Black Velvet Apricots

In Albums: food fruit produce

Black velvet apricots, a dark-purple, velvet-textured variety of apricot, with produce stickers

Jul 10th, 2011, by Alex Zorach

This photo shows a bunch of black velvet apricots which were for sale at Iovine's Produce Corner at the Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia, for $4.99 a pound. This exorbitant price is justified: these fruit are delicious.

Although it is not immediately apparent from the photo, these fruit are rather large, about as big as a typical peach, and much larger than a typical apricot. They also tend to take on a much softer texture when ripe than a typical apricot, which remains more firm even when fully ripe.

The flesh of this fruit is incredibly sweet, and highly aromatic, and is a rich golden color, soft and juicy. In many ways it tastes a lot like honey. Although these fruit are priced quite high, I would urge you to try at least one for the experience: you will not be disappointed! If you want to see what the interior of this fruit looks like, I took a photo of one, sliced, when I later ate it.