Airport News Japan

Experiment Underway at Aomori Airport: “Sorayuki Apples” Buried in Snow to Improve Flavor, to be Dug Out in April

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Aomori apples being stored in the freezing cold snow. Photo: Aomori Airport Terminal

A research experiment is being conducted at Aomori Airport (Aomori, Aomori Prefecture) in which locally grown apples are buried in snow to enhance their flavor.

It’s long been known in this area that using the freezing cold snow to store produce will make it sweeter and preserve its freshness, improving its overall flavor. Recently though, there are reportedly more proactive efforts to freeze and store produce for sale at a later date.

A decision was made to make effective use of the snow at Aomori Airport and promote both the airport and Aomori apples. In late January, 20 cases of the prefecture’s apples were stored in a specially built “yukimuro” (meaning “snow room”). As part of the “Aomori Airport Sorayuki Apple Branding Research (Using the Cold of Unremoved Snow),” a theme of a prefectural project called the “Aomori Growth Strategy Survey Research Commencing in FY2009,” the airport is collaborating with the prefecture to conduct this experiment for the first time.

The apples are scheduled to be dug out in mid to late April and sold in airport shops as Sorayuki Apples (meaning “Air-Snow Apples”). An airport official said, “[We hope] they become a new tasty product from Aomori Airport.”

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