POME FRUIT NEW VARIETIES ‘Franklin’ cider apples hang on the original tree in Franklin, Vermont. CHANCE SEEDLING NEW BITTERSHARP APPLE PATENTED Vermont apple grower finds a tree in his orchard; discovers it has a unique profile which makes it a good addition to sweet and hard cider blends. BY CHRISTINA HERRICK, Such was the case with Mayo’s seedling ercially grown hard cider apples. Tannins MANAGING EDITOR apple, which Mayo calls the ‘Franklin’ are polyphenolic compounds that provide
[email protected] cider apple. mouthfeel, dryness, and a slight bitterness desired in craft hard ciders. HE STORY OF the ‘Franklin’ cider EVALUATING THE VARIETY “Out of 44 different varieties or samples, apple is one of happy accidents. Bradshaw ran juice samples in his lab, it ranked fifth for highest total poly- T Bill Mayo and wife Susan run and then compared it to 44 other dessert phenols. That’s behind the traditional the Franklin General store in Franklin, VT. and traditional hard cider apple cultivars cider apples, ‘Dabinett,’ ‘Foxwhelp,’ and His family has a small orchard of 400 trees, picked at multiple orchards in multiple har- ‘Nehou,’” Bradshaw says. “It’s ahead of most of which are ‘Honeycrisp.’ vests across several counties, to get a com- another sample of ‘Dabinett’ — the next 10 However, there is below it are traditional hard cider another tree in his orchard apples from Europe.” – a chance seedling, which Bradshaw also says he com- Mayo discovered in 2008. pared the ‘Franklin’ apple’s He began incorporating acidity to traditional European the apple into the Franklin hard cider varieties and dessert General Store’s sweet cider.