Mountain Rose

Hype about Mountain Rose has become a cloud of uncertainty about these apples. Are they the same as Airlie Redflesh, aka Hidden Rose?

The stroke of a knife will help shed light on that.

Pink inside! A bit. The effect might have been greater under different growing conditions.

These were picked in mid September.

But I am getting ahead of myself. This medium-sized apple, the smaller of two samples, has a Granny Smith–green peel accented by tiny white lenticel dots and a small faint pink blush.

The cut flesh smells like sweet pumpkin.

That flesh is crisp and fine-grained, a green-tinged white with those cotton-candy pink streaks. 

Mountain Rose is candy-sweet with fruit-punch notes.This would be saccharine without the balancing tart, which is greatest at the calyx end.

Berry notes predominate more than I remember with Hidden Rose. There is a hint of toast in the finish once the fruit punch is exhausted.

No mere novelty and perhaps better than my description implies!

I sampled my second Rose more than two weeks later. The fruit punch, though still present, had receeded and there was a little bit of toasted grain at the end of the chew

Alpenfire Cider makes an Airlie Redflesh cider.

Q: Might this be not fully ripe?

A: It is not obviously unripe. The texture and flavor are good, and the pips are brown.

However, my Airlie Redflesh (Hidden Rose) sample in 2013 was later, and had yellower skin with a more saturated blush, and also pinker flesh. I think that is the better ("peekier") example.

Q: Is Mountain Rose the same as Aerlie?

A: I think so.

Writing in Portland Monthly, Regina Winkle-Bryan untangles the story of why this apple has so many names.

Links

• Airlie Redflesh (Hidden Rose) 2013
• Cider
• Story

This one was less pink inside.