Bittersweet

Scion Wood Categories

Binet Rouge

Category: ,
$5.00

Binet Rouge

(soft bitterweet)

A smaller-sized tree that bears biennially. A pretty pink apple with that classic French bittersweet character.

Add to cart

Coloradona

Category: ,
$5.00

(Spanish bittersweet)

Ian Merwin brought bud wood through USDA quarantine. Saw out first apples on these trees this year (’21). Lovely bittersweets. Looking forward to seeing more of these.

Read more

Ashton Bitter

Category: ,
$5.00

Ashton Bitter. (early bittersweet)

Early season English bittersweet. Hard, sometimes quite bitter tannins. Useful source of concentrated tannins for September harvest.

Add to cart

Bulmer’s Norman

Category: ,
$5.00

Bulmer’s Norman. (bittersweet)

Precocious and productive. Tannins are hard and can be bitter and the fruit drops all at once, bruises easily and doesn’t hold well. Can make a solid tannic blending apple.

Add to cart

Major

Category: ,
$5.00

Major (very early bittersweet)

Ripens in late August/early September. Soft and fruity aromas and nice tannin. Prone to summer rots.

Add to cart

Reine des Pommes

Category: ,
$5.00

Reine des Pommes (bittersweet)

Lots and lots of tannin in these perfumed apples. Classic BSA.

Add to cart

Brown Snout

Category: ,
$5.00

Brown Snout (soft bittersweet)

Melt in your mouth tannins define this English bittersweet. This apple does not produce BSA in cider but has pretty aromas non the less. Late blooming and fireblight susceptible.

Read more

Chisel Jersey

Category: ,
$5.00

Chisel Jersey. (bittersweet)

An English bittersweet with beautiful aromas, hard tannins and a lot of bitterness. Very fireblight susceptible on our site, in part due to its extremely late blossoming.

Add to cart

Yarlington Mill

Category: ,
$5.00

Yarlington Mill.

This highly biennial apple adds soft, supple tannin to the structure of a cider which tends to make the cider more voluptuous and approachable. In addition, it has lovely complementary aromatics like orchard floor, leather and smoke.

Add to cart

Dabinett

Category: ,
$5.00

Dabinett. (bittersweet)

A beautiful example of an English bittersweet variety, Dabinett has all the attributes we want: ripe apple aromas, leather, smoke, sweat. It has nice firm tannins and good Brix, can be an annual bearer, and is very precocious and productive. So productive, in fact, that we’ve struggled to grow it right in our organic systems. It will often overcrop (the overcropped fruit is not nice) and runt out. We want this apple, so we are still figuring out how to grow it. We have a new planting on B118. Check back in 10 years.

Add to cart

Frequin Rouge

Category: ,
$5.00

Frequin Rouge. (concentrated BSA aromas, tannin)

This apple has incredible concentrated smoky/leather/orchard floor aromas plus a firm tannic structure. Late to come into bearing, an extremely biennial tree, high vigor and small fruit makes this tree less than ideal for modern high density plantings on fertile soil. But in more challenging sites, Frequin Rouge excels developing unique creosote aroma and a deep sense of smokiness. One of our favorite bittersweets.

Add to cart

Bedan

Category: ,
$5.00

Bedan (bittersweet)

Soft tannins, classic French cider aromas. Very productive but very biennial.

Add to cart

Somerset Redstreak

Category: ,
$5.00

Somerset Redstreak (fruity bittersweet)

Absolutely love the beautiful fruity aromas on this English bittersweet. Early to mid September harvest. Very biennial.

Add to cart

Ellis Bitter

Category: ,
$5.00

Ellis Bitter. (bittersweet; leather, ripe apple skins, bacon)

Ripening in early September, Ellis Bitter is our main early season bittersweet. Heavenly sweet, ripe aromas backed by solid tannins. The tree is biennial in our organic production system, but when it crops it crops heavily with medium-sized fruit that drops in stages. We make multiple pickings of this variety for the best quality juice. In most years the fruit holds well on the ground if it has a nice mown sod to fall onto.

Add to cart

Vilberie

Category: ,
$5.00

Vilberrie (Perfumed and tannic)

This extremely late blooming French bittersweet is extremely perfumed with the classic “BSA” aromas we love in French cider apples. High sugar tannin bomb that is susceptible to fireblight.

Add to cart

Médaille d’ Or

Category: ,
$5.00

Medaille d’ Or (High gravity high tannin bittersweet)

Fireblight susceptible, late blooming french bittersweet with loads of biennial golden fruit.

Add to cart