The Cosmic Crisp is the first-ever apple developed in Washington, AKA the real Big Apple. Named for the bright yellowish dots on its skin, like stars, the apple is sweet and crunchy. But — unlike another major Washington variety, the Red Delicious — the Cosmic Crisp travels well and resists disease.
Washington growers have the exclusive right to sell this new type for the next 10 years. So naturally they’re planning the biggest launch of a single variety of apple. Anywhere. Ever.
That’s evidenced by one of their nicknames for their creation: “The Apple of Big Dreams.” In addition to spending decades on research and development, they’ve budgeted $10.5m on marketing alone.
Thankfully, that won’t include literally launching the Cosmic Crisp into the cosmos. Mostly because that’s already been done. But they will be teaming up with social media influencers, touring with a children’s theater production of “Johnny Appleseed,” and showing the apple alongside starry skies.
Washington state is the nation’s biggest apple supplier, not counting Cupertino. The fruit is a multibillion-dollar industry and a huge part of the state’s economy, with tens of thousands of people contributing to the apple harvest every year.
The apple market isn’t exactly suffering, but growers there are still trying to juice it. The next youngest apple, the Honeycrisp, sparked a ton of interest when it was introduced in the ’90s. It basically reinvigorated the apple market.
While they have the exclusive right to grow and sell the Cosmic Crisp, Washington growers are trying to sow similar seeds — and then reap the reward.