Sometimes something is so striking and so wonderful that it redefines beautiful.

Norma Jeane was a young actress with a mole. She transformed herself into Marilyn – and her “flaw” became an iconic beauty mark.

A German car company shipped a simple van across the ocean. Soon the VW bus came to symbolize freedom and adventure.

Dutch painter Piet Mondrian stacked blocks of color – and changed the definition of art along the way.

Now comes the SweeTango® apple. It doesn’t always have perfect skin. But once you taste it, your idea of the perfect apple will never be the same.

Take a look at the SweeTango. See any net- like rough patches on the surface? They are a phenomenon called russeting.

Russeting describes damage to the outer skin – the “epidermal” if you want to get geeky – that happens on some fruitlets soon after its blossom falls from the tree.

As an apple matures, a brown layer of cork-like cells can push outward and become visible to the naked eye. It is a perfectly natural process. Think of it as something similar to freckles that appear on your skin with time.

Years ago, when the apple breeders at the University of Minnesota Horticulture Research Center began planting trees that would one day provide the finest apples ever tasted, the appearance of the SweeTango wasn’t the top priority. It was about growing the best tasting apple imaginable. Over time, we’ve found that SweeTango can exhibit the effects of russeting, usually due to a late frost, a rainy spring or other unusual weather factors. This may cause the SweeTango crop to look slightly different from year to year, depending on the climate where they are grown.

Today, when Americans visualize the perfect apple, they often think of a shiny, red, perfectly proportioned fruit. It won’t be long before they’ll be seeking out the apple with the lovely beauty marks.

So the next time you set your sights on a SweeTango and notice what you may consider a few “flaws,” don’t give it a second thought. Just open wide and take a big bite because russeting only affects the appearance, not the taste.