Muscadines

[Guest]

What do Muscadines Taste Like to You?


I live in North Carolina. Muscadines are plentiful here.
Being as I love grapes andI'd never heard ofMuscadines till I moved here two years ago, Ihad an interest in trying them.

Ergo, last spring, whilst browsing thrugh a Farmers Market in Greensboro, NC, I came across a booth selling these grapes as well as some variety of purple grapes, in bulk, next to each other.

My first impressions were;
One,that the Muscadinesattracted a lot of flys as opposed to the purple graps sitting right next to them.

Two, that the muscadines had an offensive, burnt plastic aroma and,
third, that upon tasteing thone of them after buying a couplepoundsof them, I was so offended by the taste (burnt plastic & oil) that I imedietly pitched the entire bag into the trash can.

What's the story here?


Did I get a bad bunch of grapes or, like cofee and cigaretts,do they really "require a taste" for them?

Handyman

 

[Rocky_Top]

It sounds like you had a good bag of Muscadines. You can make a real good wine from muscadines but I do not think that you will ever cover the smell or taste of muscadine. Some people just do not like them. We have two winerys in our area with over 40 varieties of muscadine wines and they all seem to have the same after taste.


Waldo is the real pro on muscadine. So I would listen to him if he will chime in.

 

[gaudet]

The variety that I have tried is called carlos. Its hard to describe the taste very sweet like candy when ripe. And I will attest that its making a mighty tasty wine. The fruit is marble size or maybe a little larger. You don't eat the skin but the inside pulp. I can't describe any other variery yet. I have 3 varieties planted and hope to get some grapes this year, just not counting on a lot of them.

 

[smurfe]

Any muscadine I have eaten have had a very sweet"grapey" taste to them to me. They don't really have a grapey aroma. They smell sort of musky, hence Muscadine.

They definitely don't stink though. I think you got some spoiled fruit myself. Particularly if you say the flies were really going after the fruit.

 

[Guest]

Perhaps the variety I got were a more "wild" type?
In any case, what I tasted and smelled were so offensive that I've never tried them again.
I think what I'll try next time, is to find some of the varieties that you guys are touting.
I'd like to make a grape wine and being that I've done it with fruit, I'd like to try it with grapes now.


Come to think of it, I might try adding the grapes to my fruit wines next time.
Hmmmmm.


In any case, anybody that can shed more light on these muscadine grapes is greatly appreciated.


Handyman

 

[Guest]

Revelation....
Checked in with Waldo on these muscadinesand it appears that what I had may not have been a mucsadine so much as it may have been a scuppernong.


Next big question then is, what does a scuppernong taste like?


Anybody ever had one?


Handyman