Honeybear Brands, based in Elgin, MN, is kicking off the New Year with a major launch of its winter apple variety, Pazazz, by making it available in more than 300 stores nationwide.

“This will be our biggest rollout to date with Pazazz with large product displays and product demonstrations in over 300 stores in 30 markets throughout North America and Canada,” Don Roper, vice president of Honeybear Marketing, told The Produce News on Jan. 4.

Pazazz apples from Honeybear Brands on display at Central Markets in San Antonio, TX.The Pazazz apple can now be found at major retail markets throughout Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Washington and Ontario, Canada.

So what separates this apple from the rest? Roper said it’s the flavorful experience that comes along with biting into a Pazazz.

“You can’t sugarcoat flavor, and the Pazazz apple really has great flavor,” he said. “It has that great balance of both sweet and tart, which gives it a unique ‘wow’ eating experience.”

In addition to being sweet and tart, the Pazazz is also crisp and juicy (being that one of the parent seeds is a Honeycrisp), which is really what “sets this apple apart,” noted Roper.

But it’s certainly taken some time to get this apple just right. The Pazazz has been in development for over eight years, Roper said, and it’s just now starting to hit its stride.

“The fruits of our labor will really come into play these next four years,” Roper added.

One of the main reasons the Pazazz is marketed as “a true winter apple” is because of its high brix level and high amount of starch it has when harvested, which helps it to maintain and increase its flavor while in storage.

“Probably one of Pazazz’s biggest strengths is its late season eating experience,” Roper said. “Combine a great flavor with real solid textures and a great snappy crispness and it becomes really hard to find a comparable apple on the deck this time of year.” The Pazazz apple can be marketed from January through June once full production is in place.

While the Pazazz is Honeybear’s newest variety, Roper also mentioned that the company has more new products in its varietal development pipeline, noting that there are many other varieties currently in the final testing stages to determine if they are viable for commercial release.

“We have four or five [varieties] that we really like and think are worthy of commercial placement,” he said. “We’ll continue our testing and analysis to make sure they’re stable long-term varieties. All the work is going on behind the scenes, but there are several that we are excited about.”