Fruit Farm on the show in Sept of 2017.  He brought a couple apples I had never seen before, the Pippin (see my Day 43 blog, the biggest apple I had ever seen, big as a baby's head) and the Ginger Gold.  I tried a Ginger Gold that day and it was killer!

Ginger Gold is famous as the apple that Hurricane Camille brought forth. Camille brought devastating floods to Nelson County, Virginia in 1969, and the orchards of Clyde and Frances "Ginger" Harvey were badly washed out.  In recovering the few surviving trees around the edge of one Winesap orchard, another tree was found which Clyde Harvey recognized as being different. It was planted with the rest, but was found to produce yellow rather than red fruit.  An extension agent identified the parents as Golden Delicious, Albemarle Pippin and some other unknown variety.  The variety was eventually named after Clyde Harvey's wife.

I really enjoyed this early season apple, they start to ripen in August.  My Ginger Gold had a uniform shape and bright gold skin.  It was juicy and crisp with a mild but complex flavor, not too sweet but with tartness and even some spicy notes at the end.  It thought it had a slight ginger quality to it.

I will definitely get out to Barthel Fruit Farm in Mequon next season, as their website shows some apples that are new to me.  Now a beer review...

Weihenstephaner is the oldest brewery in the world, almost a thousand years old.  Weihenstephaner Vitus is one of the best beers I have ever tasted.  It is a wheat beer and a Bock beer (a Weizenbock) but unlike any Bock I have tried.

It has a complex character due in part to an extra long storage time.  It has a creamy mouth feel with some good head.  There is a strong aroma of bananas, cloves and citrus.  It has a high alcohol content of 7.7 % ABV with an IBU of 17.

Weihenstephaner Vitus yes, maybe Ed Sheeran would like it?

Next times, I review the organic Green Dragon.  Crunch on and get yer drink on!

  

Day 61 - Pazazz and Bean Flicker Coffee Blonde Ale

Today's apple is the Pazazz, whose company slogan is, "Wow Right Now".  Also, a beer review of Bean Flicker Coffee Blonde Ale.  It's my blog and if I want to include a beer review, that's my business dammit!

The Pazazz is a new variety that was formed from the parentage of the Honeycrisp and an unknown variety. It was created at an experimental (and possibly secret and/or evil) fruit farm near Eau Claire, Wisconsin. They rely on bees to cross pollinate the trees, a process which results in a new variety of apple of which only one of the parents are known.  Of thousands of apple varieties created in this method only a handful make the cut. The Pazazz was selected for its exceptionally sweet flavor and its ability to be successfully grown in a variety of different climates. 

The Pazazz is part of a group of apples that are being commercialized in a new fashion by Apple Varietal Development LLC. This new process involves a club model where growers in the club are the only ones permitted to grow and sell the variety. This transfers control of supply from the tree nurseries to the growers and keeps the market from becoming oversaturated with a specific variety. It also ensures the apples being marketed under a specific name such as the Pazazz meet a certain standard in terms of quality. 

Pazazz is a large apple.  The skin is greenish yellow with a red brush stroke pattern overlay.  It is very crisp and juicy (juicier than a Juici) with a nice sweet/tart flavor.  I think this guy has pazazz and I predict this will become a more well-known apple in the future.  Wow right now?  Yes!

Bean Flicker Coffee Blonde Ale is made by Odd Side Ales out of Grand Haven, MI.  I found this beer to be a pleasant surprise.  It tricked my brain drinking such a light tasting beer with coffee.  It didn't seem like it should work but did.  I have had coffee Porters or Stouts and they can sometimes be quite bitter.

It poured a golden yellow with a fair amount of carbonation.  The head dissipated quickly but there was a nice, creamy mouth feel.  The ABV is 4.5%.  It had an aroma of coffee, vanilla and cream.  I found Bean Flicker Coffee Blonde Ale refreshing but with substance.

Next time I review the Ginger Gold apple and maybe... another beer.  Crunch on and drink up!

Day 60 - Juici

This Juici better be juicy and I hope it's good because I bought a 14 pack of these at Costco.  We will see, and taste, and smell, and hear?

Oneonta Starr Ranch Growers, located in Wenatchee, and formed in 1934 became the 1st exporter of Washington state apples, bringing them to the World.  As you might have guessed, they developed the Juici apple made available in 2016.  It is a mix of the very popular and delicious Honeycrisp and the decent but waning in popularity Braeburn.  

Juici is a good apple.  It is medium sized, pretty uniformly round and has a crisp bite.  The skin is not too thick and has a good apple smell.  The white flesh is INDEED juicy and the flavor is sweet/tart with some floral notes.  My only complaint is there were some tiny brown spots on a number of apples with no apparent bruising from the outside.

Next time, I will attempt a sophisticated review of the Pazazz apple so if you are fabulous and posh enough to be worthy, check it out and crunch on!

Day 59 - Musselman's Apple Butter and french toast

Today I review Musselman's Apple Butter.  Musselman's is a family owned company founded in 1907 in Biglerville, PA.  They also make apple sauce, juice and cider, pie filling and vinegar.

I love this stuff!  I have tried other apple butters and this is the best.  It has a smooth, velvety  texture and is sweet but not cloyingly so.  They use a traditional Pennsylvania Dutch recipe using only fresh apples, sugar, cinnamon and cloves.  It has 30 calories a serving which is less than most jams and jellies, butter or peanut butter.

I have only found it in a 28oz jar (it also is available in 17oz) which is big so in addition to using it on toast, bagels and english muffins, my wife Laura has made some killer recipes with it!  This morning, she made apple butter french toast.

She spooned a hefty portion of apple butter between two pieces of mini Italian bread and dipped it into a mixture of eggs with vanilla and cinnamon.  We topped it off with some maple syrup and good lord, yum!

Check out my Day 36 blog, when Laura made an Apple Butter Streusel Muffin, also motherfucking good!  Thanks woman!

Next time, I review the JUICI apple.  Crunch on!

Day 58 - Autumn Glory

Glory, glory hallelujah, glory, glory hallelujah, (everybody sing with me) glory, glory hallelujah, this apple from Walmart is pretty good!

Today's apple is the Autumn Glory.  I try not to shop at Walmart too often but I had stopped in for some cat litter or something.  I am not usually very impressed with their produce section but any store I'm in, I check for apples and sho enough, there it was 20 paces away, a shining beacon, a bag of apples of a variety I had never seen before, the Autumn Glory so I bought some.

Autumn Glory is a Washington State apple introduced in 2011 by Domex Superfruit Growers.  It is medium sized, has red skin with patches of yellow and is a hybrid of the Fuji and Golden Delicious. 

The company claims it has a firm, sweet flesh with notes of cinnamon and caramel and I agree.  There were some caramel notes.  It reminded me of drinking cider with some cinnamon.  I'd love to try some Autumn Glory cider.  A nice surprise from my stop in at Walmart.

Next time, I review Musselman's Apple Butter.  Crunch on and if you don't have teeth, you can still enjoy apple butter!

Day 57 - SnapDragon vs. King Cholesterol

Today's apple is the SnapDragon.  On to that in a minute but first...

Oh Apple, my liege, why hath you forsaken me?  I have given my body and soul to you, informing the masses of your greatness, the health benefits, the many uses, the yumminess!

My doctor just informed me after my recent physical that my cholesterol is high and I need to start taking Atorvastatin.  I'm going back in 90 days to get checked.  Many studies have shown apples to be great at lowering LDL or "bad cholesterol and increasing HDL "good" cholesterol but nooooooooooo, you don't want to do that for me!  Many apples consumed I have, as Yoda would say.

After a long walk out in the snow in my robe and slippers, I have cooled off.  I'm sorry apples.  It might be my love for beer and cheese and pasta and steak and donuts and maybe I need more walks in the snow but dressed more appropriately.  Apples are indeed a beneficial part of your diet to help with high cholesterol and I will eat more of them.  One to two a day has been shown to be very effective.  I don't actually eat an apple EVERY day but henceforth, I will.  Thanks apples!

SnapDragon is a new apple variety developed in 2013 by Crunch Time Apple Growers in New York state, an offshoot of the legendary Honeycrisp.  Crunch Time is responsible for the Ruby Frost which I reviewed on Day 16, which was tart and satisfying.

The SnapDragon is vibrant red with a uniform shape, medium in size.  I enjoyed mine very much.  It had "monster crunch" as the company claims.  It was juicy, sweet and had a snappy bite.  I would be proud to have a SnapDragon as part of my daily apple rotation.

Next time, I review the Autumn Glory, hallelujah and crunch on !!!