Meet The Colada Royale, A Pineapple Like No Other

If you know me, you know that I'm not big on fruits and vegetables.

I can count on one hand the number of vegetables I am willing to eat and the same can be said more most fruits with me, but this new pineapple from Dole has me pretty pumped.

First of all, I love pineapple. Whether it's the fruit or the many different foods borrowing the pineapple flavor, I just can't get enough.

And then there's piña colada -- that fruity drink that blends pineapple and coconut -- I adore piña colada.

So when Dole announced this week that it had developed a new pineapple -- the Colada Royale pineapple -- well, I just had to know more.

Here's what I was able to find out. The Colada Royale development team was headed up by Roberto Young, a Honduran native who returned home in 1997 to be part of Dole’s work in La Ceiba after earning his Ph.D. in plant breeding, crop and soil sciences from Michigan State University.

young's first assignment was to oversee Dole’s natural pineapple-breeding program – a role which has lasted 28 years and most recently resulted in the Colada Royale™, which he considers his crowning achievement.

“I’m proud of my work at Dole and being able to help bring a pineapple like the Colada Royale™ to the world,” said Young (from the Dole website). “As a pineapple breeder, I do much of my work quietly since it can take 10, 12 or even 15 years to create a new hybrid through natural processes – and only a very small percentage of the thousands we try ever make it to market. So, the Colada Royale™ is special. It will be my legacy.”

The Colada Royale boasts these attributes:

• Flavor: It offers a distinct tropical taste with notes of coconut, similar to a piña colada. 
• Appearance: The exterior has a gold to green color, while the inside is cream-colored. 
• Core and texture: It has a smaller core and a juicier, more flavor-complex flesh. 
• Nutritional value: It is a good source of Vitamin C and contains 2.5 times more vitamin B6 than a traditional pineapple, according to Men's Journal.

Dole says the Colada Royale is available now in stores (I'm going hunting for one later today).

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