A newcomer can find it hard to steal the spotlight from the watermelon, cantaloupe and honeydew; that has been the story of the Sprite melon in North Carolina.

This pale yellow melon about the size of an oval softball has been a strong seller for farmers throughout the Southeast and particularly in Eastern North Carolina, where it was developed a decade ago. It is shipped to Asian specialty markets in New York and the HEB grocery chain in Texas.

But Tar Heel consumers have been slow to warm to the Sprite.

On a recent Saturday, Cynthia Barefoot offers bites of Sprite melon to passers-by at Dean's Produce stand at the State Farmers Market in Raleigh. A sign tells potential customers that a Sprite melon is a cross between a pear, a honeydew and a watermelon. Several people shake their heads at Barefoot's samples, wary of this new melon offering. More adventurous eaters try a taste.

"I'd never heard about it," says Lori Christianson, 40, of Fuquay-Varina. "I thought maybe they injected it with Sprite [the soft drink] and grew it."

Christianson's assessment: "I definitely tasted the honeydew, and it had the consistency of a pear to me."

But Christianson didn't buy a Sprite melon. Overall, Sprite melons are a harder sell at Dean's Produce stand, where consumers opt more often for watermelons and cantaloupes.

The Sprite melon was introduced to farmers in the late 1990s by the state's specialty crops program. Horticulturist Bill Jester, who coordinates the program, explains that the Sprite is an Asian melon that farmers had a hard time telling when to harvest. Jester and others figured out these melons should be harvested when light brown stitches, also called sugar cracking or sugar rings, appear on the bottom. When those appear, the melon's sugar content is about 14 percent, which is higher than cantaloupes.

About 70 farmers in Eastern North Carolina grow Sprite melons -- a crop that earns them an estimated $3 million a year. And the Sprite melon crop has spread to growers in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.

One of the earliest North Carolina growers was Fresh-Pik Produce in Kenly. Co-owners James Sharp and Jim Warenda, both 31, grow the melons on about 20 acres and sell their own as well those grown by a cooperative of farmers in the eastern part of the state. Sprite melons are in season from July to mid-August.

On a recent Wednesday, four Fresh-Pik Produce employees put Sprite melons in individual bags of plastic netting for Melissa's, the largest distributor of specialty produce in the United States. The melons were then packed into boxes headed to Wegmans grocery stores in New York.

Sharp has a theory about why Southerners may be reluctant to embrace the Sprite melon, which weighs a pound and sells for about $2. "Up North, a Sprite melon sells for $1.99 -- that's a bargain," Sharp says. "In the South, people expect to get a five-pound cantaloupe for $2."

But with gas prices per gallon surpassing the $4 mark, Sharp says, shipping costs are likely to increase the cost of melons in grocery stores, particularly the larger melons. Sharpe says a grower can ship 10,000 honeydews in a truck, and the cost of shipping per honeydew is 80 cents. The cost of freight per smaller Sprite melon is 10 cents. As larger melons cost more, Sprite melons may seem more reasonable to Southern pocketbooks.

Back at the State Farmers Market, Ilysse Friend, 52, of Raleigh, pays $5 for three Sprite melons.

"They are wonderful," she says. "You taste the pear and then you taste the melon. It's kind of weird how the tastes all come together."

Maybe there is room in the fridge for the Sprite after all.

Recipes

Sprite Melon Raspberry Smoothie

Tri-Pepper Sprite Melon Salsa Cruda with Grilled Chicken

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