Meet the SweeTango Apple

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If there is one food that I’m a connoisseur of, it’s apples. I seem to eat one (or two) every single day thanks to the basket of apples located about 10 feet from my desk that tempts me every time I walk by. My love for apples makes this post an exciting one to write because I get to tell you all about SweeTango®, a newer apple variety that Stemilt grows and helps take to market.

First introduced in 2009, SweeTango is a cross between the Honeycrisp and Zestar!® varieties. The Minneiska cultivar is the apple tree that produces SweeTango, and was developed at the University of Minnesota over a decade. In fact, the same people that bred the popular Honeycrisp are responsible for it’s tasty successor, SweeTango. It’s one of the first varieties we harvest here in Washington State each year, coming off the tree in mid-August.

SweeTango has a unique and incredible flavor: the sweet honey flavor and crisp bite that you love so much in Honeycrisp, with added tang similar to that in citrus. It also has hints of fall spices like nutmeg and cinnamon. All of these combine to make one great snacking apple.

You might by wondering by now how to get your hands on this apple! The apple has a Facebook page where you can get the answer to that very question (and more).

SweeTango is managed variety, so only a number of select growers can plant and nurture trees. Stemilt is lucky to be one of them! We ship our supply of SweeTango to grocery stores on the West Coast, while growers in the other two major apple regions of the U.S. (Michigan/Minnesota, and New York) supply the Midwest and East Coast with SweeTango. The apple is available nationwide for a brief time in the early fall months (September – November).

I hope you can track down SweeTango and experience first-hand one of the finest apples around!

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