Why America’s Berries Have Never Tasted So Good
Driscoll’s had to figure out how to breed, produce and sell its most flavorful strawberries and raspberries. Now the strategy is starting to bear fruit.
By Ben Cohen
WATSONVILLE, Calif.—The strawberries of America’s future are as rich and juicy as the story of how they came to be.
They look resplendent. They taste like candy and fruit punch. They’re just firm enough to hold their shape when you bite into one and soft enough that it will melt in your mouth. They’re also related to a blueberry halfway across the world that was nearly lost to history.
It’s a typically cool morning in Northern California, before the fog makes way for yet another sunny day, when Soren Bjorn grabs, twists and snaps a perfectly ripe strawberry right off the plant. As the chief executive of Driscoll’s, the world’s largest berry company, he knows everything about the luscious hunk of fruit in his hands—and he knows that it’s something of a miracle.
Every year, the company develops and studies 125,000 strawberry varieties in search of the handful that Driscoll’s will sell across the country and around the world. But until recently, one type of strawberry never actually made it to the grocery store.
“We threw out the absolute sweetest, best-tasting berries that we had in our whole gene pool,” Bjorn said.