
As I said in my last post, my lung collapsed before the tasting began in earnest, but I still got to sample several cultivars. I was not impressed with the Asian pear varieties that I tasted (too watery), but I really liked the 'Rising Star' and 'Atlas Super Orient'. According to the organizers, the crowd favorites were Acres Home, Southern Queen, Southern King, Tennhosui, and Florida 58-45. I didn't get to taste all of these, but I would have to say that the Florida 58-45 is probably the best pear I have ever eaten, and you can be sure that I will be grafting it to one of my pear trees this winter. It is very productive, delicious, and you don't have to ripen it. You can eat it crisp right off the tree. I would say it is to pears what the Honeycrisp cultivar is to apples.