Tiny Melons - Pepquinos - Coming to America

by Sara Bonisteel, Posted May 14th 2009 @ 3:00PM

Photo: Koppert Cress

The pepquiños are coming, the pepquiños are coming.

Hot off the news that it's now tiny melon season in Britain, the producers of what may just be the world's only bite-sized melon -- the pepquiño -- say they're growing these grape-size fruits on New York's Long Island.

"It's already in America, but very, very small," Nicolas Mazard, the U.S. manager of Koppert Cress, told Slashfood Thursday. "So it will be ready this summer."

Learn how to eat these 3/4-inch fruits after the jump.

"They're a fruit," Anneke Cuppen, a Koppert Cress spokeswoman, told us by phone from the Netherlands. "It's a combination between the cucumber and the melon."

A naturally occurring fruit from South America, the pepquiños have been grown by the company in the aptly named town of Monster for the last four years.

The 3/4-inch melons grow on vines. Their rind is edible, and the pepquiños are available in Europe from early May to November, officials said.

Mazard says they taste "just like a very simple cucumber" with a bit more crunch. The company has been marketing the fruit for use in salads, marinades and sandwiches.

"The outside is very decorative," Mazard said. "It looks like the small egg of a quail; it's exactly the same size -- roughly -- to the quail eggs."

European chefs have been thinly slicing the fruits and pairing them with kumquats, among other things, he said.

In Britain, the Daily Mail reported that a box of approximately 50 pepquiños sell for $15. Mazard said the price of the tiny melons stateside have yet to be determined.

America will get its first taste in June -- most likely limited to specialty shops in the New York metropolitan area.

"We're going to have a very small production this summer," Mazard said. "It's a seasonal product, so we just started to have the first seeds from Europe because we are the only producers in the world to have this variety of small cucumber. We're going to have it ready [for] food production seriously in 2010."

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Filed Under: Food News, Ingredients
Tags: cucumber, featured, fruit, koppert cress, KoppertCress, melon, pepquino

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

5-14-2009 @3:20PM robotrock said... "it's exactly the same size roughly"

uhhh
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5-14-2009 @4:55PM Gary said... Looking forward to seeing these soon since I live near where they are being grown.
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5-15-2009 @6:18AM SaraFist said... God, those are cute.
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5-15-2009 @12:52PM Tanya said... Robotrock - that was the quote from the distributor, which we didn't change. I think the point was clear, no?
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5-15-2009 @4:30PM Gary said... another redundant boring thing to raise the price of an entree in a restaurant. If it tastes like chicken....eat F'n CHICKEN!
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5-15-2009 @5:58PM tana green said... Sounds kinda pointless. We already have cucumbers and melons. But it is very cute.
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5-15-2009 @7:59PM ron said... Are they red on the inside like regular watermelons?
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5-16-2009 @8:44PM N. H. Peters said... Another food fad that will soon fade away.
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5-16-2009 @9:14PM jhird said... Thanks Mr. Bobama! They look good!
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5-16-2009 @9:04PM Teege said... Why would I want a mini melon? Now they can charge outrageous prices for a bag of mini melons, instead of one big melon I end up throwing out anyway?!
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5-16-2009 @9:54PM don said... My girlfriend has cute little melons too!!!
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5-16-2009 @10:34PM Sunday said... They really are cute! I would love to try them, but probably won't get the opportunity. But if they truly taste like a cuccumber, then why pay so much more for these? Would love to try them in a salad.
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5-17-2009 @12:45AM miso-soup said... I had a mysterious vine growing in my yard; thought maybe it was a asian fruit and showed it to my landlord. They said it was a weed. Now I read this article and this is what is growing like crazy in my backyard. I let it grow on the fence to give me some privacy otherwise I would have killed it a long time ago. I have never seen this thing ever before and am at a loss how it started growing in the only small dirt patch I have in the back; the rest is cement. I assumed a bird left it's droppings and it grew from that. Not that it's caught on here in Honolulu, but I should find out if any chef here would like to buy them.
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5-17-2009 @5:52AM ryanoback said... Everything that gets imported to the US is junk, illegal or poisenous anymore.
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5-17-2009 @7:24AM MaryLou Michelin said... where can you get the seeds?
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5-17-2009 @9:50PM peter said... You can find seeds here: http://www.seedsavers.org/Details.aspx?itemNo=1192

They've been in the U.S. for at least as long as I've been alive here in South Texas, over 40 years, as this weed has clogged up our farm machinery every summer that I can remember. They aren't really all that tasty, but it's your money.
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5-17-2009 @10:16PM mike said... they are great! when you bite one in half they are the color of beer. eat them refrigerated in a salad and the texture is amazing with a mellon taste that cuts like pineapple. it doesnt taste like pineapple, its alive like pineapple. enjoy. i pay 8.99 for 50. lasts me 5 salads. can be frozen
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5-17-2009 @10:47PM TheTanMan said... The is a man in Ft Lauderdale that has the only trees of its kind in America.< miraclefruitman.com > 30 berries sells for $90.00 with overnight shipping. Check it out. ! berry cost $2.00 Bite into the berry and it tricks your mouth not thinking it is sweet like sugar.
He sells out quick, but check it out?
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