My name is David Smyth, and I am chief taster at Copella Fruit Juices, which is based at PepsiCo’s site at Boxford in the U.K. In my job, I get to blend and create our apple juices – which is a great pleasure because the wide range of apple varieties we have available allows me to make the most wonderful tasting juice! The sweetness of an Elstar, the nuttiness of an Egremont Russet, the sharpness of a Bramley, the texture of a Cox, the strawberry hint of a Worcester Permain — together they combine to be somehow more than the sum of their parts.

When I started my association with Copella Fruit Juices almost twenty years ago, the idea that we would need to encourage people to “plant and protect” our wonderful English apples would have seemed ridiculous. Everybody knew that English apples were easily the best in the world and surely everyone would want to keep eating, drinking and cooking with them.

But no, for many different reasons people seem to have fallen out of love with the wonderful variety of apples grown in this country. In 1990, there were 12,000 hectares of apple orchards in the U.K.; by 2008 there was less than half that. Worse still, it is the apples that I love the most, the Cox and the Discovery, the ones with the fullest flavours, which are disappearing fastest.

To continue reading about the Plant and Protect campaign, click here.