The English Apple Man visits more Supermarkets sampling English Apples & Pears...
What an awful week; the tragic events in Paris have put everything else into perspective. One wonders how 'one human being' can be so cruel to another, although it is difficult to accept these maniacs are endowed with any vestiges of humanity........
We pray for all the victims and their families and the people of France who have displayed such fortitude in the face of these barbaric acts of violence.......
It may seem irrelevant, but The English Apple Man has continued the retail surveillance, following on from last week's visits to LIDL, M&S, Sainsburys & Tesco........
This week The English Apple Man visited ALDI, ASDA, Morrisons and Waitrose.
ALDI - Hastings East Sussex
Very pleased to see a very good display of apples & pears, with a good selection of English top fruit. Cox apples @ 59p x 5 (reduced from £1.29) - Loose Conference Pears @ 39p each - Conference pears @ £1.09 x 5 (reduced from £1.29) - Jonagold 'British Apples' flow wrap x 4 from Suffolk @ 69p - 'Everyday Essential' Gala @ 99p x 5 - Bramley @ 89p x 4 - Polybag Gala @ £1.05 x 5
Imported:
French Pink Lady @ £2.39 x 6 - Pink Lady @ 49p each - South African Cripps Pink @ £1.39 x 6 - French Braeburn @ £1.29 x 5 - French Granny Smith @ £1.59 x 5 - French Golden Delicious @ £1.59 x Loose French Gala @ 28p each - Italian Organic Gala @ £1.29 x 6.
The English Apple Man bought an 'imported' Gala @ 28p - Polybag Cox @ 59p x 5 - Jonagold Apples from Suffolk @ 69p x 4 -
Below: Jonagold from Suffolk & imported Gala
On display 25 units (trays) of apples & pears of which 11 were English - circa 44%
ASDA Hastings East Sussex
Cox @ £1.74 kg - Gala @ £1.95 kg - Polybag Gala @ £2 x 1.2kg (= £1.67 kg) -Polybag Bramley @ £1.90 x 800g - Loose Bramley @ £1.45 kg - Small Polybag Gala @ 80p x 500g -
Imported
French Polybag Braeburn @ 85p x 600g - Belgian Conference Pears @ 85p x 600g - Loose Dutch Conference Pears @ £2.25 kg - Italian Golden Delicious @ £1.90 kg - 'Kids Rocha Pears from Portugal @ £1 x 7 - French Pink Lady apples @ £2 x 4 - Cripps Pink from South Africa @ £2 x 5 - French Braeburn @ £1.90 kg -'Mixed Gala & Braeburn' @ £2 x 1.15kg Polybag - French Golden Delicious @ £1.25 x 600g polybag - Italian Granny Smith @ £1.25 x 600g polybag - Italian Modi Apples @ £1 x 4 pack - Jazz polybag @ 80p x 6 polybag -
30 units (trays) on display of which 12 are English - circa 40%
The English Apple Man bought;
Below: Italian Modi apples - English Cox and Gala
Morrisons Eastbourne East Sussex
Entry point display (English) all @ £1 - Spartan x 5 - Gala x 6 - Cox x 6 - Conference Pears x 7 - Breaburn x 6;
Loose; Egremont Russet apples @ £1.89 kg - Bramley @ £1.53 - Cox @ £2 kg - Comice Pears @ £1.87 kg - Conference Pears @ £2.33 kg
Imported
Polybag French Gala @ £1 x 5 - New Zealand Pink Lady @ £2.47 x 5 - French 'Kids Gala' @ £1 x 7 - French Granny Smith @ £1.47 x 5 - USA Empire ' £1.83 x 5 - French Golden Delicious £1.67 x 5 - Italian Jazz @ £2 x 5 - Ariane apples @ £2 x 2kg ploybag - Pink Lady @ £3.37 kg - USA Empire @ £2.83 kg - Dutch Jonagold @ £1.07 kg - USA Macintosh Red @ £3.53 kg - French Gala @ £2 kg - USA Red Delicious @ £3.37 kg - Italian Jazz @ £2.57 kg - French Golden Delicious @ £2 kg - Braeburn @ £2 kg - Granny Smith @ £2 kg - Rocha from Portugal @ £1.53 x 6 punnet - Dutch 'Ripe & Ready' Conference £2 x 4 - 'Chinese' Asian Pears @ £1.37 x 3 Italian Organic Evelina apples @ £2.52 x 5.
On display 57 units (trays) with 24 English - circa 42%
The English Apple Man bought; loose - Cox & Egremont Russet apples and a 3 pack of Chinese Asian Pears.
Below: Cox and Egremont Russet apples and Chinese 'Asian Pears'
Waitrose Tonbridge Kent
Braeburn @ £2 kg - Polybag Braeburn @ £2.10 x 7 with 3 for 2 offer - 'Limited Selection' 4 packs; Braeburn @ £2.25 x 4 - Cox @ £2 x 4 - Egremont Russet @ £2 x 4 -Spartan @ £2.50 x 4 - Conference Pears @ £2.20 @ £2.20 x 4 - Concorde Pears @ £2.50 x 4 - 'Doyenne du Comice' @ £2 x 4: 'Mini' Pears @ £1.50 & 'Mini' Apples @ £1 x 6 - Loose Cox @ £1.75 kg - Gala @ £1.50 kg - Bramley @ £1.85 kg - Conference Pears @ £2.25 kg - 'Essential Cox' @ £1 x 7 & 'Essential Gala' @ £1.50 x 7 - Opal @ £2.50 x 4 with 3 for 2 offer - Polybag Bramley @ £1.75 x 'minimum' 5 apples - 'Organic' Falstaff @ £2.75 x 4.
'Weather Blemished' Cox @ £2 (reduced to £1.69) x 7 & Conference Pears @ £2 x 8.
Imported
French Jazz @ £2.20 x 4 - Italian Pink Lady @ £2.50 x 4 - Loose Jazz @ £2.50 kg - Loose Pink Lady @ £3 kg - Italian Granny Smith @ £2.10 x 7 or £2.15 x 4 - French Golden Delicious @ £2.25 x 4 or Polybag @ £2.10 x 7 - Italian Red Delicious @ £2.15 x 4
The English Apple Man bought;
Opal and Pirouette apples from John Portas in Norfolk & 'Best of British' Spartan
Below: Evelina and Organic Falstaff
Waitrose display is rich in variety and by far the highest percentage of English v Imported apples & pears - 49 display units in total of which, 39 are English apples & pears - circa 80%
Tasting notes;
It is not often that all fruit in a tasting session meets the quality criteria, but none of the varieties I tasted fell below a level of satisfaction. The Asian Pear from China was interesting, crisp and relatively juicy with a mild flavour, but not in the same class as Conference, Comice or Concorde - The Opal from Norfolk was very good, but I enjoyed the flavour of Pirouette even more - The Egremont Russet delivered that 'nutty' taste and had very good texture - the Organic Falstaff had excellent texture and flavour and a lovely creamy flesh - Evelina delivered excellent flavour and texture - the Italian Modi is very crisp, with a light forgiving texture and good flavour - even the Jonagold 'usually seen as a cheap ticket' was very good and @ 69p for 4 apples......Cox, Gala and Spartan were all very good....
So over my two weeks of 'retail visits' to the main UK Supermarkets, the overall quality found was very good and the support for 'home grown' apples & pears very pleasing. The percentage of English v Imported 'on display' varied with Waitrose 'top' with 80% home grown, Sainsburys @ 55% and Tesco @ 45% are the leading retailers when volume sales are measured; but back to English percentage 'on display' - ALDI @ 44% - Morrisons @ 42% - ASDA @ 40%.
That's all for this week.....
Take care
The English Apple Man