Tasty! Sales of ‘compelled’ rhubarb undergo the roof

On Feb 22, 2025

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

Published: 00:30, 22 February 2025 | Updated: 00:30, 22 February 2025

With its distinctive taste popping up in everything from vodka and gin to hot cross buns, it’s no wonder that demand for rhubarb has skyrocketed.

A boom in products flavoured by the vegetable has now led to a 200 per cent rise in demand for ‘forced’ rhubarb – grown out of season – according to Tesco.

Forced rhubarb is planted under cover indoors in warm, dark conditions in order to trick the plant into ‘thinking’ it is still below ground. As a result, it grows quicker and is more tender and sweet.

Available from January to March, it is considered to be sweeter than the traditional summer crop, which sprouts from April to October.

Tesco has almost 40 products that feature rhubarb in some form.

These include flavoured spirits, dessert pies, rhubarb and custard sweets, anti-bacterial spray, tea lights, and the latest product to hit the shelves – rhubarb and custard hot cross buns.

The supermarket’s rhubarb buyer Paul Curtis said: ‘Rhubarb has very much become the flavour of the moment and besides being a classic dessert in crumble form with custard, is now considered one of the most popular flavourings and scents in many food, drink and household products.

‘Who would ever have thought that one day there would be rhubarb scented washing up liquid, candles and even loo paper.

Forced rhubarb is planted under cover indoors in warm, dark conditions in order to trick the plant into ‘thinking’ it is still below ground

Rhubarb can be forced to grow at home by covering it with a pot or bucket or terracotta ‘forcing jar’ to keep it warm and in the dark (stock image)

Tesco has almost 40 products which feature rhubarb in some shape or form

Don’t eat the leaves…

Rhubarb is actually a vegetable, but is used more like a fruit. It has been grown for thousands of years in Siberia, Mongolia and China, where it was mostly used for medicinal purposes.

It was introduced to Europe in the 14th century and became a valuable trade commodity – at one point becoming more expensive than the spice cinnamon.

Legend has it that forced rhubarb originated in 1817, when workers at Chelsea Physic Garden in London accidentally buried a bed of rhubarb while digging a trench.

Only the stalk is edible, as the leaves contain high levels of oxalic acid – which can be poisonous.

‘Right now is the peak of the forced rhubarb season… it’s when rhubarb is at its sweetest and most flavoursome.’

Place UK, Tesco’s rhubarb supplier, has also reported that demand for the forced variety has soared by more than 170 per cent since 2019.

Production of the crop has expanded beyond the ‘rhubarb triangle’ around Wakefield, Morley and Rothwell in West Yorkshire, with its popularity encouraging more producers to grow it.

Norfolk-based Place UK now produces more than 25 tons of forced rhubarb per year.

The grower’s head of fresh operations, Dan Yordanov, said: ‘Rhubarb is a tremendously versatile vegetable, and we’re not surprised to see it now gaining popularity.

‘We’ve seen demand particularly grow for the forced variety and as a result we have planted around 30 per cent more in the last five years.

‘To give you some example of how popular it’s become, in 2019 we sold just under 25,000 packs to the food retail and manufacturing industry and last year we sold more than 65,000 packs.’

The first English recipes for cooked rhubarb appeared in the 18th century and forced rhubarb is believed to have originated in London in 1817.

Rhubarb can be forced to grow at home by covering it with a pot or bucket or terracotta ‘forcing jar’ to keep it warm and in the dark.