“ ‘SweeTango’ brand apples herald the arrival of fall,” Timothy Byrne, president of Next Big Thing, A Growers’ Cooperative, headquartered in Lake City, MN, told The Produce News. “The apple is crisp, juicy and loaded with flavor. We tell”people to ‘get some ‘SweeTango” and toast the fall.’ “

The cooperative is the exclusive growing and marketing agent for “SweeTango” apples in the United States and Canada. Byrne said that the 45 growers who are members of the co-op are truly seasoned apple growers, and they are spread across the country.

“Our grower-members are located in Washington, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin New York, Nova Scotia and Quebec,” Byrne noted.

“SweeTango” is a managed apple variety brand, which means that only licensed growers can produce the fruit. Next Big Thing ensures that “SweeTango” apples are produced using only the highest-quality sites and growing practices. The first commercial crop was introduced in 2009. It was a small beginning crop, but today there are about 800,000 trees either in commercial production or on their way.

Byrne said the “SweeTango” has three outstanding characteristics.

“It is distinctive on produce shelves in that it has prominent lenticels — the light dots that are all over the apple but most visually attractive on the red portions,” he explained. “It also has fracturability, which means it has a bursting sensation in your mouth. It is an offspring of the Honeycrisp, and it carried this tendency forward. Finally it has a complex flavor. You bite into a ‘SweeTango’ and it fractures with a beautiful sweet flavor profile that is highly creamy. As you finish the mouthful it leaves you with a nice acidity, similar to a fine quality wine.”

The acidity is likely derived from its other parent, the Zestar. The “SweeTango” was developed by the University of Minnesota, which also developed the Honeycrisp and Zestar. The university owns intellectual rights to the apple.

Byrne said that managed apple varieties are the wave of the future.

“In order to secure commitments from consumers and retailers alike, you have to be able to invest money in marketing,” he said. “Who in his right mind would develop and grow a new apple and not market it, or not have control of production and quality and without a unified marketing program?

“The Honeycrisp will be last grand slam variety that is available on open release, in that anyone can plant it,” he continued. “I also think that the grassroots phenomena was the Honeycrisp — and I don’t think that’s going to happen again. With managed varieties you are commercialized and that provides you with equity partners who work together to maximize marketing efforts. Money from the cooperative members pays for an aggressive and successful promotional campaign.”

Byrne also believes that the best way to get word out to consumers about a new apple variety like the “SweeTango” is through social media and similar venues.

“We also have a highly managed website that is kept ‘sticky’ so people are drawn back to it over and over,” he added. “We use it strongly to emphasize where the apple is available on the market, and it fits nicely into the buy local trend because it’s grown in so many places. People today want to know who is producing their food and how, and we publicize our cooperative members on the website.”

The “SweeTango” is not a stored apple. It is sold fresh only, and the season runs from late August to late November, or when supplies run out. Byrne said that as production and therefore volumes increase, the season will likely extend into December. But at this time the cooperative and “SweeTango” owners have no desire to push it further into the season.

“There is a finite amount of square feet available in produce departments for the apple category,” said Byrne. “And retailers like two things — velocity and margin. We have to be providers of both. This means that at the end of the day we have to entice consumers to try the apple, remember it and come back for more because they prefer it.”