248: New England Quince Taste Test

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. 

Poached 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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