What Asian pears get as high a brix as Korean Giant? Are there any? That is the key issue for them achieving highest quality here in NY and anything less isn’t really worth growing, by my palate. It is the only variety I bother with and at my site it’s barely worth it because I do not fight the stink bugs hard enough. If I still loved A. pears I’d do that but my tastes have changed and now I prefer European types, which are really like a different fruit entirely.
In my youth, these juicy, crisp sugar bombs appealed to me more. The strange thing is that I still love Fuyu type persimmons. Crunchy sugar. There is no accounting for taste.
Yes! I had some in south Korea that were soooo sweet but good! I’m not sure if it’s Ataago or Niitaka but i bought trees because of it. I think when they ship them to us in the Asian markets, they’re really old so they lose a lot of their sweetness by the time they’re here. If they hold for a few months then they shouldn’t be going bad in 2 weeks in the fridge
I have tried Atago and I think it ripened about the same time as KG. At any rate, as grown in NY, I concluded it wasn’t a useful addition to KG. Once I found out that I didn’t need another Asian for cross pollination I stopped growing all the other ones I’ve tried. I’ve been sent a couple of scions of other varieties more recently and I still haven’t found any variety that works as well here as KG.
However, there are obviously still many I haven’t tried, but then, if there was a variety that sweetened up here as well as KG it would probably be here.
Drippin’ honey is very high brix just like Korean Giant. Both are excellent. Korean Giant ripens late here and does not reach its best quality about 1 out of 6 years. It is attacked readily by stink bugs but is one of my favorite crops. DH can crack if weather is not good which happens about 1 or 2 years out of 15 years here. Since it ripens mid season we grow and love both of these excellent pears!
It seems to me like ‘Shinsui’ is as sweet as ‘Korean Giant’, it’s said to be so sweet that it’s a wasp/bee, and ant magnet, they go to the fruit of that variety before most other varieties.
I have seen ‘Shinsui’ listed as high a Brix as of about 15.9°x, and ‘Korean Giant’ as high as a Brix as of about 17.0°x. So basically the same.
That variety is much earlier in the season at ripening than ‘Korean Giant’, so it would extend your asian pear cropping time as well.
Yeah, but what does the name mean in English? Pretty hard to compete with Drippin’ Honey. Any name with honey in it flies off the shelves in this country- although it didn’t help the patent owners of Honey Crisp. They were very poor at marketing, apparently and didn’t get the variety, out there in time. Before it became the reigning queen of produce markets the patent had run out.
Actually the university that created ‘Honey Crisp’, they had no idea that ‘Honey Crisp’ existed, and they did not find it for a long time. It was an overlooked variety.
‘Shinsui’ (Japanese for ‘flood’, in other words the name in this case means ‘very juicy’) although it’s known for it’s high sugar as well. Mine has not produced yet, so I have no personal experience with the variety.
Until they noticed it and then the process of patenting it started, so this is irrelevant to my comment- but it is an interesting aside, if that is what you were intending… or not.
I’m guessing the tree was an eyesore to the breeders, which probably distracted them from trying the apples. I wonder what they thought about the blotchy leaves before it was scientifically investigated. They couldn’t have exactly been proud parents- No honey, those leaves of yours make you special, the other trees are just jealous!
Definitely interesting how it and Sansa seem to have this genetic low vigor/seeming chlorosis but are quite high quality apples, some of those genes are probably linked somehow
Hmmm, I grow Sansa both as a single, small nursery tree on 26 and on 111 my nursery and none of my trees have ever shown that tendency. If it has it I guess it must be much less pronounced than on HC.
Different people have different tastes. For some reasons, Western people prefer the taste of Dripping Honey, but oriental people prefer Korean Giant more.
Why? Is dripping honey not as juicy as Korean giant? Actually I think Shin Li is the best Asian pear. If picked right, it’s sweeter and juicier than the Japanese and Korean ones.
Tse Li fruited for me this year and it’s that old famous Laiyang pear taste. Shin Li is a little sweeter and somehow tastes very similar to the best Dangshan Crispy pear.
Not sure exactly why, my hypothesis is something to do with culture as the taste is taught in early age.
I have about 20 Asian pears cultivars, some I have never tasted the fruits, squirrels and racoons did. But I get huge size Dripping honey and Korean Giant every year. They both taste delicious to me. However, if allow me to pick only one pear to eat, I would refer Korean Giant.
I did an experiment in the past. I sent a box of mixed types of Asian pears to a friend(typical white) and asked which one they liked best. The feedback was the dripping honey. This fall, I gave my next door neighbor(a typical American white) three pears, dripping honey, Korean Giant, shinseiki and asked him which he liked best, the feedback was dripping honey . Dont take it wrong, dripping honey is a great Asian pear in terms of the size, juicy and crunch texture. For some reasons, I just can’t taste its best flavor that others can. Akizuki pear is the one that is sweeter than Korean Giant by many asian people’s taste buds.
Majority of western people never liked Asian pears as they think Asian pears lack of sugar compares to European pears. Contrary, Asian people seldom like European pears as the European pears are too soft and mushy in texture.
Taste buds are way more complicated than we think
I agree that cultural conditioning is in play. We Americans regard sugar as the standard for grading. The higher, the better. I like sweetness also but in some pears like harrow sweet and comice and such I feel my blood sugar is affected even though i eat them fresh and not juiced. But melting pear is juiced IMHO. I like to eat more than 2 pears a day while the gettins good. Gritty pears are also good for providing roughage.
The reason why drippin honey is complicated in terms of flavor is as the fruit ripens it tastes less like an asian pear and more like a european pear. That texture and flavor can even be to sweet for many people. @tonyOmahaz5 and i had many discussions about this pear. DH should be picked for best asian pear flavor before it turns yellow.
Well, Clark, I wish it is too sweet for me. I honestly don’t think it is sweeter than other Asian pears. I must clarify that I go by the taste in my mouth ,not by the Brix/the refractometor. The
fruit’s texture,flavor, the level of the sweetness are in line with other Asian pears. It’s juicier than KG but not as juicy as Yoinash. It doesn’t taste like European pears at all. I may have not tasted enough European pears other than grocery European pears. But I tasted enough Asian pears and known what a pear is suppose to taste like.
If you want me to say which Asian pear(s) taste like European pears, I would say Daisui Li tasted more like European pear to me.
. Dont take it wrong, dripping honey is a great Asian pear in terms of the size, juicy and crunch texture. For some reasons, I just can’t taste its best flavor that others can. Akizuki pear is the one that is sweeter than Korean Giant by many asian people’s taste buds.