The Pazazz apple is a descendant of the popular Honeycrisp, it is grown in Minnesota by Honeybear Brands and it took them more that a decade to get its balanced sweet-tart flavor right. The apple is now being introduced in a few cities before its national launch, and Miami has been selected to try the fruit first.
Don Roper, vice president of marketing at Honeybear and his wife Sue will demo the Pazazz at select Publix stores in South Florida to get feedback on the apple on everything from sweetness to crunch. Roper explains why he's eager to get to Miami. "There was a lot of test marketing; now we're hitting all of Publix's major markets. Miami is a great apple town, and there are a lot of snowbirds here that come from apple states like New York."
The Honeybear vice president also says Miamians tend to be healthy eaters who consume a lot of produce in general.
Roper recalls a time when there were only a few apples on the market. "You had the iconic red delicious and the Granny Smith. They did really well in the production channel, but they didn't give a good eating experience." Then came the Honeycrisp. Released in 1991, it caused a sensation because of its juicy sweetness. To Roper, it was a game-changer in the apple industry. "All of a sudden, apples were exciting. People were willing to pay for flavor. That was an aha moment in the apple industry." According to Roper, there are more than 3,000 apple varieties worldwide, and there's one for every taste.
According to the U.S. Apple Association, more than 100 varieties of apples are grown commercially in the United States, with less than a dozen making up for 90 percent of the consumer market.
