16. A Fruit That Took Europe by Storm
Pineapples today are just a Dole can away, and often cost a buck or less. As such, it’s hard to grasp just how exotic and expensive they once used to be. When Christopher Columbus returned from his second voyage in 1496, he brought back a consignment of pineapples. Only one of them survived the sea passage without rotting, but that one was enough to send the Spanish court into raptures. One courtier wrote that “its flavor excels all other fruits“. To understand the reaction, one needs to think about it in the context of its era, one in which sweet things were not as common in Europe as they are today.
Refined sugar was rare and extremely expensive, while fruits were only available in season. As such, a ripe sweet pineapple could have been the tastiest thing that a European of that era had ever tasted. An even greater factor was the exotic appearance: pineapples looked like nothing Europeans had seen before. As one envoy of Spain’s King Ferdinand put it: “[it is] the most beautiful of fruits I have seen. I do no suppose there is in the whole world any other of so exquisite and lovely appearance“. Pineapples became prized status and fashion symbols, and as seen below, were esteemed to an extent that seems ridiculous today.
