Our name, Ålmarium Sours® says it all...
"Alma" takes us to the heart of all Malus (apple family) trees in Kazakhstan in the Tian Shan mountains where "alma" means "apple". (And Hungarians also call apple "alma"!)
Our flavour project—over the last 30 years—is a respectful nod to the source of origin of all apples in what were once thousands of acres of wild apple forests of Kazakhstan. These same forests are also the source of origin for other plants whose fruits are enjoyed today. A diverse mix of plants and trees.
Almaty (“the City of apples” in Kazakhstan) was once surrounded by wild apple forests. As is happening around the world, Almaty too is reaching out and changing its surroundings. To learn more on how and why this important source of origin is endangered, see some of our favourite websites on the Resources page.
Another good reason to pay more attention to the source of origin of apples, is that we'll all be eating more of those wild apple family genes in the not so distant future. The USDA (US Department of Agriculture), through its breeding program, is reintroducing features of wild apple trees from Kazakhstan into domestic eating apples.
One of the USDA's goals is to increase disease resistance, so that growers of eating apples can use fewer pesticides and fungicides to grow fresh eating apples. They hope to get that by reintroducing wild.
Another goal is to increase the nutritional value of eating apples. Nutritional profiles of domesticated and undomesticated apples differ. Eating apple varieties were selected and developed to cater to a fresh market that had a sweet tooth and a low tolerance for bitter flavours and acid. But as, we've found out, not all wild flavours are unpleasant.
Fortuitously, this breeding program is underway at a time when tastes are changing. Both sour and bitter are being reintroduced into our diets as demand increases for naturally, synergistically, healthy foods as an alternative to dietary supplements.
------Please credit © Ålmarium Sours® when citing our work------