The endlessly inventive world of fruit and veg has come up with a new ingredient just in time for Christmas dinner - the Grapple, which attempts to combine the tastes and other virtues of apples and grapes.
Large red specimens first imported for American servicemen and women at airfields in East Anglia earlier this year have proved the season's hit with local shoppers outside the bases, after a consignment was arranged for a supermarket in Norfolk.
The Grapple was patented two years ago in Washington state, nick-named apple country in the US, by a family of growers who have experimented with apple breeds for the past 98 years. Using a secret process, mature examples of the Washington State Extra Fancy Fuji apple are immersed for several days in a marinade which transforms their flavour to that of a Concord grape.
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The process follows similar fruity "marriages", such as the accidental crossing of a pomelo fruit from the East Indies with a Jamaican orange in 1693, which gave the world the grapefruit.
The Grapple also owes something to the fortuitous interbreeding of blackberries with a raspberry by Judge J H Logan in 1880s California, producing the loganberry.
The Grapple has been successfully marketed in the US as a weapon in the country's fight against obesity, particularly in children. Its inventors, the Snyder family of Wenatchee, Washington, have had some success in arguing that traditional resistance to apples has been eroded because children prefer the taste of grapes.
Grapples keep the other attributes of apples, according to the supermarket Roy's of Wroxham, which started the current East Anglian experiment with the new fruit. Staff who tested the first consignment said that the soaking had permeated the fruit's skin but left the crisp texture intact.
"We heard about them from a wholesaler who supplies the American air force bases in the region," said the store's product stock controller, Carol Lane. "We decided to try them and they are proving a huge success. They are really sweet, very juicy, kids love them and more importantly they are a healthy food."
Grapples currently sell for £3 for a pack of four, but the price has not deterred customers.
The Snyders also say that Grapples make "an outstanding addition to any salad", as well as making an unusual Christmas hors d'oeuvre if diced and served with sharp cheese.