[HN Gopher] Honeycrisp apples went from marvel to mediocre
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Honeycrisp apples went from marvel to mediocre
Author : haunter
Score : 188 points
Date : 2024-11-30 16:44 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.seriouseats.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.seriouseats.com)
| forthwall wrote:
| I feel like this has happened to most apples, even most fruit,
| forcing fruit to become all-year fruit in general has made those
| fruits worse off in the long term in terms of quality due to the
| necessity to make them long lasting. I used to personally dislike
| all apples until I started getting them from farmers markets that
| only sold them seasonally as opposed to supermarkets or costco,
| suddenly they started to taste like something and not just water.
| ericjmorey wrote:
| Yup. Incentive to use brand recognition for a lower quality,
| cheaper to produce in more volume substitution is too strong
| for a large business to ignore.
| s1artibartfast wrote:
| The market is not kind to consumers that put their faith in
| "brands" without owners.
|
| I put brand in quotes because anyone can produce and sell
| honeycrisp apples. It is not trademarked.
|
| Buying one is like buying a hammer on amazon and assuming it
| will have the quality of different hammer you used.
| sandworm101 wrote:
| A significant number of the "farmers" at farmer's markets
| arent. Some even buy thier stock from costco and the like. A
| commercially productive farmer does not have the time to spend
| a day selling a few apples in the city center. The safer bet is
| to drive out to roadside stands at the actual farms, then of
| course then you can only buy the one or two products currently
| being harvested at that paticular farm. The upside is that, as
| you are driving rather than walking, you can load up on 50+lbs
| of corn for friends and family without worry.
| torstenvl wrote:
| When I load up on 50+lbs of corn, it isn't for my friends and
| family to eat.
|
| At least not directly.
| OptionOfT wrote:
| In California certified farmers markets are not allowed to
| re-sell produce.
|
| Not sure if it's enforced. And it's hard to look up non-
| existing laws in other states. When I don't find something I
| assume I'm not searching correctly, but in this case there
| might just not be a law to find.
| smolder wrote:
| I love garden grown tomatoes but am frequently disappointed by
| the flavorless, watery, mushy ones that show up in my
| sandwiches and salads when I eat out. Seasonality is a factor,
| maybe.
| OptionOfT wrote:
| The tomatoes sold in store are bred for ticker skin to allow
| for mechanical picking, but that came at the cost of taste.
|
| https://www.plantsciences.ucdavis.edu/news/how-mechanical-
| to...
| smolder wrote:
| Interesting! I specifically remember wondering "why is the
| skin so tough on this?" before, when trying to take a bite
| of a sandwich and ending up with a whole slice of tomato
| pulling out.
| bobbylarrybobby wrote:
| It's not just seasonality per se -- it's that produce is
| simply not bred to taste good anymore. It's designed to be
| hardy enough to ship, growable all year round, free of
| blemishes, but not to actually taste good.
| xnx wrote:
| I'm not an organic/"local" produce snob, but garden tomatoes
| are tough to beat for flavor. Campari have the best flavor
| I've found from grocery stores.
| jajko wrote:
| People rave about bio produce. Ie we keep buying only bio
| carrots, they are not much more expensive than regular ones. I
| like the taste.
|
| But when I come home and taste some carrots my parents grow in
| their garden, oh my god - this is extreme premium in taste
| world. I understand its a different type, not created for
| maximal yield as quickly as possible. And so it goes with
| everything.
|
| If you like various berries you can buy in stores, just don't
| ever taste wild ones in the forest, it will ruin them for you.
| malfist wrote:
| Maybe I missed it in that massive article, but did they ever
| actually come to a conclusion why the apples taste worse today?
| Except maybe long term storage?
|
| It was a really long article about the history of the apple and
| difficult growing it, but I didn't see the title answered
| anywhere. It ended taking about surplus and storage requirements.
| sigilis wrote:
| That was it, yes. Long term storage under refrigeration is
| harming the quality of the apples at market in the interest of
| making the apple available year round.
|
| The actionable information is in the beginning: honey crisp
| apples are not worth it anymore buy whatever instead. For me
| this keeps it from being insufferable. The stuff in the middle
| demonstrates what the conditions were like before it went mass
| market, which supports the conclusion that something changed
| and that it was likely related to the logistics of growing and
| distributing the apple.
|
| If you don't like reading these articles, you could try using
| an LLM to extract a summary before choosing to dive in. I'm
| sure there are browser extensions for that.
| rwiggins wrote:
| Yeah, having the read the article, my conclusion was that you
| should avoid honeycrisps from like February through ~August.
| i.e. only buy them when they're vaguely in season, or not too
| long afterward.
|
| Anecdotally, I had some pretty delicious honeycrisps last
| night (in WA).
| Spooky23 wrote:
| You also need to be aware of how the grocer stocks.
|
| As an example, during the peak of peach season in the
| region, a South Carolina Sam's Club had pallets of
| California peaches!
| s1artibartfast wrote:
| Storage is the answer they proposed. I didn't realize that
| apples could be stored for up to a year.
| mantas wrote:
| Because nowadays many fruits and veggies are bread for
| storability and transportability. Then sugariness. Taste is an
| afterthought. Let alone smell.
|
| I got a tiny lot and started growing some berries, fruits and
| veggies. There's a masive selection for pretty much any given
| species. Do you want eat-off-the-plant or make a jam? Do you
| prefer more or less sugary taste? How much are you willing to
| maintain and defend them? If you're looking for analysis
| paralysis, gardening is the way to go.
| malfist wrote:
| Apples aren't like other fruit, they're essentially clones.
| If you breed an apple for something, your making a new apple
| vitehozonage wrote:
| Thanks for asking, i also read some of it and got frustrated by
| the article so came looking for the answer
| guestbest wrote:
| I've been buying the organic apples for the last year and for
| some reason they seem to have the flavor that is missing in the
| less expensive brands
| jader201 wrote:
| I've tried organic on occasion, and never felt they were any
| better (often not as good).
|
| Obviously way too many variables, but anecdotally, I haven't
| been that impressed with organic apples.
| mantas wrote:
| Yes. Depends if it's organic for the sake of organic label.
| Local farmer market is always a better bet.
| dccoolgai wrote:
| Enshittification but for fruit
| throwawaycities wrote:
| I never particularly liked Honeycrisp apples and never understood
| the hype, but seeing this #1 on HN I feel like one of the cool
| kids ahead of the curve on a niche topic. Jokes aside about 5
| years ago I began reading about the industry side of all these
| new trendy apple varieties, much of it is industry driven and
| interesting for those into that sort of thing.
|
| The best in my opinion is Fuji followed closely by Gala.
| lern_too_spel wrote:
| I have never eaten a bad Fuji. They're inexpensive too, usually
| 1/2 to 1/3 the price of these crapshoot Johnnies-come-lately.
| throwawaycities wrote:
| That's my experience as well, at least at my local store I
| can count on one hand the number of times I've gotten a mealy
| Fuji over many years.
|
| Also laughing because I perform the same apple analysis -
| this new variety looks good and admittedly the names are
| pretty effective marketing (honeycrisp, cosmic, etc...), but
| they tend to be comparatively expensive and after being let
| down some many times I just grab the Fuji
| jader201 wrote:
| Hard disagree.
|
| I used to love Galas but ultimately realized about 50% of the
| time they were mealy.
|
| Since swapping to Honeycrisp, I've yet to have a mealy one.
| Maybe occasionally (about 1 out of 20-30) there's one that has
| a hint of mealiness, but far from what half of the Galas were.
|
| I do agree that not all of them are super sweet/flavorful, but
| still most of them are, and I'd take a less sweet but still
| crisp apple any day over a sweet but mealy one.
|
| I never tried Fuji much, but don't remember them being anything
| special. This site [1] (shared at least once on HN) has Fuji
| even below Gala.
|
| [1] https://applerankings.com/
| limit499karma wrote:
| Something really off imho with a food writer that manages to
| insert foul matter vulgarity into food reviews. It's moved
| beyond cute into the 'wonder what ails this guy' territory.
| dahart wrote:
| Meh, he's a comedian, not a food writer. Some of the
| taglines are maybe over the line, but a lot of them are
| funny, and all of them are in jest.
| lern_too_spel wrote:
| That site is a single person's opinion. He acknowledges that
| Fuji is many (most?) people's favorite variety among people
| who have a favorite variety but then rates it poorly to be
| controversial. The comment section of his review shows that
| his clickbait strategy was successful.
| throwawaycities wrote:
| Way I'd explain it as Fuji and Gala are similar (on the sweet
| side). I agree with you on inconsistency of the Gala, which
| is why I have it below Fuji, and Fuji's being consistently
| crisp.
|
| I'm firmly in your camp, I don't care for mealy apples - I
| hear those people exist but don't think I know any.
| airstrike wrote:
| I will go out of my way to avoid Fuji and Gala, FWIW. I used to
| like Honeyscrisp but they have been disappointing lately
| indeed. Didn't know this was a thing, but my takeaway is I
| should be on the lookout for weirdly named ones next time I'm
| shopping.
| zikduruqe wrote:
| If you ever eat Cosmic Crisps, you'll throw rocks at a
| Honeycrisp.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_Crisp
|
| I think there is a newer cultivar that should be superseding the
| Cosmic Crisp here soon.
|
| Edit - the Kudos Apple. https://twin-cities.umn.edu/news-
| events/talking-apples-u-m-0
| JDEW wrote:
| Agreed, the experience the author describes with a Honeycrisp
| at the beginning of the article is something I recently had
| with a Cosmic. Let's hope it lasts.
| angry_moose wrote:
| I had a few Cosmic Crisps during the overhyped launch and was
| not that impressed. It was just a pretty-OK apple.
|
| Maybe it was a similar issue - off-season and stored too long,
| but I haven't seen any around here in years (midwest).
| silisili wrote:
| Same. People kept telling me it was a Pink Lady with a
| honeycrisp texture. I tried it a few times, it was neither.
| Not terrible or anything, but not the holy grail it was made
| out to be.
| mastercheif wrote:
| The Cosmic Crisp was breed to be a "hardier" version of the
| Honeycrisp, specifically for growing in Washington[1].
|
| I encourage everyone to check out https://applerankings.com,
| I would describe it as Pitchfork for apple breeds.
|
| Here's their review of the Cosmic Crisp:
| https://applerankings.com/cosmic-crisp-apple-review/
|
| Their top ranked apple is the SweeTango, and I agree with
| their assessment: https://applerankings.com/sweetango-apple-
| review/
|
| Full ranking list: https://applerankings.com/pick-an-apple/
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_Crisp
| smolder wrote:
| I was totally confused by the description of the Opal apple
| as "A tasty unwiped anus" until I clicked and saw what they
| look like.
| exmadscientist wrote:
| I think it's less about strict hardiness and more about
| suitability for mass growing in Washington. The Honey crisp
| has declined because it's getting grown in places it
| doesn't really do well. The Cosmic Crisp is bred for those
| very places.
|
| So it may not be as good at peak (or it might, here in WA
| the peak of the Cosmic Crisp can be pretty high indeed) but
| it should stay strong over the years.
| djur wrote:
| I was looking forward to it and was disappointed. The skin is
| a little too thick for my taste, too.
| itake wrote:
| WA State University (creator of the cosmic crisp) has a new
| apple, that has yet to be named:
|
| https://www.opb.org/article/2024/08/24/wa-64-apple-naming-ws...
| sitkack wrote:
| Neat!
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_Crisp
|
| https://treefruit.wsu.edu/web-article/apple-breeding-
| program...
| binarysneaker wrote:
| I bought 6 varieties of apples from the store and taste tested
| them with my family. Cosmic crisp was the clear favourite.
| hombre_fatal wrote:
| I buy Cosmic Crisp when the Envy apples are too expensive, but
| they are slightly worse Envy apples. Everyone needs to try a
| good Envy.
|
| Crisp and sweet.
| notatoad wrote:
| i've had mixed results with envy. when they're good, they're
| _really_ good, but sometimes they are lacking flavour or a
| bit soft.
|
| the magic of honeycrisp is that they're always about the same
| crystaln wrote:
| From the sound of it, they lowered our standards for the
| Honeycrisp and made way for an inferior but more robust apple
| that's better than the lowered standards. While it's likely
| they did this unintentionally it seems like the Cosmic Crisp is
| not as well-liked as the early Honeycrisp.
| darepublic wrote:
| This happens with consumer goods generally
| blackeyeblitzar wrote:
| Meh. Cosmic crisp is just hyped up marketing. It was obvious in
| how heavily they advertised. It's not actually better. Honey
| crisp remains the sweetest and tastiest.
| wat10000 wrote:
| That must be on media I don't use, as I didn't even know they
| advertised. I independently settled on cosmic crisp (and the
| nearly identical crimson crisp) as my standard.
|
| I never did like honeycrisp all that much, though. It's a
| little too sweet and something about the flavor is just a
| little bit wrong. It's hard to describe but it's like they
| tried a little too hard to make the ideal apple. It's alright
| and I'd be happy to eat one but I don't buy them.
| poulsbohemian wrote:
| But they are consistent and reliable, for now. I know if I go
| to the store and I've got the option of 6 different types of
| apples (I live in WA, we've got apple choices...) I know
| cosmic crips (grown barely an hour drive from where I live)
| will be consistent in texture and flavor.
| pton_xd wrote:
| My own experience is that Honeycrisp is the most consistently
| sweet and crisp apple you can buy (contrary to the claims made
| in TFA -- maybe it's a regional thing?). Cosmic Crisp is decent
| but I'm not a fan of the flavor.
| Spivak wrote:
| It's likely that the best apple will be whatever of the
| "honeycrisp-like" varieties you can acquire on with the
| shortest time between tree and your mouth.
| cipheredStones wrote:
| > The Cosmic Crisp is a cross between Honeycrisp and Enterprise
| apples.
|
| So it's enterprise-ready. But is it webscale?
| delecti wrote:
| I've tried both, and prefer Honeycrisp. I found Cosmic too
| tart.
| mkoubaa wrote:
| How do we make local apples a bigger thing again
| Spooky23 wrote:
| Change policy to make smaller farm operations a viable
| business, and make it more difficult to build exurban homes and
| retail.
| mantas wrote:
| The problem is people want same variety any day of the year.
| Stocking local apples as they come is a PITA for big
| supermarket chains. And most people don't care enough to go to
| farmer's markets or local specialty shops. Let alone that
| usually they ain't open on saturady 22:00 when some people find
| time to go shopping.
| mythrwy wrote:
| Plant an apple tree
| qup wrote:
| Apples are tough to grow in my region, which is formerly
| known for it.
|
| There's the Cedar-apple rust issue, bug issues, and raccoon
| issues.
|
| I planted figs.
| lucidguppy wrote:
| support pick your own orchards
| bastian wrote:
| This is true for most fruits and vegetables and it's the cost of
| having everything available at any time and for less money.
| Larrikin wrote:
| Which vegetables taste noticeabley worse? Whenever I travel
| abroad I try to eat as much fruit as possible because of how
| terrible nearly all of it is in the US. Melons and mangoes are
| basically a totally different fruit. My cousin from Kenya
| refuses to even try his favorite fruit in the US. But
| vegetables, especially after cooking, seem ok. Only thing I can
| think of are maybe out of season fresh tomatoes.
| Spooky23 wrote:
| Basically anything engineered to grow in California, Chile
| and Arizona. They are optimized for shipment.
|
| Some tomatoes are grown in hothouses now and are ok. My son
| gobbles them up and in the winter lots of them are from
| Western NY and Ontario.
|
| Onions are definitely pushed to have higher sugar content
| now. Also greens that I source from local farms seasonally
| usually have better flavor.
| jonah wrote:
| Tomatoes, peppers, sweet corn, carrots, lettuce, etc. Lots of
| produce is bred for large-scale growing and shipping
| stability.
| Spivak wrote:
| God grocery store jalapenos are such a disappointment.
| They're water flavored.
| mjamesaustin wrote:
| This is the same story for every new variety of apple. It becomes
| popular because of its positive characteristics (sweetness,
| tanginess, juicyness, crispness), but then slowly over time it
| gets cultivated for mass market appeal (uniform color, shape,
| shelf life) and the variety loses what made it good.
|
| The best apple variety is generally the new one. The market is
| strewn with the discarded remains of formerly good apples like
| Fuji and Gala.
| mikepurvis wrote:
| My preferred apple is Mutsu, available from a few growers in
| the late season at my southern Ontario farmers market.
| According to Wikipedia it's been around since 1949, but perhaps
| it simply never got popular enough to face these pressures--
| either way, I find it consistently to be in the right place for
| me as far as a balance of sweet, tangy, and crispy.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutsu_(apple)
| thomk wrote:
| Any idea where those could be located on the us side of the
| border in Detroit?
| fn-mote wrote:
| Farmer's market. Grocery store that isn't a big chain.
| They're here.
| mikepurvis wrote:
| Given that it's a Japanese cultivar, I assume they're all
| over the place, you just have find a market where someone
| growing them has them for sale.
| cmiller1 wrote:
| Or the old one, find a local orchard that sells heirloom
| apples! Get some Cox's Orange Pippin or some Northern Spy or
| some Ashmead's Kernel.
| jessekv wrote:
| I second the cox's. This harvest I bought several of each
| variety in the shop and cox's was my favorite by a mile.
| notanote wrote:
| Same here.
|
| I can imagine growers don't like them as much though,
| despite the lack of patents and trademarks. In Europe they
| were abundant and amazing quality last year, lasting into
| February. This harvest their flavour wasn't there, many
| were mealy, and they were unavailable within a month. Their
| worst year as far as I can remember.
| quercusa wrote:
| Be on the lookout for Esopus Spitzenburg (maybe only in the
| US). It's a really tasty apple.
| pvaldes wrote:
| Cox is a very good apple that is infamously prone to pick
| every apple disease known. Golden Delicious has the same
| problem, good flavor, disappointing as tree without using
| chemicals.
|
| Rubinette is a medium sized yellow apple, streaked in
| reddish brown. Not particularly eye-catching and also prone
| to fungal diseases. But Rubinette has a secret, is a
| seedling of Cox x Golden delicious, and its flavor is
| fantastic.
|
| Modern apples with not so sophisticated flavor but better
| resistance can be much more satisfactory.
| jghn wrote:
| I found the Westfield Seek-No-Further [1] this year and it's
| become my new favorite.
|
| [1] https://www.scottfarmvermont.com/westfield-seeknofurther
| grogenaut wrote:
| This is a thing I love about living in WA, I get the apples a
| few years before everyone else. Lets me send them to friends
| across the US before they hit their supermarkets.
|
| And yes really the interesting thing is they're different and
| new. Tho I do really like cosmics. Especially if you dry them
| in a food dehydrator and then powder them into whipped cream.
|
| Same deal with cherries.
| binarymax wrote:
| Same with Western NY - proximity to Cornell's apple research
| and lots of orchards is really great. If you're an apple
| fanatic WA and WNY are the places to be.
| ranger207 wrote:
| I wonder what the incentives are that make mass market
| qualities more attractive to growers than what consumers want.
| Like, I can imagine a sorta-demand curve with "sweetness etc"
| to "uniform color etc" along the x axis and "clearing price" or
| something on the y axis, and I really wonder if the most
| efficient price is really so far to the mass market appeal side
| of the curve. Or to put it another way, why can't they just
| grow things people want?
| bradleyjg wrote:
| What people want when you sit them down and have them try
| apples side by side is different from what they want when
| they are in a supermarket, tired from working all day, and
| starring out at a sea of apples and not quite remembering
| which one it was they liked.
| ip26 wrote:
| The clearing price probably actually rises with improved
| color and shape, and the overhead declines with greater shelf
| stability. It's not until years later that consumers slowly
| realize the texture and taste have gone downhill (as result
| of these developments) that clearing price begins to decline.
| So the market has a lag in response; it resembles a high
| value brand being sucked dry.
| djur wrote:
| What people want, judging by their market behavior, is
| reliability. A lot of the best-tasting apples are
| inconsistent in quality, ship or store poorly, or have a
| short growing season. I love eating fresh heirloom apples,
| but Honeycrisps are 10% great, 80% good, and 10%
| disappointing, which I prefer to 30% good, 30% disappointing,
| and 40% unavailable.
| shermantanktop wrote:
| The idea of a year-round fruit crop is a modern supermarket
| creation. Most food is seasonal. If a consumer are unaware
| of its seasonality, that's because someone is working hard
| to hide that fact.
|
| I try to enjoy asparagus when it is in season, new potatoes
| when they are in season, etc. Just because some crops are
| bred for months and months of storage doesn't mean they
| actually taste great.
| briankelly wrote:
| Enshitification. I've been buying honeycrisp for a while and
| noticed more mushiness and flat flavor recently but I didn't
| realize there was a whole apple-buying meta to keep up with if
| you don't want to buy garbage fruit.
|
| Edit: All the honeycrisp in my area right now are oversized.
| I'm guessing because of a supplier change due to the season
| change?
| pvaldes wrote:
| Oversized and without flavor? Watson, I think that we have
| another case of assassination by Giberellins here.
| Modified3019 wrote:
| Basically, they are being stored too long, because Honeycrisp
| season is only in September, and the apple industry in Washington
| state is trying to provide them year round.
|
| This is compounded by the subtle effect of the trees being
| adapted for Minnesota, whereas Washington's climate is much
| warmer.
| Alex3917 wrote:
| SnapDragon is a vastly improved version of Honeycrisp anyway. The
| only real issue with it is that only growers within New York
| State are allowed to grow it, so it's not nearly as available.
| matsemann wrote:
| Curious, is that something that can be enforced?
| gs17 wrote:
| They likely have a patent, although searching "apple
| snapdragon patent" mostly gets results involving Qualcomm.
|
| Edit: found the patent
| https://patents.google.com/patent/USPP22228
| papercrane wrote:
| Looks like Cornell owns the rights to the apple and are
| working exclusively with a NY apple growers collective to
| commercialize the apple.
|
| https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2013/08/snapdragon-and-
| ruby...
| aspenmayer wrote:
| Doubtful?
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proplifting
| throwup238 wrote:
| Apple trees aren't grown from seed because the offspring will
| have huge genetic variability and won't resemble the parent.
| Instead they take a hardy rootstock species and graft
| scionwood from the fruit producing trees on to it. Once the
| apple variety is grown, repeating it without the graft is
| impractical and you can't just save seed from store bought
| apples and expect to get the same thing. An entire variety
| might be cloned from a single tree that produced the best
| fruit out of hundreds.
|
| For new designer varieties getting commercial access to the
| grafts usually requires signing contract that you won't
| create and sell your own grafts so the creator can control
| who gets it.
| nikole9696 wrote:
| Oh man I found these once and just LOVED them.
| tptacek wrote:
| She doesn't really explain why the honeycrisps she gets at the
| farmer's market are hit-or-miss now, which would have been a more
| interesting story to unwind.
| angry_moose wrote:
| If its anything like our farmers market I'd bet they aren't
| actually locally grown.
|
| It's really hard to unpack which of our vendors are truly
| local; and which just buy produce from wholesalers, slap a
| "Name's Family Farm" sign on the table, and pretend to be
| locally grown.
|
| You'd be a lot better off going to the actual orchard, but
| those are often 1+ hours away.
| exmadscientist wrote:
| Exactly!
|
| I'm in Seattle. You would think I could reliably find good
| apples here.
|
| I can not. Even at farmer's markets, it's obvious some of the
| offerings have been stored... which makes me question the
| stuff that isn't obvious. At least it's better than the
| supermarkets, which have been selling New Zealand apples...
| in Washington... in September... yeah no thanks!
| sitkack wrote:
| Folks are known to sell national supply chain produce at
| farmer's markets where they can get high prices.
| Electricniko wrote:
| The first couple of years I found Honeycrisp at my local market,
| which would have been 2001 and 2002 (because I'll never forget a
| lot of things from September 2001), the apples were HUGE. More
| like a large grapefruit than an apple in size. They still had the
| great flavor and texture of later Honeycrisps, it was a huge
| shock compared to normal apples at the time. It may have been
| something with the weather that produced them like that, but man
| would I love to see those things pop up again.
| readthenotes1 wrote:
| I was buying them for my daughter to eat at lunch at school and
| she sent me a picture of her honercrisp compared to her
| friends' apples. It was like midgets versus Giants... Giants
| for the win
| erikerikson wrote:
| I was told by a grower that a large factor in apple size is the
| number of apples on the tree. Growers thin the fruit to control
| fruit size. Kinda like the tree is going to make some set
| tonnage of apple and if you thin them, it loads that tonnage
| into the remaining apples.
|
| Apparently we like larger apples in the US while smaller apples
| are preferred in China.
| notwhereyouare wrote:
| Helped a friend film a video about what happened to red
| delicious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgZNDTJSvJQ
| jader201 wrote:
| This rankings site [1] was shared on HN a couple years ago [2],
| and since then I've switched to Honeycrisp.
|
| While I agree they aren't always the most tasty, they are almost
| always (like 98%) crisp and never mealy to the point I want to
| stop eating it, unlike nearly every other breed I've tried (which
| admittedly is only about 7-8 or the most common ones).
|
| I will take a less flavorful crisp apple 100% of the time over a
| mealy apple.
|
| So even a mediocre Honeycrisp is, to me, still way better than
| nearly all the other ones.
|
| [1] https://applerankings.com/
|
| [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33639206
| Tomte wrote:
| I don't care much for Kanzi and Fuji and Pink Lady. To me,
| Braeburn is good, Boskoop is great, and Berlepsch is amazing,
| but sometimes hard to get outside the apple grow regions.
| eps wrote:
| The list doesn't have Tentation and it has Jazz at mediocre.
|
| I wouldn't put much trust in it, at least if you are in Europe.
| onli wrote:
| Yeah, it goes completely against my taste (and maybe against
| how apples are over here)? I had only delicious Fuji apples
| for example, from consistency to taste (if you like sweet at
| least), which the site describes as utterly awful. Especially
| the local ones are awesome. Incomprehensible ranking for me.
| acdha wrote:
| Growing conditions really matter. We really like Gold Rush
| apples and our farmers market has three orchards who grow
| them but the ones from one of those vendors consistently
| aren't as good, even though it's clearly the same variety.
| Something about Pennsylvania vs. northern Maryland made more
| of a difference than I thought.
| quercusa wrote:
| Bought some Gold Rush apples for the first time yesterday
| (South Mountain, PA) and really liked them - crunchy, tart,
| and spicy.
| pvaldes wrote:
| Its worse offense is not even mentioning many very good
| European apples like Cox Pippin or Mingan. Is just a list of
| commercial apples, many of then unknown or ignored in Europe.
| djur wrote:
| Why is it an offense for an American to write about the
| apples available in their market?
| pvaldes wrote:
| Not her offense, "its" offense, The worst offense from
| the "list of best apples" is that is clearly biased and
| omits some very good varieties.
| sharkweek wrote:
| As an apple connoisseur myself I've switched from honeycrisp to
| cosmic crisp over the last three years and I'm never going
| back.
|
| I'm fully aligned I eat apples for the texture above all else,
| with flavor being important but nothing close to how much
| crunch eat bite has.
| loeg wrote:
| YMMV but I've found Honeycrisps mostly crispier than Cosmic
| Crisps. (I switched in the other direction -- had Cosmic
| Crisps first.)
| poulsbohemian wrote:
| This is the way... there's research already at WSU for when
| the Cosmic Crip runs its course and the world is ready for
| the next apple with the same basic characteristics.
| whamlastxmas wrote:
| I discovered cosmic a few months ago and refuse to buy
| anything other
| flanbiscuit wrote:
| I realized I like my apples real sour so Pink Ladies are my
| favorite at the moment.
| stock_toaster wrote:
| Same here! Glad I'm not alone. :)
| mring33621 wrote:
| I agree that Cosmic Crisp are better. But I still prefer
| MacIntosh, Empire or Cortland, though.
| pvaldes wrote:
| > I eat apples for the texture above all else, with flavor
| being important but nothing close to how much crunch eat bite
| has.
|
| You may enjoy the Fuyu Persimmon also. Eaten with firm skin
| is definitely crunchy. The flavor is moderately sweet.
| Shog9 wrote:
| If you get a chance, try WineCrisp. Loads of flavor and
| _stubbornly_ crisp. The things keep for months, even in less
| than ideal storage (such as a fridge), and even after losing
| a great deal of moisture retain a snappy bite.
|
| Only real downside is that the appearance isn't very flashy;
| they're the russet potato of modern apples.
| BoingBoomTschak wrote:
| If you ever come to France, try the Chantecler, truly my
| favourite of them all, _extremely_ consistent and perfect for
| cakes too.
| mastercheif wrote:
| I'm fully on the "SweeTango" hype train, which AppleRankings #1
| rated breed:
|
| https://applerankings.com/sweetango-apple-review/
|
| SweeTango's #1 fault, which the site calls out, is that they do
| not store well. The recent bags I've taken home are notably
| less crisp and hardy than earlier in the fall.
|
| That said, they'll still be absolutely delicious for another
| few weeks, highly recommend buying a bag. Trader Joe's usually
| carries.
| redserk wrote:
| SweeTango tastes great. I've been buying apple cider made of
| it for the last two autumns.
| david-gpu wrote:
| Glad that you've found what works for your you.
|
| At the same time, it is worth noting that not everybody likes
| crisp apples, so the ranking in that website is... daringly
| interpretive.
| bscphil wrote:
| Yeah, I find the idea of using a rating site like this
| extremely bizarre. And after clicking on the link, that
| opinion is only further cemented by what seems to be a
| deliberate opinionated and sarcastic tone. I can only assume
| they want to court controversy for the sake of clicks.
|
| For what it's worth, the _only_ apples I buy, when they 're
| local and in season, are McIntosh, which this site helpfully
| puts in the "pure shit" bin. That's just, well, wrong? Apples
| can be good without being bred for flavorless crispness like
| so many are today. And there's a difference between "soft"
| and "mealy", and good McIntosh apples are firmly (ha) on the
| soft side.
|
| I like pink lady apples too, which this site rates
| "excellent", and honeycrisp are consistently acceptable - the
| Starbucks of apples - so it's not that they're making things
| up, but I think they are only rating apples along one axis
| and seem to have a thing for recent cultivars over classics
| and heirloom varieties.
| axpy wrote:
| I lived for some time in eastern Canada and I have very
| fond memories of freshly picked McIntoshes and I even dare
| to say they were my favorites. Fresh and crisp with a good
| amount of acidity that balances the sweetness beautifully.
| That being said, they don't age super well.
| djur wrote:
| It's the personal opinions of a comedian, and he does
| explain his rankings. I don't agree with all of his takes,
| but there's no such thing as an objective review, anyway.
| Wowfunhappy wrote:
| I mean, the author is a comedian:
|
| > Brian Frange is a comedian and writer who has been yelling
| about apples for years. He started yelling about apples
| professionally in 2016 while working on Comedy Central's Not
| Safe with Nikki Glaser while serving as co-host on the Not
| Safe Podcast. [...] What started as a bit revolving around
| his love of apples has now become a full-time job where Brian
| makes $700,000,000,000 per week providing apple advice for
| wealthy fruit enthusiasts. Brian is not in the pocket of big
| apple and all reviews are inarguably accurate and not
| corrupted by corporate influence.
|
| https://applerankings.com/about/
|
| It's all in good fun. Obviously if you prefer Red Delicious
| you're free to [strikethrough]have terrible
| taste[/strikethrough] disagree.
| ted_bunny wrote:
| So honeycrisp is the Top 40 radio of apples. Simply that which
| offends least.
| exmadscientist wrote:
| More like the radio edit of your favorite track: was great,
| got diluted by assholes pushing it on the masses, is still
| great if you can find the original version you fell in love
| with.
| acchow wrote:
| I've eaten many mealy honeycrisp apples. Just let it sit on
| your counter for 2 months then try it. Discount grocery stores
| are often selling many-months old apples.
| echelon wrote:
| What is the most sour apple?
|
| I really like granny smith apples for the sour flavor profile,
| but most review websites rate it poorly.
| slothtrop wrote:
| Empire is my favorite because of it's crisp texture and semi-
| tartness. Granny Smith is probably next, it's the most sour
| one I can reliably find.
|
| Pink lady's texture is not great and I find it too sweet.
| BoxFour wrote:
| Granny Smiths are probably the most tart generally available
| apple, but any cooking apple in general is usually sharper.
| You might also like McIntosh or even Pink Lady.
|
| You could also go down the cider apple route or even
| crabapples if you really want, though they often tend to be
| more bitter than tart.
| dmoy wrote:
| Granny Smith is ubiquitous. It's often difficult to get a
| more sour apple than a Granny Smith. Pink Lady is less sour
| IIRC. McIntosh or Braeburn are definitely less sour.
|
| If you're in the Midwest (especially MN, WI, Iowa, etc) you
| can get Haralson, which are kinda like Granny Smith but more
| just straight sour.
|
| Haralson is probably my favorite. But disclaimer, I also like
| eating straight lemons, so ... yea. Many people will use
| Haralson only for baking.
|
| I hear that in Europe they have a few types that are more
| sour, idk.
| pvaldes wrote:
| Crabapples, and all the fancy ones with red meat
|
| And a lot of cider apples
| mmanfrin wrote:
| Can't trust a site that has Fuji 39 points lower than
| honeycrisp when they are extremely similar.
| seattle_spring wrote:
| I've never had a Fuji that's anywhere near as delightful as a
| Honeycrisp.
| edaemon wrote:
| This is my take as well and I've tried a ton.
|
| A childhood friend's dad is one of the people who developed the
| Honeycrisp and SweeTango (and Rave/First Kiss, Zestar, etc). We
| always had access to the latest and zaniest variants, but the
| Honeycrisp was just consistently very good. Yeah, sometimes
| you'd find an incredible fruit punch thing, but the next day
| you'd try another and it was gross and mealy. Honeycrisp was
| always reliable.
|
| SweeTango is also excellent and reliable but it's harder to
| find and more expensive.
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| Rock it apples have been the most consistently good for me.
| prpl wrote:
| They are just bad in the offseason though? New batches should be
| good?
|
| My favorite is the kanzi, but it's not really available year
| round. Most apples peak in November anyway
| kseistrup wrote:
| Kanzi (syn.: Nicoter) is the only apple I eat. All other I can
| get around here are just meh. Ufortunately, Kani/Nicoter are
| rather uncommon.
| lucidguppy wrote:
| I wonder if you could test for crispness using ultrasonic tech.
|
| Just make sauce out of the mealy ones.
| kylecazar wrote:
| I went through this just yesterday. Bought a bunch of
| Honeycrisps, and was underwhelmed compared to my memory of them.
| I also don't like Cosmic Crisps anymore.
|
| Side note: Those new jumbo blueberries are insane.
| AdmiralAsshat wrote:
| Just seems to happen with every apple I like, unfortunately. I
| think I'm currently on Cosmic Crisp or Jazz apples as my mains. I
| give them about five years before they start to suck.
| YackerLose wrote:
| I always cut them into slices, then leave them in an airtight
| plastic container for an hour or two, so the juice can seep out a
| little.
| mind-blight wrote:
| Cosmic Crisp is a new varietal that seems like a solid successor
| to honey crisp. It seems like they started in a cooler climate (I
| first encountered them in northern Oregon), and they're
| fantastic.
| scottyeager wrote:
| They were developed in Washington and apparently that's a first
| for a widely grown variety:
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_Crisp
| 0xbadcafebee wrote:
| If you live within a few hours of apple country, do yourself a
| favor next fall and go discover some new varietals. There are
| hundreds produced commercially (read: some farm grows them) that
| will never see a supermarket. Try a bunch and use your favorites
| for fun dishes you rarely make: pies, tarts, cider, butter, cut
| them into oatmeal, sandwiches, salads. They can taste so amazing
| and different that it's a fun adventure. (Plus then you can
| pretend you're a fancy food person, saying to your friends _"
| Ooh, the Macoun had a good season this year!"_)
|
| And if you have a bit of land, start some trees! They are a
| wonderful gift for future generations. Plant a bunch and leave
| them alone, let the survivors flourish. Worst case they die and
| you have some good firewood for a bbq.
| dmitrig01 wrote:
| Apple grower here. I still don't understand Honeycrisps. I'm on
| the younger side, so I haven't seen that many years of
| Honeycrisp, but I feel I have never had a good one. My experience
| of Honeycrisp is that it is super crunchy, almost too much so,
| but completely devoid of flavor. To me, it's like eating crunchy
| water.
|
| As others have pointed out, this article doesn't actually explain
| why (or even if) Honeycrisp has gotten worse. One thing I will
| add to this discussion, though I don't know if it is true in the
| case of Honeycrisp, is that it is definitely not a matter of
| breeding (nor selective breeding, breeding for storage, etc): in
| order to produce more apple trees, Honeycrisps (or any other
| variety) aren't bred, they are asexually propagated through
| grafting. That means all Honeycrisp trees are more-or-less
| genetically identical.
|
| That said, just like any organism, as trees grow and produce new
| cells at the tips of branches, there is always a chance for a
| mutation. Sometimes these branch mutations (called "sports") have
| visible genetic differences: stronger coloration, earlier
| ripening, or perhaps earlier storage (though this is harder to
| notice). This is how Red Delicious went from a wonderful apple to
| tasteless, mealy cardboard: sports were selected over time that
| prioritized storage and color over texture and flavor.
|
| As an apple grower, I have had the opportunity to taste
| Honeycrisps straight off the tree, and to me, they taste just as
| flavorless as the ones I get from the store. I grow almost all
| heirloom varieties, and I can tell you there is one that for me
| is head-and-shoulders above the rest: Wickson Crab. If you are in
| California, I recommend marking your calendar for September to
| search this variety out at the farmers markets (or better, plant
| a tree yourself!). There are many other wonderful varieties that
| stand out from grocery store apples. In a pinch, I'll get a Pink
| Lady from the store, as I find it's the most flavorful of the
| commonly available apples, but I find they sit heavy in my
| stomach in a way that homegrown or farmer's market apples don't.
| I believe this is to do with the fact that apples available at
| the grocery store are picked early, before the starches have
| converted into sugars, so the higher starch content may be harder
| to digest.
|
| Hint: any apple with an "apple green" undercoat is underripe; to
| pick a ripe apple, wait for that bright green to mellow out or
| change colors. For redder apples, it can be harder to see, but
| most apples have some green visible under the red (Pink Lady is
| again a great example of this). And yes, Granny Smith apples are
| so sour precisely because they are picked and sold underripe; a
| ripe Granny Smith is yellow and sweet.
| jt2190 wrote:
| > I find [Pink Lady to be] the most flavorful of the commonly
| available apples, but I find they sit heavy in my stomach in a
| way that homegrown or farmer's market apples don't. I believe
| this is to do with the fact that apples available at the
| grocery store are picked early, before the starches have
| converted into sugars.
|
| I'm not an apple expert, but I'm pretty sure that a lot of
| "supermarket varieties" like Pink Lady have higher cellulose
| which helps them withstand relatively rough handling. (For
| those who don't know: Apples are extremely easy to bruise, you
| should handle them carefully and never ever press on them to
| test for ripeness!)
| pvaldes wrote:
| > this article doesn't actually explain why (or even if)
| Honeycrisp has gotten worse
|
| Is no mystery at all what is happening here.
|
| One of the things that I loved from plant physiology is how
| futuristic it is. Bordering black magic sometimes. For example.
| Do you knew that potions of eternal youth exist... for apples?.
|
| You just need to apply some commercial product and this apple
| will kept brilliant skin, no wrinkles, and bright color for
| weeks. Fantastic, right? The sellers and the supermarkets will
| love that.
|
| The only problem is that it cost sugar to keep it alive in this
| state of white-snow suspended animation. As long as there is
| sugar remaining it works. After a while you have a good-looking
| apple with a disappointing bland watery taste.
|
| This is half of the explanation that the writer was looking
| for. The other half is a camera storage time too extended.
| dmitrig01 wrote:
| This is interesting. Could you provide any information about
| this commercial product? As far as I understand, the most
| sophisticated treatment happening is low oxygen storage. But
| neither of these things explain why apples straight off the
| tree are also bland.
| limit499karma wrote:
| TIL "10 billion apples a year get picked by hand in the state of
| Washington".
|
| Interview question: estimate number of pickers and number of
| trees.
| W-Stool wrote:
| Now do chicken. Here in the USA chickens are getting bigger (I
| saw a 6.5 pound chicken in the store the other day) and blander.
| The tissue to me seems very spongy. What is going on with
| chickens?
| SoftTalker wrote:
| Yeah it's pretty crazy. The ones the supermarket uses for the
| whole roasted chickens seem to be smaller, so you might ask if
| they sell them uncooked.
|
| Or check for local farms that sell free-range birds. They will
| have a more varied diet including insects, grubs, and not just
| corn or whatever they feed the birds at the big factory farms.
| They won't be cheap however.
| kccqzy wrote:
| Recently I've resolved to buy only Silkie chicken* from stores.
| They are moderately sized and still taste good. They are easy
| to tell due to their black skin.
|
| *: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silkie
| nikole9696 wrote:
| I'm with all the folks who say they've swapped Honeycrisp for
| Cosmic Crisp. The Honeycrisp I get now is a poor shadow of what
| it used to be. This article is very interesting. I suspected the
| quality shift had to do with mass market selling, but it's nice
| to see the long form version of what I suspected.
| dgacmu wrote:
| Cosmic crisp has such good flesh but the skin is awfully tough.
| Is there a best of both worlds?
|
| (I like sweetango too but it's hard to find)
| quijoteuniv wrote:
| TLDR: The Honeycrisp apple, developed by the University of
| Minnesota in the 1980s, was initially celebrated for its crisp
| texture and balanced flavor, quickly becoming a consumer
| favorite. However, its delicate nature and susceptibility to
| disorders like bitter pit made it challenging to cultivate,
| particularly in warmer regions such as Washington State, a major
| hub for apple production. Despite these challenges, growers
| planted Honeycrisp trees extensively to meet high demand, storing
| the apples for prolonged periods to ensure year-round
| availability. This mass production and extended storage
| compromised the apple's quality, leading to an oversupply and
| reduced consumer satisfaction. Consequently, the Honeycrisp has
| become a commoditized apple, losing the exceptional qualities
| that once distinguished it.
| NelsonMinar wrote:
| Storage is the key culprit. One solution for that in the US is to
| buy New Zealand apples when it's nowhere near apple season in the
| northern hemisphere. Crazy to ship apples half-way round the
| world but they are delicious. I mostly see Envy apples from NZ in
| California.
|
| Garlic is another item ruined by long storage. Christopher Ranch
| is reportedly storing garlic for 2+ years in refrigeration.
| That's why it doesn't taste like garlic anymore.
| peterbonney wrote:
| I used to have an orchard with c. 35 apple trees, 2 of which were
| honeycrisp. I can confirm that they are tricky trees to manage. I
| was theoretically in a good area for honeycrisps. But the trees
| were prone to all sorts of maladies that didn't affect my other
| varietals, including antique varietals that are traditionally
| thought of as "difficult". And when they did grow fruit it was
| usually small and misshapen.
|
| Apples are interesting and this is a great example of the
| unexpected challenges you can face growing them. Every honeycrisp
| tree is a perfect clone of the very first one, but the
| environment of each is not a perfect clone of their original
| environment. And the interplay of genetics and growing conditions
| can have very unpredictable results.
| dekhn wrote:
| can you grow them on better rootstock with a graft?
| floren wrote:
| They were definitely already grafted, that's how the cloning
| works.
| LanceJones wrote:
| Just did a CTRL-F and I am shocked nobody is talking about the
| magnificent McIntosh. Does the rest of the world (outside of
| Canada) not get them? The fruit has red and green skin, a tart
| flavour, and tender white flesh, which ripens in late September.
| They've converted many, many people from other variants...
| sevensor wrote:
| A great variety that we can get in season where I live in the
| US. I think they don't keep or transport well, and they're
| mostly only available at farm stands around here.
| echelon wrote:
| No offense, just a joke - one of the ranking sites has a
| humorous appraisal of McIntoshes:
|
| https://applerankings.com/
| dekhn wrote:
| Macoun and Mcintosh define apples for me- from a pic-ur-own
| stand in new england. I would eat so many that my teeth started
| to feel sensitive from the acidity.
| slothtrop wrote:
| They are so mealy. The flavor is nice, but I hate the texture.
| Empire apples have a similar tart flavor, but with a crisp
| flesh similar to a golden or red delicious.
| nearbuy wrote:
| If it was mealy, it was probably improperly stored or grown
| in too warm weather. They aren't normally mealy. They're more
| tender and less crisp than Honeycrisp and have a pleasant
| texture.
| darepublic wrote:
| I like McIntosh apples they are a favorite of mine but I've
| been having them since I was a kid and I'm pretty sure it's
| nostalgia and familiarity that makes me always pick it
| poulsbohemian wrote:
| Just a side note here... it's shocking to drive through the
| orchards of Washington and Oregon and see how much fruit never
| gets harvested because there's no commercial market for it. Acres
| and acres of fruit left on the trees until they fall off and rot
| because they aren't varieties desirable in the market any longer.
| Why don't farmers replace with new varieties? In some cases they
| do, but the capital expense is considerable to tear out trees /
| bushes / etc and replace and wait for mature fruit.
| stephanheijl wrote:
| I would normally only buy apples around september/october in the
| Netherlands, trying to get them fresh from local orchards when
| possible. Elstar is amazing when plucked right from the tree, but
| becomes mealy before the end of the year IMO.
|
| My new go to is the Magic Star variety, which has been sold as
| "Sprank" for the last 3 years at least in the Netherlands. These
| apples keep amazingly well; they ran out of stock around the
| summer in the last two years, but I found them delicious year
| round. I hope that this cultivar does not befall the same fate as
| the Honeycrisp, which I had the pleasure of tasting 5 years ago.
| myflash13 wrote:
| It's not just apples, dear. Mass market capitalism does this to
| *everything*. Everything just becomes so bland. When I moved from
| my native Canada to a poor backwater Eastern European country
| (not in the EU) I suddenly noticed how different the experience
| is with everything, from your local coffee shop to the tech
| coworking spaces. The experience was just so much more personal,
| rich, and boutique, and lovely. Now I can't stand Starbucks and
| WeWork, and most Western consumer brands anymore. Sure, being in
| a poor country you also get a lot of rotten apples as well, but
| the variety is just so invigorating.
| russellbeattie wrote:
| One thing I never realized is that apple varieties can't be grown
| from seeds.
|
| _" This is because seedling apples are 'extreme heterozygotes'.
| Rather than resembling their parents, seedlings are all different
| from each other and from their parents."_ [1]
|
| _" To propagate a cultivar [variety], material from the original
| tree (scion) is joined to a rootstock. The rootstock provides the
| roots for the new plant and the scion forms the top part of the
| new plant, which produces the fruit. The rootstock comes from
| another cultivar selected specifically for its ability to grow
| well in the soil and induce desirable growth habits of the scion
| (such as dwarfing)."_
|
| " _The scion is introduced to the rootstock by either grafting or
| budding. In grafting, a length of dormant wood from the original
| tree is notched into the rootstock. In budding, small buds are
| notched into the rootstock. Budding produces more trees from the
| same amount of wood than grafting. "_ [2]
|
| So when you read "cultivation", it's not like breeding green
| beans or corn, where you can crossbreed plants and come up with a
| new type that will "breed true" and then you can make a bunch of
| seeds to distribute. Cultivation is basically growing a bunch of
| trees, finding the right combo, then creating a bunch of them
|
| So commercial growers with orchards will buy trees from breeders
| who create that type of tree by managing the grafting/budding
| process.
|
| Apparently, though we don't know when breeding started, it's been
| going on for thousands of years.
|
| Also, Johnny Appleseed wasn't doing anyone favors by spreading
| apple seeds everywhere because the trees would produce mostly
| inedible apples.
|
| 1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple#Breeding
|
| 2. https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/resources/844-breeding-a-
| new...
| bastloing wrote:
| Really enjoy honeycrisp apples with caramel or chocolate coating!
| Yummy!
| dahart wrote:
| Where can I find Red Delicious varieties from back when they were
| considered good? I remembered them being fine/decent/whatever
| when I was a kid, and recently just out of curiosity bought some
| Red Delicious from a local grocery store and was surprised to
| find they were completely inedible and totally disgusting. Like
| not just less sweet or less tangy, but super gross and almost
| like eating mushy plastic-wax wrapped in leather, and nothing
| like what I remembered. It sounds like they actually have been
| bred to be different now, so are there places that still have the
| older variety?
| pton_xd wrote:
| Pretty sure they were always mealy and disgusting. I never
| liked apples growing up because the only two options were
| basically Red Delicious and Granny Smith. Maybe some Braeburn,
| Fuji, and Galas now and then, none of which are particularly
| good either. Honeycrisps really saved the fruit!
| bbstats wrote:
| Walmart honeycrisp in October was the best apple I've ever had
| kaydub wrote:
| Best apples I've ever had were cosmic crisps I picked off the
| tree.
| dave333 wrote:
| 60 years ago Cox's was by far my favorite apple for flavor but
| they could get soft and mealy in storage. Gala is the closest
| descendant that is much crisper and still has a lot of the Cox's
| flavor. I've never liked crisp or acidic apples, except in
| crumbles or pies where Granny Smith is my goto.
| mring33621 wrote:
| My family has been going to the same orchard in SW Michigan for
| maybe 8 years in a row.
|
| At first, they only had 2 rows of Honeycrisp apples. Maybe 2% of
| the trees there...
|
| Now more rows are 'Honeycrisp' than not. As far as I know, they
| didn't replace all those previously 'not Honeycrisp' trees,
| though.
|
| And they taste like paint. Ugh.
| NicOnHN wrote:
| I'm curious if incorporating technology, like image analysis apps
| (size, colour, quality), could help address some of these issues.
| Any thoughts from any of the growers out there?
| juju_hacker wrote:
| I use this technology and have found it to be very accurate. I
| use the TrueFruit product from a company named Aerobotics.
| WARules wrote:
| We have also been using TrueFruit. We manage tons of galas,
| honeycrisps and fujis. Honeycrisps are still our majority but
| fujis and galas are close
| blindriver wrote:
| Wow I thought I was the only one who thought this? My timeline
| matches pretty close to the authors. I worked at a startup around
| 2013 that had fruit deliveries, and I ate a honeycrisp apple
| there for the first time in my life and I fell in love. Like the
| author, I started eating those apples out of desire, not because
| it was the only thing left.
|
| But in the last 2 years, I didn't notice it, but I have been
| pretty dissatisfied with them but I never really thought about it
| until this article. It sheds light as to exactly why I don't like
| it anymore, and that's pretty sad that the industry is getting
| into that state.
| wkirby wrote:
| Cosmic crisp is the truth.
| travisgriggs wrote:
| Wow. Weird when something on HN hits this close to home. I work
| in AgTech (automated irrigation) in Washington State. I can
| attest to the love-hate boom-bust relationship this variety is
| having with the Washington apple farmer.
|
| The article leaves a key point out. This fruit tree is really
| temperamental to water correctly. Irrigators love and hate this
| thing. Some fruit bears overwatering gracefully. But with this
| tree, it begs for water, but if you overwater it even a little,
| the fruit fails easily. I've watched some big players (Pytech)
| dump millions of dollars into closed (fully automated), open
| (just telemetry and recommendation, human then waters) and hybrid
| loop irrigation methods to try and get this right. It remains a
| real pain to get right.
|
| (edit: the cosmic crisp is also difficult to grow Just Right(tm))
| ethbr1 wrote:
| Conversely, what are the easiest Washington state apple
| varieties to grow?
| rcpt wrote:
| Can anyone explain why tomatoes always suck now?
| Al-Khwarizmi wrote:
| So it seems that we get different apples in Europe and the US?
| I'm from Spain and haven't even heard of Honeycrisp or Cosmic
| Crisp.
|
| Here, the common apples you can see in supermarkets are Golden
| Delicious (called just Golden here), Royal Gala, Pink Lady, Fuji,
| Pippin, Granny Smith, Red "Delicious", Kanzi, maybe a few more
| than I'm forgetting, but no Honeycrisp or Cosmic Crisp as far as
| I know.
| purplerabbit wrote:
| Sounds like your market is a few years behind the US :)
|
| Seriously, I hope you get honey/cosmic crisps -- they converted
| me to buying apples regularly.
| lif wrote:
| since folks are sharing favorites:
|
| Red Astrachan ftw
|
| (iykyk)
| __turbobrew__ wrote:
| I live in the Okanagan in British Columbia and the local
| honeycrisp are still good here. I think the colder climate and
| smaller scale farms here make for a better apple. We also have
| long term storage facilities where the apples are stored in
| nitrogen which really helps with freshness.
|
| The local place I go to is straight from the grower and they have
| a 24/7 cold storage facility of apple bins operated by the honour
| system. All apples are $1 a pound.
|
| Part of the issue here is that wineries have been historically
| more profitable than orchards so there are many fewer places to
| buy local fruit. In the past two years however, there has been
| cold snaps which have killed 50% and 90% of grape vines
| subsequently so people are starting to question the stability of
| wineries.
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