16 Identity Crisis Driven Foods to Try or Avoid

Cotton Candy Grapes: Fruit As Candy

Speaking of grapes, these Cotton Candy Grapes from Grapery have been showing up for over a year now. Tagged as “a circus of sweetness” on their website, the green grapes piqued my curiosity enough to look them up to see if it was natural or contrived (trying the Grāpple made me more cautious about produce section identity crisis items). The good news is that they are a traditionally bred hybrid variety of grape rather than grapes that took a cotton candy shower without rinsing off.

That was enough to convince me to go ahead and give them a go. There’s no weird odor and the grapes have lower acid so the subtle flavors of their sweetness stand out more. The flavor really is reminiscent of cotton candy. They definitely taste unusually sweet and are worth a try if you enjoy eating classic pink cotton candy.

I have to wonder if there are uses beyond table grapes for these things and as a compulsive canner, I am tempted to try making some Cotton Candy Grape Jelly. You might be curious to know if the unusual flavor would translate into an unusual wine. The Pittsburgh Post Gazette was of the same mind and posed the question to Jim Beagle, CEO of Grapery:

"“We made some wine from Cotton Candy grapes and it was terrible. The flavor was awful, and the wine smelled like stale doughnuts,” Mr. Beagle said. “The chemistry in the grapes in terms of tannin and acid structures isn’t right for wine. It’s very different in general for fresh grapes.”"

These grapes really are like cotton candy so while I might question my identity, there is no need to question theirs.

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