>pione (ピオーネ), large black seedless grapes

The pursuit of the perfect seedless grape continues.

One of the more popular grape varieties in Japan, pione is almost unknown in the U.S.

Dark violet-black and perfectly round, it resembles the concord variety, and does have somewhat similar sweet, floral characteristics.

Despite sounding like Italian subatomic pi meson, (pione is named after "pioniere" in Italian, meaning "pioneer", or French pionnier?) the fruit is rather large, and it is seedless.

A cross between Cannon Hall Muscat and Kyoho (巨峰) grapes,
pione was created by Hideo Igawa (井川秀雄) in 1957.

Ideal candidate for sorbets, pione grape is used in all sorts of jellies, cakes, wine and myriad other pretty confections, and even in ... curry.

Pictured below are fruit curries - white peach curry, pione curry and persimmon curry, and on the right is "pione waffle".