This luxury pear is grown almost exclusively in Niigata. Is it worth you to cheer on?
You have probably heard of Japan’s expensive, luxury fruit, known all over the world for an entire generation of fruits and vegetables, such as h, a single bunch of grapes that cost 10,800 yen — $78,18 USD — by a single bunch of grapes. The sweet fruits are more than a fruit. They are often carefully cultivated, harvested and ripened by hand, to give them the most savoury, juicy and fragrant flesh.
We’ve grown up in the Japanese language, and Maro was eager to take the chance to order a single european pear from a farm in Niigata, near Tokyo. The Lectier Pear, which is a European Pear (which is similar to the round Asian Pear) introduced to Niigata in about 120 years ago. Although Niigata farmers first tasted these pears, their sweetness would ruin their sense of success. They decided to make them grow themselves, and in 1903, they began ordering saplings from France.
Le Lectier pears are notoriously difficult to cultivate, and eventually, the French farmers stopped growing them, and nowadays they rarely see it in the land. However, cultivation in Niigata only slowed for an extended period of time. The researchers studied best how to grow them, and now they became one of the most famous fruit in the prefecture.
However, because of the difficulties they have, they appear just a little more often only for a month every year in the markets. That’s why they have been nicknamed the Phantom Pear.
Le Lectier pears look almost as yellow as bananas, but they are picked when they’re still green. Your environment is monitored for 40 days as they ripen and their flavor, color and aroma begin to change.
Aside from the time and effort necessary to make these pears delicious, they tend to be expensive. Maro bought her single pear for 500 yen (3,6 dollars); therefore, if you consider the fact that Lectiers are considered as the most expensive pears of all the tens of thousands of dollars in Japan, it might be worth it.
Since Maro is often a king of European pears, she decided to use a poodle adapted to La France, a more common pear in Japan (Maro had always thought La France was just what you had all the European pears so she now knew was a misunderstanding).
In the left, La France and Lectier in the right.
Maro tried first the Pear of La France. It had a very sharp texture, somewhere between a pear from Asia and an apple. His unique flavor was exactly what she was expecting.
To keep an eye out for Le Lectier, it was a really tasty meal. As she bit in it, Maro almost needed to slurp. It was good and smooth, not like a La France rough. It was so unbelievably juicy that it nearly felt like it was dissolving in her mouth.
This, unlike the French version, was rich and flavorful, but, surprisingly, it wasn’t too sweet or cloying. If Maro would describe the flavor in one word, she would say refined.
Maro is worth every yenny, but even though the Phantom Pear is called, it is actually relatively cheap for a high-quality fruit, considering that a luxury watermelon cost us 5400 yen last summer. The only thing that worries is that Lectier orchards only a half of the nations pear orchards, so it’s not quite possible to find these at a time for a month.They sell for only a small fee.
Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!