Purpurroter Cousinot *

What a marvelous name! ¶ 

Derek Mills, who grew today's apples, says they run says medium to large. To prove it he sent me a medium and a large sample. 

Good thing! because the first one I tried was decidedly off. There were issues with both, but I think got a good idea about this apple.

My Purpurroters are covered, one completely, with a deep red blush decorated with light lenticel dots. I mean really deep. 

The smaller has regions where the blush is attenuated and translucent, orange over the underlying yellow.

There are scratches and crackles of mustardy russet. The stem is quite slender.

The larger of my two is slightly conical while the smaller is more compact. Both are ribbed and firm to the squeeze.

Eat it already

The smaller apple was the good one. Biting in reveals light-yellow flesh, medium fine-grained, with a decent crunch.

Right away, the Purpurroter has an astringent quality that gives it an almost dry mouthfeel. Despite that, it is reasonably juicy.

Purpurroter Cousinot is sour but in a good way—sour cherries and melon. It's balanced by sweetness, so not a spitter by any stretch. In the background there's even a hint of vanilla.

I enjoyed this, and would choose Purpurroter if I ever found it again. However, there was some rot in the core of number 2.

I cut that away for the purpose of this tasting, but I suspect neither sample was top form.

(As for the other sample, the flesh was softer and, for an apple, quite dry. The texture was granular and suggested a mealy apple except that it was substantial and held together. It was not crisp.

(Flavors of this unhappy apple echoed those of the better, seen though a funhouse mirror: Cherries with a dash of lemon and vanilla.)

Name and story

Curiosity about name, origins, and history unlocks a confusing boatload of uncertainty.

The National Fruit Collection (UK) mentions a "sweet, vinous flavour," which is not how I would describe it. The listing there provides long list of alternative names, including Blutapfel and Winter Cousinot.

Pomiferous provides a detailed history of a German (or Dutch) apple dating from the 18th century. It ends with this curveball:

Somewhere along the line, however, the original Purpurroter Cousinot was replaced by a similar but somewhat different apple which has gone under that name since the early 1900s.

If so, the detailed history describes a different apple than the one we've got. It's not clear which apple Pomiferous's description applies to.

This site says it's as old as the 16th century.

A comment at Orange Pippin describes the Purpurrator as a cider apple.

Confusion reigns

Some of these sources, and others, suggest a mid-October harvest. However, mine were picked in September. Whatever else may have been wrong with these samples, I do not think they were early.

Go figure.

Every region seems to have its own "black" apple with a deep red blush: Black Oxford in Maine, Arkansas Black in Arkansas, and so forth. 

I have never been satisfied with my photographs of these, which fail to show the true color in its full dark glory. But my photo of this apple comes close.