There are many children who unfortunately the only fruit they eat, if you can call it that, is in industrial juices. Many times it is due to our bad habits at lunchtime or to avoid another fight, in the end the fresh fruit ends up being an anecdotal element in our menu.
But what would happen if we told them cotton-flavored grapes?
You will say what I had for breakfast today, but thanks to a Californian horticulturist named David Cain, his team of international geneticists and a huge stroke of luck, having some cotton-flavored grapes is now possible.
But how have they done it?
Does the story of the one who never played the lottery sound and one day he accidentally buys a ticket and touches it? Well, more or less what happened to Mr. Cain was the same.
What this man I was looking for was to be able to give to consumers a new product, in this case grapes. But how to make something new that has existed since the beginning of time? Very easy, creating new varieties with different flavors. Something similar to what happens with apples. For this they started their project in the 2003, they had to cross different varieties until they got one that had a different flavor that the consumer liked. And all this should be achieved no genetic engineering, only through genetic crosses.
I can assure you that it is not an easy task, you have to take each seed, grow it in a test tube and then plant it in a vineyard until fruit, at which time we will know if we have been the winners of the jackpot. Reaching the cotton-flavored grape has taken eight years and more than 100,000 crosses!
Due to the type of cross between plants we can say that the taste has been by chance, they could have left some with licorice flavor or never achieved anything.
Some data
The first consignment was planted on two acres (approximately one soccer field) of land, had to be expanded to 100 acres (50 soccer fields), as it did not cover the demand and by 2014 they will double the surface.
Grapes they have 12% more sugar than normal grapes, which makes them much healthier than real cotton candy.
Of course, half a kilo of grapes costs from six to ten US dollars, but those who have tried them say they are worth every penny that is paid for them.
Do you dare with a cotton candy flavored grapes?
