Ever since a childhood of disappointing Crackerjack boxes, I’ve come to be suspicious of anything promising a surprise inside. And ever since an adulthood as a gay man, I’m even more skeptical of anything promising a surprise inside. At this point, the best surprises inside are those that arrive unannounced and unhyped, such as in this plumcot.
The plumcot is a cross between a plum and an apricot. I love both of those, so it makes sense I would love a plumcot, but such hybrids don’t always produce good results. (Think of when two pop superstars come out with a tepid duet – hello Britney and Madonna and the travesty that was ‘Me Against the Music’.) In the case of the plumcot, I was hopeful, but not quite ready to put all the stone fruits in one basket.
Luckily, I was happily rewarded – this particular variety of plumcot is absent of pesky fuzz, carrying the initial bright tartness of an apricot before resolving gloriously in a juicy burst of the plum’s sweetness. Best of all is the striking surprise color of what lies just beneath the otherwise subtle skin. Entire color schemes are built around shades like this. It’s the color of summer, of sweetness and heat, of all that is vibrant and living and brilliant.
