Some historical details taken with kind permission from 'The New Book of Apples' by Joan Morgan and Alison Richards , illustrated by Elisabeth Dowle, published by Ebury Press, 2002.
Perhaps more than any other modern apple, Pink Lady epitomises the trend towards agressive product marketing and branding. Pink Lady was one of the first apple varieties to be marketed as a "club". The variety is grown under a strictly controlled licence, and then marketed through a limited number of resellers to the supermarkets. This tight control is intended to keep quality and prices high, and it is portrayed as a premium product.
You may have sometimes seen another variety called Cripps Pink in the shops and noticed the similarity ... it is actually the same variety. In order to preserve the premium appeal of Pink Lady, about 65% of the production which does not meet the standards required for Pink Lady is sold as Cripps Pink instead. The distinction is primarily made on colour intensity and the sugar/acid balance. Whilst this might at first appear to be a cynical marketing ploy, it arguably benefits consumers because it means that the variability of quality of Pink Lady is less than you might find in other varieties.
The marketing effort has particularly targeted young women, and has resulted in Pink Lady apples being promoted in such unlikely settings as the Glastonbury music festival, as well as in women's magazines, and cross-marketed with Barbie dolls. Pink Lady even has its own website - www.pinkladyapples.co.uk.
Pink Lady comes from Australia, and is a cross between Golden Delicious and Lady Williams. Lady Williams is not a particularly well known apple variety in Europe, but has been quite widely grown in Australia, having been discovered as a chance seedling in the 1930s. It is probably from Lady Williams that Pink Lady gets its distinct colouring. (However it is interesting that another modern "blush" apple, the orange-coloured Tentation, is also a Golden Delicious cross). It requires a very long growing period and a hot climate, and hence is not grown commercially in the UK.
Pink Lady apples from the northern hemisphere tend to arrive in shops from late November - but the very long storage life means they are available almost all year round from northern or southern hemisphere orchards.
Does Pink Lady match up with the marketing ? Visually, it probably does - it is still unusual to see an apple that is genuinely pink. We are not so sure the flavour is quite up there with the best modern varieties (take Jazz for example), and it certainly will struggle to compete with some of the more complex older varieties. Having said that, the flavour is perfectly acceptable, and is slightly more acidic than Golden Delicious. Pink Lady is also a fairly juicy apple, and the texture is solid and bites cleanly. However, this is in some ways missing the point. The marketing effort for Pink Lady focusses on lifestyle rather than flavour, and having achieved about 10% of the UK market in a very short space of time, it is clearly doing something right and is deservedly popular.
The following fruit tree nurseries offer Pink Lady apple trees for sale:
The following orchards and suppliers offer Pink Lady apples for sale:
The following Pink Lady trees have been registered - click the name to view more details of each tree:
Do you have a tree of this variety in your garden or orchard? If so please register here and contribute to our international register of apple trees.
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