Lucky few get first-taste of new Sunflare apple variety developed at Washington State University

The line of hungry Washington State University students and faculty numbered more than 50 well before Jeremy Tamsen had finished unloading his boxes of apples.

“How exciting,” Tamsen said, “that we have that many people in the WSU community who are eager to have a slice.”

Those slices handed out Thursday represent a milestone in the university’s decadeslong effort to bring a hybrid apple variety derived from Cripps Pink and Honeycrisp, affectionately nicknamed the Sunflare, to market.

One slice at a time, Tamsen provided members of the general public with their first taste – nearly 30 years after the variety sprung from the WSU Columbia View Research Orchard.

With a speckled flesh of pink, orange and yellow hues, the Sunflare is described as a crunchy, firm and juicy apple. Its balanced sweet and tart flavor is more subtle than its predecessor out of WSU’s fruit tree breeding program, the Cosmic Crisp, Tamsen said.

Madison Honig and Haden Kingrey, a pair of graduate anthropology students, made a toast to the new apple and then savored their slices. The tartness surprised Kingrey, but in a good way, he said.

“We were so excited for this,” Honig said. “We saw it on Facebook and ended up texting everybody in our department to come down.”

Tamsen said the Sunflare will also differ from the Cosmic Crisp in market rollout. While the Cosmic Crisp has risen into the top 5 of all varieties, with more than 22 million trees growing fruit in Washington, the Sunflare is envisioned as more of a “boutique variety,” another option for growers to introduce to their established orchards.

The Sunflare is not expected to hit store shelves until 2030, following the 2029 harvest. It takes time for the young trees already planted in Washington to become established enough to trim for bud wood grafts and produce fruit. Despite the wait, interest in the variety is already tangible, Tamsen said. Thursday’s tasting follows more intimate sampling conducted at a December industry gathering in Wenatchee.

“That’s kind of our captive audience, in a way,” Tamsen said. “Because they are who we are marketing this to as a plant.”

Washington’s growers will find some benefits in producing the Sunflare apples; Tamsen said the variety is ready for harvest earlier than most, is disease-resistant and is hardier to long-term storage. There also may be less competition, as the apples will be exclusively grown in Washington at the initial launch, much like the Cosmic Crisp, which the university launched in 2019.

Royalties from sales of the trees, budwood and, eventually, the fruit itself will help support research and future apple varieties at WSU, a news release from the university states.

As for consumers, the test market at the Compton Union Building on the university’s Pullman campus gave rave reviews. Technology Licensing Associate Deah McGaughey, who helps market innovations out of WSU’s agricultural college, said gathering input was part of the plan in hosting the tasting.

She said she was a bit surprised by the large turnout.

“It’s always a fun experience to see what people think,” McGaughey said. “This is the consumer feedback that really helps us down the road.”

The honor of the first bite went to third-year sociology student Alyx Herring. She said her mom passed on word of the tasting, with a strong mandate that Herring “try one for her.”

“It’s really good,” Herring said. “It’s more of a soft, smooth flavor. It reminds me of a banana in that way, honestly.”

Fellow junior Moses Henning, who’s studying multimedia journalism, added that the tasting experience lived up to his lofty expectations for the apple. He’s worked at an agrotourism orchard, brewery and winery, Mt. View Orchards in Mount Hood, Oregon, since he turned 16.

“I’ve been waiting upward of seven years for this apple,” Henning said. “Around when they announced the first germinated seeds.”

Henning said he could see the variety right at home at similar tourism farms, like the U-pick orchards of Green Bluff. The idea of trying a new variety is exciting to folks, and he expects farms to use that to their advantage . “We sell Sunflares” signs will be popping up all around Washington in no time, he said.

“I’ve had around 70 varieties of apples,” Henning said. “And this just might be No. 1.”