Driscoll's Berry Innovators
Strawberries that are firm, but not too crunchy. Raspberries that are sweet and juicy, but not mushy. Blackberries that are huge, beautiful, and burst in your mouth with juicy flavor. And blueberries that are flavorful, but not tart. These near perfect berries don’t happen by accident. Growing perfectly fresh, beautiful, delicious berries is as much of an art as it is a science. The Berry Innovators are the artists behind those berries.
Working together as a team of agronomists, breeders, sensory analysts, plant health scientists, and entomologists, the Berry Innovators research and develop the very highest quality berries. The Berry Innovators work with Mother Nature to develop the best berries possible using proven natural traditional breeding processes such as hand cross-pollination (Driscoll’s Berries are not genetically modified) and to ensure that those fresh, tasty, colorful berries make their way to berry lovers the world over.
Driscoll’s is excited to share some of these techniques it uses to make its patented varieties of berries and tell you about some of the people behind the scenes who are dedicated to ensuring the top quality at every stage of the process.
Driscoll’s Sensory Wheel
At Driscoll’s, our berry experience is based on more than just flavor. Combining the sensory dimensions of taste, texture, flavor, aroma, and mouthfeel, The Driscoll’s Strawberry Sensory Wheel™ provides a guide to the art and science of berry enjoyment.
In 2018, our Berry Innovators created a process to objectively identify flavor dimensions in strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries, including:
- Taste: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami
- Texture: characteristics like crunchy and firm
- Aroma: scents like lemon, mango, and tropical punch
- Mouthfeel: physical sensations like juicy and refreshing
The Driscoll’s Berry Patch Sensory Wheel™ enhances our ability to communicate flavor to our berry consumers, and showcases the continuous research done by our Berry Innovators to develop Only the Finest™ berries.