On Sunday, I went to fruit tasting at Andy Mariani’s orchard in Morgan Hill, CA. The heat in the Bay Area is terrible these days, but the event was very well attended. In fact, I was surprised to see huge crowds (literally, hundreds of people). The entire event had a very commercial feeling to it (in contrast to fruit tastings at the ARS Wolfskill experimental station, which have a more intimate atmosphere), but I have to admit that the amount of varieties to taste at Andy’s Orchard was huge, and, taking into account the amount of customers, everything was organized very efficiently.
Some photos and few notes below.
Blenheim apricot. Good, but I think Moorpark’s flavor is richer.
Very large fruit, taste somewhat similar to Blenheim, nice, but definitely inferior to Moorpark in richness and intensity of flavor.
Golden Sweet apricot. Some say it’s similar to Blenheim, but I think it’s a step below in flavor.
Kitren White apricot. Underwhelming.
Large Early apricot. I think it was way overripe, difficult to judge.
Nicole apricot. Not very impressive, a bit low in sugar.
Painted Lady apricot. Ok, but nothing special.
White Knockout apricot. Ok, but nothing special.
Cotton Candy aprium. Underwhelming.
Rapunzel nectarine. A very nice flavor for an early nectarine (good sweet-acid balance) and a beautiful fruit.
Gold Dust peach. Nice flavor, decent size, one of the best for its season.
Manon peach. A nice white peach, pretty good for early season.
Benton cherry. Firm and good size, but not impressive taste-wise. Perhaps a bit underripe?
The standard of quality. Very good taste.
Black Eagle cherry. With all the hype about this cherry, I was disappointed. Very small fruit (even for an old variety) and not much flavor to compensate for it. Inferior to Black Tartarian in all aspects, in my opinion.
Black Republican cherry. Nothing special, taste on the bland side.
Black Tartarian cherry. Exceptional quality. Decent size for an old variety and outstanding flavor (flesh isn’t firm like Bing and most modern cherries, but this is not a drawback for me).
Garnet cherry. Medium-size fruit, sweet, very nice flavor.
Governor Wood cherry. It’s pretty good, nice sweet flavor, but I expected a bit more flavor complexity based on descriptions in the literature.
Lapins cherry. Based on my prior experience with this variety, I think the available sample was quite underripe.
Saylor cherry. Bland.
Van cherry. I expected something similar to Bing, but was disappointed. Van was watery and with way flatter taste than Bing.
Waterloo cherry. Pretty big and firm for an old variety, nice taste, but, similarly to Governor Wood, I expected a bit more based on available descriptions.
Hungarian tart cherries: Balaton, Danube and Jubileum. I enjoyed all three varieties, they all are good for eating out of hand, but I liked Danube a bit more than the other two (Jubileum is a bit tarter, while Balaton has less complex flavor). I think that some tart cherries I ate in Ukraine were better than these Hungarian varieties, but it was a long time ago, so my memory might be not perfect.
Montmorency tart cherry. Much inferior to most Morello cherries, in my opinion. Hardly suitable for fresh consumption.
When I got back home, I tasted Bonny Royal side to side with my Moorpark, and the latter won handily. Anyway, I believe that their Bonny Royal and Blenheim at this price are the best fruit and best price you can buy apricots anywhere in the Bay Area, besides growing them yourself.
