What would a single strawberry have to taste like to be worth a $365 retail price tag?
“It makes you really happy. It’s like an apple meets a strawberry meets a grape meets a whole bunch of red roses that you smell,” said TV presenter and English celebrity Chef Paul Hollywood in his “Paul Hollywood Eats Japan” documentary series, when he visited Okuda Mikio, owner of Okuda Farm in Hashima City to taste the bijin-hime (beautiful princess) strawberry.
The chef hopped with glee like a schoolboy after his first juicy, creamy aromatic bite of what could be the most expensive strawberry in the world.
Luxury closer to home
In contrast, Omakase and Koyo strawberries from New Jersey-based Oishii (“delicious” in Japanese) are relatively affordable at $2.50 or $3 per berry, available at select Whole Foods Markets and specialty grocers. FreshDirect, an online grocer delivering in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey, sells them for $14.99 for a 4.2-ounce clamshell of six berries. Grown in a 74,000-square-food indoor vertical farm, Oishii’s Omakase berry was made Instagram-famous by celebrity foodies Gywneth Paltrow and Chrissy Teigen and is served by top chefs.
This story was in the March/April issue of PMG magazine, also available digitally.
Then there’s the launch of two other premium strawberry varieties, also grown vertically indoors, by Bowery Farming, based in New York City. The Garden and Wild Berry 8-ounce duo discovery pack has a suggested retail price of $18, available at Eataly, Edy’s Grocer and Neighborhood Goods in the city.
For perspective: The average U.S. strawberry retail price per pound was $4.48, says IRI/Freshlook data ending Jan. 1, so an equivalent Bowery pack would be $36 and Oishii’s would approach $60.
Affordable indulgence
All this makes other premium berries at more widely accessible retailers seem like quite the value:
- Pink-a-Boo pineberry by Wish Farms, Plant City, Fla.
- The Sweetest Batch, Rosé Strawberries and Tropical Bliss from Driscoll’s, Watsonville, Calif.
These posh prizes deserve to be savored fresh, in hand, with reverence. Or, like Chef Paul Hollywood, with childlike joy.
Learn more on PMG: Strawberries, the commodity.
