(Photo courtesy Grapery)
Shafter, Calif.-based Grapery plans to start shipping its Cotton Candy grapes around Aug. 10-15.
Shipping is expected to continue until roughly the end of September, said CEO Jim Beagle.
Usually the season for the popular variety begins a bit earlier, roughly Aug. 1-Aug. 5, but a relatively cool spring delayed production slightly.
Beagle said Grapery is very excited about the volume, quality and flavor outlook for the season.
Cotton Candy grapes created quite the sensation when they first hit the market several years ago, and Google Trends shows search interest is still high in the variety — peaking as shoppers anticipate the late-summer return of the sweet fruit.
Beagle, too, has seen demand remain strong.
“We're still pretty far short of, we feel, meeting the demand of the marketplace today, so there's definitely still a lot of excitement around it,” Beagle said.
Grapery, which grows in the San Joaquin Valley, continues to increase production of the variety.
“There's substantially more this year and plans for more increases in future seasons,” Beagle said.
Flavor fever
Shoppers often ask how Cotton Candy grapes get their unique taste. The variety was created through traditional plant breeding, not genetic modification.
Beyond the variety itself, Grapery has an extensive quality control system to ensure that fruit are being harvested at just the right time.
“It's a very dynamic process that the grapes go through, and so it's a lot of trial and error and tasting things and sort of monitoring how the flavor's progressing and developing,” Beagle said. “It's very hands-on evaluation that we do on a lot-by-lot basis.”