In L.A. we are stuck in a bit of a purgatory in the fruit seasons. Done with all the fabulous summer stone fruit and still too early for the fantastic winter oranges/tangerines. One of the few options for me are table grapes. It struck me that I’m obsessed with wine but not so much with the source material – actual grapes. I just don’t like them.
When i eat them, I feel like they are something my mom would have packed in my lunch bag in grade school, like carrot sticks. Just not much joy there.
Only exceptions are those tiny Champagne-like grapes I see every once in awhile.
Does your passion for drinking wine carry over to eating whole grapes? I ask from a consumer’s point of view, not vintners walking their fields and sampling a grape …
Yes, but not the bagged stuff in the supermarket. I usually only eat table grapes grown y local farmers - we get quite a variety here, but it’s a short season
Yes, I love them.
I have my whole terrasse and balcony full of them - now very delicious …
It´s called “Isabella” grape - and I even tried once to make wine with it …
(… I decided to remain a wine buyer, not become a wine-maker …)
I like grapes a good bit but in general I love fruit. My favorite probably are peaches when they are good but I also like raspberries, strawberries and blackberries a good bit. And, a good melon can be quite good.
When it comes to snacking, edible grapes are actually near the bottom of my list of favorite fruits. Here’s a cool article that explains some common differences between the grapes we eat and the ones we drink as wine.
They sell lots of different types of grapes at Whole Foods, including Muscat grapes and a new hybrid of Concord & Thompson seedless that are pretty good. Also, mangoes and heirloom apples right now are awesome. I highly recommend Farm Fresh to You to get organic produce delivered to your door.
Sadly seedless often equates to flavourless, but there are some speciality seedless that are tasty. Of mainstream grapes, Sable (a black grape) often seems decent.
I grow table grapes on my property so yes. And obviously I’m eating grapes as I’m walking vineyard to decide when to pick.
For eating my favorites are concord and the various muscats. I also really enjoyed the muscadines when I lived in North Carolina. I’ve bent meaning to plant some out here
I’d eat mangoes, cantelope, plums, or strawberries before I’d reach for grapes. If I could get a couple cute scatily clad girls to serve them to me while fanning me with palm fronds I’d probably eat them more.
It may be purely nostalgia, but I feel grapes, particularly white, used to be better. Now they are frequently larger with thicker skins, where once they were smaller and sweeter. I blame industrial farming, of the ilk that has created the cardboard-tasting tomatoes.
I would only eat Thompson’s seedless grapes as a kid. Then again, I didn’t eat strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries or any other berry.
When I started enjoying wine, my mind opened to trying other fruit and chasing flavors described in tasting notes. Now I’m a berry and grape-a-holic.
We’ve had a run of cheap tasty grapes $0.88 per # (white, seedless) here in Denver. Not local or even organic but tasty none the less… Brought 6 lbs to a scout campout and they were gone in 10 min.
