Honeycrisp are so good and ruined other apples for me. Now I only eat Honeycrisp and its various variants like cosmic crisp, Pazazz, SweeTango and so on.
They've ranked Granny Smith as "Not worth eating" so right off the bat I can tell you the rating system is junk.
It loses the most points on its "density." Can't say I've ever eaten a granny smith and thought "I enjoy this taste, but I sure wish I could change the density."
I think this attempts to rank apples based on how people would rank them on average. I think it's good for that. Not a lot of people like Granny Smith apples. Maybe I would not say it is not worth eating, but I wouldn't suggest it unless you wanted something different?
Matters of taste are subjective, but subjective does not mean "all in your mind." There is such a thing as good music, good conversation, etc. There are no objective tests, but that's not the same as non existent.
Good tastes exists. OP just has bad taste (in apples).
Granny Smith is a trash tier Apple. The skin is inedible and it is absurdly sour. It's only edible if you peel the skin, cut it up, ...and bake it in something else. Alternatively peel the skin, and dip it into something such as peanut butter. By itself, it's trash tier.
I don't like them by themselves, but I love them with other food. For example, with a nice nutty cheese and maybe some fig jam. The sourness can be perfect with a sweet counterpart.
It's just like any kind of snobbery. If you want to be a connoisseur, it's practically obligatory to detest all the popular options. Because you (i.e. this website) are the expert and the commoners must be tasteless and wrong!
I love the sourness and the texture. Too many popular apples are just "mealy" texture. I've tried some of the other tart or sour apples and they are just not as good.
I was waiting to see this comment. These two are very popular in US markets but are world's apart in the opposite direction. Gala are straight mush. TBF they do caveat: "You MUST buy Gala’s that are grown where it is currently Autumn... for an off-season Gala may be nothing more than a six-month old, previously frozen, grain silo in a fruit jacket." Which is 75% of the time...
Does Granny Smith redeem itself when baked? We have an apple tree we vaguely name as cooking apples, and it’s nearly finished for the season. Stewed apple may be better than the top of this ranking.
Are there many podcasts that talk about this? There was one that liked the cosmic crisp, but moved onto baseball and Icy Hot without trying other variants.
Totally disagree with SugarBee being so low. My understanding is that it was engineered to be an improved version of Honeycrisp. My wife and I did a head-to-head comparison of SugarBee and Honeycrisp, and the SugarBee won no contest. We got our apples from Sigona’s; maybe the list creator got a bad batch somewhere?
I've only once had a good McIntosh. I must have nailed the exact day you want to have one, it was crisp and beautiful. Every other one I have ever had was a mealy let down, even when cold.
I had one for the first time from our local co-op. It was definitely firmer than any other apple I’ve had but I wouldn’t call it “teeth-shattering” by any means.
Oh, but the flavor. Exquisite. Floral, fragrant. Tasted half like a really good apple, half like a perfectly ripe Bosc pear.
Do yourself a favor and find a ripe Arkansas Black apple. Best apple I ever had.
> Brian Frange is a comedian and writer who has been yelling about apples for years. [...] Brian is not in the pocket of big apple and all reviews are inarguably accurate and not corrupted by corporate influence.
Came here to say the same thing about Fuji apples. They're great from all aspects, juicy, nice taste, crisp/crunchy and you can keep them for many days without going bad. I don't know about the author or other places, but here in Greece we get them produced locally and they're always fresh and delicious.
We can get cosmic crisps here year round, but they're usually out of season as a result. One of the good things about cosmic crisp is they don't really go super bad out of season, just almost-good.
Perhaps, but the prices are far far higher than would be justified by any increase in quality. And I'm not just talking about $5000 Densuke watermelons. Even a mango can be 3 or 4 times the price I'm used to paying in Aus.
Organic Fuji apples in US can be pretty good, I certainly wouldn't categorize them as "Horse Food" as the site does. I like them better than Honeycrisp (and similar) which are almost sickeningly sweet to me.
I also like Gala which this site ranks as "mediocre". It seems like the author just likes super sweet, crisp apples.
I have to agree that Cosmic Crisp was unfairly ranked here. I did a blind tasting of ten apple varietals with 14 friends and Cosmic Crisp was the winner.
I used to be a fan, but these days I feel like there is little to no innovation in the top ranked apples anymore. Not to mention, does SweeTango even have USB-C?!
About half of the apples on this list are ones I recognize as being generally available in the US, depending on the time of year, but I'm not sure how the others were chosen.
Amazing site, but I have to disagree on a couple of them! In my area, orchards have excellent Jonathan and Winesap apples--I would never rank them that low! And I haven't tried aging Arkansas Black apples yet, but I have heard it's worth doing if you have the storage.
Totally agree on Pink Lady, just a wonderful apple all around.
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[ 1.9 ms ] story [ 330 ms ] threadTIL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russet_apple
i have no clue why anyone would buy a red delicious apple. Their review is pretty funny.
The mealier, the better.
Maybe I'm just weird.
It loses the most points on its "density." Can't say I've ever eaten a granny smith and thought "I enjoy this taste, but I sure wish I could change the density."
Taste is subjective. Any ranking system for taste is just popularity with extra steps.
Good tastes exists. OP just has bad taste (in apples).
For someone who understands subjectivity, this is an awfully objective statement :)
And my girlfriend swears by Macintosh apples.
I like the website https://www.orangepippin.com/varieties/apples/ambrosia instead.
So it’s war then.
McIntosh are very difficult to keep properly, with age they will become mealy and bland. Same with many of its descendants, like Cortland.
If you get to them within two weeks of being picked, they're delicious.
Is this a joke?
I had one for the first time from our local co-op. It was definitely firmer than any other apple I’ve had but I wouldn’t call it “teeth-shattering” by any means.
Oh, but the flavor. Exquisite. Floral, fragrant. Tasted half like a really good apple, half like a perfectly ripe Bosc pear.
Do yourself a favor and find a ripe Arkansas Black apple. Best apple I ever had.
> Brian Frange is a comedian and writer who has been yelling about apples for years. [...] Brian is not in the pocket of big apple and all reviews are inarguably accurate and not corrupted by corporate influence.
It's never that crisp in the US.
I don't know why they rank Cosmic Crisp so low. I rank it neck and neck with SweeTango.
(Obviously I'm a Fuji apple lover :-) )
We can get cosmic crisps here year round, but they're usually out of season as a result. One of the good things about cosmic crisp is they don't really go super bad out of season, just almost-good.
I also like Gala which this site ranks as "mediocre". It seems like the author just likes super sweet, crisp apples.
I think taste may vary so that list is based on that person's opinion and taste-buds.
I will have them all day if only they weren't so expensive.
https://adamapples.blogspot.com/
It would be great to have something like this for movies, since IMDB and RT are not serious ratings (MetaCritic is a bit closer, I suppose).
About half of the apples on this list are ones I recognize as being generally available in the US, depending on the time of year, but I'm not sure how the others were chosen.
Totally agree on Pink Lady, just a wonderful apple all around.