SugarBee (B51 or CN121) is a cultivated variety or

cultivar A cultivar is a kind of Horticulture, cultivated plant that people have selected for desired phenotypic trait, traits and which retains those traits when Plant propagation, propagated. Methods used to propagate cultivars include division, root a ...

of apple discovered by Chuck Nystrom in the early 1990s at his

orchard An orchard is an intentional plantation of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit tree, fruit- or nut (fruit), nut-producing trees that are generally grown for commercial production. Orchards are also so ...

in Worthington, Minnesota. Believed to be a hybrid between a Honeycrisp and another, unknown variety, it is named in recognition of the role played by

bees Bees are winged insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their roles in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamil ...

open pollination "Open pollination" and "open pollinated" refer to a variety of concepts in the context of the sexual reproduction of plants. Generally speaking, the term refers to plants pollinated naturally by birds, insects, wind, or human hands. Controlled ...

, making the variety possible. It was brought to market in 2016. This apple variety is harvested in the fall and is suitable for snacking, baking, apple butter, cooking, juicing, apple sauce, and salads. Like its parent variety, the Honeycrisp, the SugarBee is a sweet and crisp apple, but is capable of lasting much longer in controlled-atmosphere storage. Its flavor is similar to

caramel Caramel ( or ) is a range of food ingredients made by heating sugars to high temperatures. It is used as a flavoring in puddings and desserts, as a filling in bonbons or candy bars, as a topping for ice cream and custard, and as a colorant ...

and

molasses Molasses () is a viscous byproduct, principally obtained from the refining of sugarcane or sugar beet juice into sugar. Molasses varies in the amount of sugar, the method of extraction, and the age of the plant. Sugarcane molasses is usuall ...

. It is initially available from October to May, but since 2024, efforts have been made to ensure that SugarBee apples are available all year round. SugarBee propagation rights are held by Regal Fruit International and licensed to Gebbers Farms and the Chelan Fruit Cooperative in

Washington State Washington, officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is often referred to as Washington State to distinguish it from the national capital, both named after George Washington ...

to produce the variety in the United States.

References

Apple cultivars Apple production in Washington (state) {{apple-fruit-stub