The New England Quince Taste Test 2020 was hosted by Vermont Quince. Nan Stefanik founded Vermont Quince in 2012 and coined the hashtag #growquince Her passion for this pomme is contagious and her quince based products help to further showcase the versatility of the quince.
This year's New England Quince Taste Test was a virtual event. Boxes of quince juice, raw quince and poached quince were sent out to a group of tasters that included chefs and author of Simply Quince Barbara Ghazarian who is also known as the "Queen of Quince". A box was also sent to Cider Chat central where The Nose and Ria tasted and filled out the Taste sheet to be sent back to Vermont Quince. Do expect a follow up summary of the tasting results once the results are in.
List of Quince varieties in the 2020 New England Quince Test
- Aromatnaya
- A Russian variety that bears a very large, bright yellow, aromatic fruit with a delicious, lemony flavor. Aromatnaya fruit can be eaten fresh, when thinly sliced and used to make marmalade and jellies.
- Kuganskaya
- Known to be from the region of the southern Caucasus, north of Turkey and Armenia.
- Orange
- Expect ripening to occur October through December and to also extend through February in some colder areas. The Orange Quince is a self fertile tree and requires 300 chill hours.
- Smyrna
- Extremely large fruit with light yellow flesh, bright yellow skin. Attractive tree (or multi-stemmed shrub) has dark green foliage & very showy bloom. Tolerates wet soil.
- van Deman - this quince variety was developed by Luther Burbank, (March 7, 1849 – April 11, 1926) who was an American botanist and horticulturist based in California. Van Deman bears good crops of large and delicious, bright yellow fruit. Expect a spicy flavored from this quince.
Quinces are gritty, astringent, and hard even when ripe. The bitter astringency is as a result of the tannins. The tannins in the quinces are destroyed when cooked, while the delicate rich flowery aroma of a raw quince is maintained, turning the hard, tannic, astringent fruit into a softened and milder flavored fruit.
The testers did not know what variety corresponded with the samples provided, making this a "blind tasting"
This episode is a condensed version of the taste test conducted by The Nose and Ria.
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