I’ve never been much of a fruit person. I like the occasional grapefruit or blackberry or even banana, but fruit has never been my go-to snack. The one exception was a glorious period in the mid-2000s when one could find “Grapples” (pronounced grape-puls) in the produce section of some grocery stores. I, like many, assumed that this fruit was some sort of grape-apple hybrid, a miracle made manifest by science.
The fruit certainly looked like an apple, but it tasted like Welch’s grape juice, with an unmistakably grape-y, almost candy-like flavor to it. I thought it was delicious. My mom would pack Grapples in my school lunch box, and I would eat them in the cafeteria with a verve never elicited by a “normal” apple or bag of grapes alone.
But it’s been years since my tongue has touched the sweet flesh of a Grapple. I honestly just forgot about them for a while, but recently, I’ve found myself wondering where they’ve gone and why I haven’t seen them in grocery stores. I decided to do some digging.
The Truth About Grapples
I always believed that Grapples were a cross between grapes and apples, a hybridized fruit made possible by genetic tinkering, despite the fact that Grapples very much looked like average apples. But it turns out that Grapples were, in fact, not hybrids at all. Rather, they were simply Washington-grown apples soaked in a grape-flavored solution called methyl anthranilate, which is also used as a bird repellent. Delicious! Admittedly, that fact takes a lot of sheen out of the product for me personally; “soaked in artificial grape solution” sounds a lot less appealing than a feat of plant science.
So, Where Have They Gone?
Grapples first hit stores in 2004, two years after they were patented in Washington state. But by 2007, two people had reported an allergy to the fruit; it then became the subject of allergen testing. In 2016, though, the company responsible for the fruit launched a new type of tart Grapple (as opposed to the original sweet version). Eight years later, though, in 2024, you won’t find Grapples in your local grocery store’s produce aisle—the product has been discontinued.
RIP to the Grapple
I will forever remember the period between the rise and fall of the Grapple as a time of fruity bliss. But in some ways, I’m happy the Grapple has died. With my newfound knowledge of the Grapple’s true origins, I’m not sure I’d approach it in the same way, as a culinary marvel of our times. An apple soaked in bird repellent just doesn’t have the same appeal as a strange hybrid of produce-aisle staples.
But maybe, just maybe, the Grapple will someday return in all its methyl anthranilate-soaked glory—and I can’t promise I won’t buy a pack.
Samantha Maxwell is a food writer and editor based in Boston. Follow her on Twitter at @samseating.