My new favorite apple variety

This thread is making me nostalgic for the Mackintosh apples of my youth, especially the ones we used to get in college upstate NY. I am a big apple eater, sort of the “apple a day keeps the doctor away” thinking and so I usually get gala and fuji but I am one of those who also enjoys granny smith. Never eat delicious apples, just thinking about how mealy and mushy they are creeps me out actually.

I was in Japan when they first allowed imports of Red Delicious. There was so much hype, but after about a week I never saw them again.

It’s hard to imagine why farmers still grow them.

But Fuji apples are yummy. The Japanese farmers give them such TLC. Maybe that’s why they taste so good. They’re expensive, but my farmer friends would leave bags of them at my door. :x

@doschicos , put a dutch baby on your to-do list for this weekend! Light and delicious!!!

All about Honeycrisps, SweeTangos, and the danger of “red drift”:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/11/21/crunch

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Back when I made a couple of trips every fall to an apple orchard to pick apples (it has been condominiums for two decades, now), I loved mutsus and stayman winesaps above all others. But the mutsus I can get at my local co-op in the city, or occasionally in supermarkets, are very disappointing. They only have a hint of the complex, spicy flavor I remember. I grew up mainly eating local Mackintoshes. The mackintoshes I can find today are not worth eating most of the time.

My total apple boo for the past five years or so is a recent variety called Goldrush that I believe was developed here in Pennsylvania. (I certainly haven’t seen it anywhere else.) It’s a deep golden apple, more tart than sweet, with strong spice. It’s a late apple, so it doesn’t show up at the co-op until November, but it stores well and remains available through the winter.

I will make a special trip over to eastern Washington when the Cosmic Crisp hits the farm stands. It is supposed to be a marked improvement over the Honeycrisp and will store better. It’s tough to buy fruit in bulk because, for most, you have a week or two to use it all. Cosmic Crisp could change that.

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/04/dining/beyond-the-honeycrisp-apple.html

Here’s an orchard you should try:

www.beakandskiff.com

We moved to Syracuse area when I was going into high school and we liked Mcclusky’s better than Beak&Skiff.

Stopped at my farm’s stand on way home from grocery store and they had first honey crisps of the season so I picked up a peck. They aren’t strictly an apple orchard but started growing apple trees several years ago so now I don’t have to schlep out to the orchard closest to me until farm store closes at end of October.

Speaking of the orchards, I want to put a plug in for cider doughnuts. :D. Is that just a New England thing or do they sell them at orchards elsewhere?

I grew up on Red Delicious and loved them. Today’s Red Delicious are inconsistent and usually taste bland. My favorites now are Gala, Winesap, Braeburn and Golden Delicious. Tried Fuji a few weeks ago and they were very tasty.

Cider doughnuts AND cider and donuts are definitely a thing! Dang now in addition to the farmer’s market I may be forced to drive to my local orchard first thing this weekend for some apples, cider and their worth it doughnuts!!!

They sell cider doughnuts at Angry Orchard cider mill in NY, fresh ones made in front of your eyes. They’re definitely a thing.

The Macintoshes of my youth were so delicious. What happened? OTOH, when I was in college many many years ago we once went apple picking. Red Delicious apples were disgusting, even straight off the tree. That’s just a bad, bad apple, good for still lifes and nothing else.

I like Cox, Spitzenberg and Arkansas Black. Those new Pink Ladies aka Cripps Pink are good too. I’ve only once had an Ashmead’s Kernel; it was the most delicious apple I’ve ever had and I wish I could get more.

All the orchards in NY make cider donuts on the premises. And the lines to get them are always out the door and around the buildings every weekend in the fall. I buy a couple dozen at a time and freeze them. Then pop in micro for 5 seconds and they come out perfect and just like they taste right off the line.