Spoiler: the cherry is there. Boy howdy, is it ever.
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Since I first tasted Sweet 16 in 2011, I have been searching in vain for its signature flavors, mainly an "in your face" cherry candy. Also, sometimes, almond and anise.
There was a little cherry in the one I tried in 2018, but nothing approaching the intensity and saturation, the unmistakable presence, of the twizzler candy that so many of my readers report. (Check out the comments on those older posts!)
I'm therefore especially pleased to say that my 2020 sample has all that and more.
Yep, I got a good one. A bit earlier than the others I've tried. Maybe that is why.
This Sweet 16, a modern apple from UMinn's apple-breeding powerhouse, has breaking crisp coarse-grained yellow flesh, super juicy.
It is sweet (maybe too sweet) with rich, intense flavors. Especially cherry cough drop!
There is also a hint of almond. I could see how that flavor note might drift over to anise pretty easily, but am not getting that now.
No sign of the more-delicate flavors I found in some of the earlier samples. Nonetheless those tastes could easily be hidden behind all that sugar and the very loud cherry candy.
I guess the third time is the charm after all.
This is not a complete review, just an installment in my never-ending quest to eat everything and tell you about it.
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Worth reading those for the comments from my knowledgeable and passionate readers!
Adam
ReplyDeleteAre they mass marketed or local growers only?
Brad
Brad, they are not in supermarkets around here! I suppose they might be in Minnesota, or elsewhere.
DeleteBut you know, these are a UMinn apple and their market strategy seems to involve pushing just One Big Thing. And nothing gets into the mass market without serious oomph these days.
So likely just another reward for the serious apple hunter!
Adam
ReplyDeleteAre they mass marketed or local growers only?
Brad
The flavor of this variety seems highly variable. I've had a lot of mediocre Sweet 16 that just tasted sweet with a hard texture. I think the cherry flavor takes time to develop and may also be a characteristic of where it's grown. Where did this one come from?
ReplyDeleteA local orchard, Shelburne Farm, has gotten into some new & heritage varieties lately.
DeleteAny grower of Sweet Sixteen in Zone 7 or 8- how do you rate its taste? Does it lose flavor grown in the south?
ReplyDeleteIf anyone grows Sweet Sixteen in Zone 7 or 8 please tell me if it has the intense taste that Adam describes or if it loses some punch when grown in the South.
ReplyDeleteMy experience has been similar to sweetland orchard's, in that it seems to be highly variable. I've had years with nothing really ther except anise and years like last year with the strong cherry candy flavors. if an apple could be consistently like a sweet 16 at it's best I think it would quickly take over a large part of the market. someone just told me about another strongly cherry flavored apple that is also has Northern spy in it's ancestry, but forgetting the name now.
ReplyDeleteLate to the party but that string cherry flavor I’m pretty sure comes from MN 447 (now known as frost bite but is one of the u’s oldest sports) which is a parent to sweet 16. And if you taste any of the apples in the offshoot family of it that flavor carries through in various amounts to all of them. I think sweet 16 is just the sweetest version that carried the most of 447’s flavor. Which is so strong is 447 it sometimes comes off as bourbon, cough syrup or tobacco. But if you dig you can definitely find that flavor in keepsake, honeycrisp, triumph, and sweetango. Just to varying degrees of intensity.
DeleteCoincidentally I got some Frostbite earlier today. For me, around here, the dominant flavor is malt, not cherry.
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