Apple Review

By Sean Merone

Hello one and hello all! With a break from the newsletter due to completing an abroad IQP, we ’ re back with yet another apple review. This time, I’ll be focusing on an apple from across the globe, Australia’s own Bravo apple! While it was commercially available only recently, in 2016, the Bravo apple’s history begins far earlier than its commercial debut. In the 1990s, cross pollination with the goal to achieve a new delicious cultivar of apple to sell was performed, and of the many seeds that failed to produce notable results, the Bravo apple–a cross between some of Australia’s favorite cultivars, the Royal Gala and Cripps Red Apple–was successfully bred. While it ultimately struggled to reach the success of its parents, the Bravo apple was a moderate success, regularly appearing in the top 15 favorite Australian apples, while its parents often appear in the top 5. Not too shabby if you ask me!

Taking a moderate stance between its two parent cultivars often spells doom for any good apple. However, the Bravo apple manages to navigate that narrow bridge with incredible accuracy. The Royal Gala is firm, fairly large, and moderately sweet while the Cripps Red Apple is smaller, softer, crispier with a more subdued but still excellent flavor. The Bravo apple combines these traits perfectly, leaving the end product of a fairly large apple with great firmness, crispness, and a delicious sweet flavor to hand deliver to the taste buds of those who eat it. The Bravo apple is even an excellent cooking apple with its firm flesh holding shape incredibly well under extreme heats and its sweet flavor making it the star of any apple based pastry. All the while, the Bravo Apple accomplishes this at the small price of $1.50 AUD, which roughly converts to about $0.98 USD! Bravo apples are available in Australian markets from January all the way to June due to the inverted Summer and Winter schedules. Cheap, large, flavorful, and crisp leaves an excellent impression for one of Australia’s golden apples.

7.25/10

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