| Hybrid: | Honeycrisp and Zestar apple |
| Cultivar: | Minneiska |
| Origin: | University of Minnesota, United States |
SweeTango is the brand name of the cultivated apple 'Minneiska'. It is a cross between the 'Honeycrisp' and the Zestar Apple belonging to the University of Minnesota. The apple is controlled and regulated for marketing, allowing only exclusive territories for growing. It has a sweet-tart taste that some food writers have described as something between brown sugar and spiced apple cider.
University of Minnesota awarded Pepin Heights Orchards exclusive marketing rights to grow and sell the 'Minneiska' apple. They then in turn developed a cooperative of certain selected farm growers and sold rights to these members to produce the apple. It was exclusive at first to the state of Minnesota and later membership was expanded to certain qualifying farmers, mostly to growers of the northern parts of the United States. The concept of exclusive control of a variety of fruit was new then in United States customs and drew criticism that led to lawsuits.
The brand name of the cultivar (cultivated variety) of the apple 'Minneiska' is "SweeTango". It was refined by University of Minnesota in 1999 from a grafted tree of 1988, and released in 2006. It became publicly available in 2007. It is a hybrid of two other apple varieties the university developed – the 'Honeycrisp' and the 'Minnewashta' (brand name Zestar!) – produced by the 'Minneiska' tree.
The name is a registered trademark owned by University of Minnesota. In 2000, the new apple variety was known during development by the identifier MN 1914. It was created by University of Minnesota's plant development program at their Horticultural Research Center.
The 'Minneiska' apple has a texture similar to the 'Minnewashta' and 'Honeycrisp' apples (its parents), with a slightly tart fall spicy citric quality. The concentrated flavors are "more complex than the Honeycrisp"; author Amy Traverso compared the apple's flavor to "spiced apple cider".
The University of Minnesota awarded exclusive marketing rights to grow, have others raise, and sell the 'Minneiska' apple cultivar and any mutations to Minnesota's largest apple orchard, Pepin Heights Orchards of Lake City, Minnesota. The orchard in turn in 2006 established a 45-member grower's cooperative named Next Big Thing. These commercial growers were originally only in the state of Minnesota. An exception was granted to Minnesota orchard growers for plantings in very small amounts.
The cooperative later branched out and allowed members from Michigan, Washington, New York and a few other northern states. The apple could not be grown by non-members. Members, who pay royalties for a license on producing the 'Minneiska' trees, can sell the apple only through the cooperative. The practice, called "managed variety" for high quality standards, was a new concept to the United States when the apple was developed.
The practice implementation has attracted criticism due to its development through a public research institution. In 2010, a lawsuit was filed challenging the legality of University of Minnesota selling exclusive rights to the new variety. It was decided in a 2012 ruling by Minnesota's Fourth Judicial District court that "Minnesota’s antitrust and monopoly laws do not apply to its land-grant university", according to Fruit Growers News.
The trademark belongs to University of Minnesota for its apple fruit of the 'Minneiska' cultivar. The patent number was obtained on May 13, 2008, by research scientist breeders David S. Bedford and James J. Luby. The varietal denomination 'Minneiska' has a Latin name of Malus domestica and its patent says in part that it was an exclusive new cultivar that was developed using grafting techniques.
In 2008, the variety was patented by the university, the same year their US patent on the 'Honeycrisp' expired.