Monday, October 28, 2013

Are UK and Japanese Bramleys the same?

This is one of the most common questions among the Bramley aficionados here in Japan, and so I thought I'd do a small (and totally unscientific) test.

Lumpy, bobbly fruit vs. beautifully round orbs - which is which?

Here we have four randomly selected apples, roughly the same size. The two on the left are from an ASDA supermarket in the North West of England, and the two on the right are from Obuse, Japan.

At first glance you notice that the UK apples are very shiny - this is the wax that is applied to the skin which doesn't appear to be used on the Obuse fruits. The Japanese apples are also of a more uniform shape, almost perfectly round and much less bobbly.


The visual contrasts could be down to a cultural difference in how they are used. In the UK they are somewhat ubiquitous fayre, but in Japan they are still an exotic treat. Consider how Muji is quite the trendy design brand in the UK with just 12 stores (and is more expensive than in Japan) yet in Japan the 379 'no brand, quality goods' 無印良品 shop is in every medium sized train station and shopping area, and their goods carried in many convenience stores.

Another cultural difference is that fruit is often given as a gift in Japan, and so perhaps fruit is required to look exquisite here, in order to sell. Maybe they use the ugly fruit for wholesale and other purposes.


Incidentally, these bags of Bramleys (below) are of a more common size and colouring that you see in British supermarkets.


They are often bit smaller than Japanese ones and often have a little bit of blush on one side from the sun. They are currently £1.88/kg (just under 300 yen/kg) which is a little over a third of their price in Japan.


Cutting into the fruits you can see that the UK apples on the left seem to be a bit more open in the core - though, being a completely unscientific test, this could just be down to chance.

In the stewing down I found that the UK apples (again, 1st pic) fell more quickly into a puree and were perhaps slightly juicier. The Japanese apples (2nd pic) held their shape slightly longer.


Taste-wise, both raw and cooked, I found something slightly unexpected. The Obuse apples were possibly ever so slightly more tart than the UK apples, at least in these that were tested. I didn't expect this because I thought the warmer Japanese weather would cause for riper, sweeter fruit but this doesn't appear to be the case in this particular test. Again, some of these differences could be accounted for by the difference in starting temperature, as my Japanese fruit came from the vegetable crisper of my fridge.. this is not a rigorous test.



Most importantly anyway, the Japanese fruits definitely have that distinctive Bramley taste and will satisfy that craving just as well as the ones from back home. Very similar, perhaps the same, certainly similar enough!

No soggy bottoms here!

3 comments:

  1. The difference in consistency in the two types of Bramley could well be the storage... most British fruit is chill stored, usually over-chilled.... whilst this makes it keep longer [totally unnecessary for Bramleys... or Granny Smiths for that matter] it affects the speed of decay once in store [for decay read ripening] and how the fruit behaves in the pan.
    As the UK ones are 'forced' to ripen for the shop, they get softer quicker.
    Often, the fruit decays from the centre outward, too...
    meaning that what looks fine on the surface is actually rotten to the core!!
    Perfectly usable as a fruity hint in a curry or pork dish by the way....

    Very little British fruit [and veg] is allowed to mature properly...
    unless you PYO or buy from a market gardener...
    part of the reason we bought a house in France is to be able to grow our own!!

    And store it properly, too....
    we just couldn't afford to do that in the UK....
    and were fed up with the mindless waves of vandalism that took place regularly on the allotments where we gardened in Leeds.

    We now have a proper, but still very young, orchard and are almost back to the amount of growing space we had in Leeds... next years pumpkin bed will be the last in a five year rotation... then it is start again... with all five 14 x 3 metre [42 M/sq] beds in operation...

    However, we inherited a variety of apple called variously Reinette Blanche or Reine du Canada...
    when ripe they eat wonderfully...
    crisp and sweetly juicy with enough acid to make sure they are not oversweet.
    The skin is quite rough and a bit like a pale, golden Russet...
    but very thin and edible...
    however, pick the huge monsters when they are still green and don't want to leave home...
    and you've got a wonderful cooker...
    so proper baked apples are still go!!

    You cannot get Bramleys over here for love nor money...
    [except from an ex-pat Yorkshireman living about ten kilometres from here...
    who established his orchard twenty years ago...
    when he has them for sale that is!!
    His missus has first say on what is stored...]

    But we've fallen in love with proper Golden Delish...
    not those green, tasteless, under-ripe things in the UK...
    but the large, Golden with a pink blush on the sunny side, ripe fruit we get here.... probably how they were sold in the UK originally.

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  2. Goodness me you know your apples!

    With them being so widely available in the UK, you don't realise how much you would miss flavoursome British apples like the Bramley and Cox's Orange Pippin until you're abroad and can't get them.

    Some countries, like here in Japan, tend to sell only sweet dessert apples at the supermarket and they are a different beast entirely. Granny Smiths (Australian), are wonderful, and a bit more widely available say, in the US than the British varieties. And yes, for eating, the American Golden Delicious is a winner. I wonder which make the best toffee apples... There is a project!

    It's a very nice set of blogs you have there by the way! We have family living in France too, growing their own veggies and Bramleys. What a wonderful life!

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    Replies
    1. Yes! A wonderful life... however very hard, but enjoyable, work!
      And, with all the wildlife to "interupt" proceedings....
      the work takes a while!!
      I shall try not to think of the toffee apples... but I would suggest, for mid-August to the end of September, you should try James Grieve...
      thin skinned, good balance of sharp and sweet, nice mouthfeel.
      After the beginning of August... they turn to pap!! [But still juice well, tho']
      After that... Katy / Braeburn / Jonagold / Winter Banana.... but never Granny Smith.... use that for feeding the goats!

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