G'day! The harvest is in Down Under, and apples from the Southern Hemisphere have arrived in our New England markets.
The same varieties grow just fine here and many are available year round. However, I have arbitrarily waited until now before reviewing any of the many varieties that originated south of equator.
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Today's striking apple is medium to large, ribbed and tapered to a round base of bumps around the calyx, which is closed. Some of the streaky blush is dark and some more translucent over the yellow skin, for a variegated orange effect.
The many small light lenticels (darker than the unblushed skin, though) are
not obvious.
My sample has a little give to it, and a lush
fragrance that suggests
Golden Delicious,
one of its parents (with Kidd's Orange Red).
Gala tastes like daffodils smell. But I'm getting ahead of things. Its flesh is coarse and juicy, a light buttery yellow, and both crisp and tender.
It does indeed have floral notes, but also a little pear and vanilla, and the mellow honeyed influence of Golden Delicious is obvious.
This is a sweet apple, though not overwhelmingly so.
Gala should please many, as it is both mild and rich, and rewards the attentive taster with an interesting bouquet of flavors.
I have tasted Galas in three different countries, and in my current home we get Galas imported from at least three different countries of origin: New Zealand, France, and the USA. One very good thing that can be said for this apple is that it tastes basically the same in the off-season no matter where it originates, and I haven't found the NZ apples to be any better than the Washington ones.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I've gotten the best ones from Washington, even here. In WA we don't have many summer apples, as you do in New England, and the fresh-crop Gala is the signal of apple season in the the Northwest. If you've never had a gala fresh off the tree, or at least picked within the last few days, I'd recommend you do a secondary review. Their flavor is completely different from the ones that have been stored for a few weeks, with a complexity and crispness that is almost always missing later. I say almost because I bought some Chelan galas last week here in Asia and they came closer than any I've had in the off season. Not my favourite apple by any measure, but still one I look forward to every year if I'm in the Northwest, a good apple when choices are limited (as they are here), and reasonably dependable worldwide. That has to be worth something!
HI MY FAVE FOOD IS APPLES AND I EAT THEM WITH MY EYES
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