A dab of mustard

Imagine my surprise to find mustard in my apple last week.

Not the actual golden brown spicy stuff, but rather its distinctive tang. Minus the heat.

Apples reveal unexpected flavors to the attentive taster. I have discovered tobacco, vanilla, strawberries, watermelon candy, and B vitamins in the course of my investigations.

Mustard is a first for me, though I have had these apples, Piñatas, before. Which raises some interesting questions.

Was the flavor there all along, and I just missed it until now? Did the mustard taste develop in storage?

Or, did I just pull that flavor out of my own head to fit tastes that have been in the Pinãta all along?

Was I just in a mustard mood? Had I said to myself before taking a bite, "mayonnaise, mayonnaise, mayonnaise," would I have tasted that condiment instead?

That last question is of course the most troublesome, since it calls into question the entire project of this blog. It is interesting to know what apples taste like, less so what my personal brain thinks their flavors are.

For the record, I go with option 2, developed in storage. I have never had this apple so late in the year, and it is entirely possible for new flavors to emerge over time.

In January and February this apple, which has Cox's ancestry, presents some fun tropical flavors.

Might elements of what I now perceive as mustard been present earlier? I can't rule it out. I may have missed some clues (option 1) the first time. If I went hunting for mustard in a January Piñata, might I find it?

About the mustard: I am tempted to say that Piñata tastes specifically of Dijon-style mustard, without any of that mustard's heat. But the truth is, I am not a connoisseur of mustards, and Dijon-style is pretty much the only kind I eat.

Would anyone like to blog about mustard the way I do about apples? (I don't quite mean like this.) If so, I give it to you for free.