Washington State University has given its newest apple, WA 64, the official trade name Sunflare.
University apple breeder Kate Evans announced the new name on Dec. 10 at the Washington State Tree Fruit Association Annual Meeting in Yakima.
“Our breeding program exists to give consumers better apples to eat, and ‘Sunflare’ checks all our boxes,” Evans said in a news release.
The apple’s name was chosen by university faculty and staff in conjuction with public focus groups from among more than 15,000 entries submitted in a public naming contest, according to the release.
Ryan Escarcega, a 49-year-old food service sales representative and chef from Centralia, submitted the winning entry.
“I looked at the picture of the apple for a long time, fantasizing what it was going to taste like,” he said in the release. “It was a real eye-catcher. I saw a nice relationship between the colors and the name. And the sun has everything to do with the growth of the product.”
As a prize, the WSU graduate received a box of the newly-named apples and will receive other WSU-themed prizes, including a can of Cougar Gold cheese. Escarcega helped name the Envy apple when he participated in a focus group at the Seattle Culinary Academy more than 10 years ago.
The WA 64, first bred in 1998, is a bicolored cross between Honeycrisp and Cripps Pink and will reach grocery store shelves in 2029. WSU holds a patent on WA 64 and has filed trademark applications for the Sunflare brand name.
Sales of trees and budwood to growers will be managed by International New-Varieties Network, a global consortium of nursery companies, while an industry-led advisory committee will develop a logo and color palette for marketing materials and will then market the apple to stores.
WA 64 is the third apple released by the WSU breeding program, after the WA 38, marketed as Cosmic Crisp, and the WA 2, sold as Sunrise Magic.
—by Ross Courtney
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