Opal apples are at the top of the list when fresh: sweet, tangy, intense apple flavor, crisp, and reminiscent of trips to the apple orchard growing up in northeast Ohio.
Apple Rankings
281–290 of 484 posts
Re: Apple Rankings
#282I once spent a month blind taste-testing apples with my wife to compare the apples in our supermarket. We learned 4 things: 1) Most of the Honeycrisp varietals that make it to market are good (Wild Twist and Cosmic Crisp being our favorites), but… 2) The time of year makes a HUGE difference. It seems obvious when I say it, but different varietals from different farms are best in different weeks. Honeycrisp has an adv…
I remember going to one of the local markets and asked the guy putting out the apples if the organic apples were really worth it. He immediately pulled out an organic apple (fuji if I recall correctly) and the same type, but non-organic. He cut out a slice of each apple and let me taste it. The organic apple had significantly better flavor. He explained that the drawback was that the organic apples would go bad quick…
We got organic bananas because the regular bananas were all green. They were SO GOOD. Bananas are so damn cheap overall we just always get the organic ones and they do seem overall better.
Re: Apple Rankings
#283Anyone who puts Pink Lady at 80 deserves no audience at all. Blasphemy.
Re: Apple Rankings
#284Others mention how pies call for different apples. In the same vein, my father's cousin, a farmer and now sadly no longer with us, had a strong opinion about apples that were best for applesauce. Sadly, I don't remember which variety. He lived in rural Ontario, Canada, and knew the only farm in the area that grew that variety, so that's where we'd go to buy apples when it was time to make applesauce.
I like Ruby Red apples for applesauce because there's no work involved. They come out of the skin as a sloppy puree.
Yeah, I wish there was an index organized by "baking", "eating", "sauce".
About 20 years ago I was visiting a friend in south eastern Indian. While buying groceries at a local chain there was a chatty old lady in the apple section who exclaimed that some breed of apple was available and that you didn't see them often any more and they made the best apple sauce.
Intrigued I bought some even though I had no plan to make apple sauce and threw them in a pot like she instructed, they turned into a perfectly sweet and flavorful sauce with no intervention at all.
It was almost a shame to add cinnamon they were so good.
I tried an uncooked slice and it was the mealiest garbage I've ever tried but as a sauce it was the platonic ideal of an applesauce. I wish I could remember the variety.
Re: Apple Rankings
#285Honestly - I think this list prioritizes basically just "sweetness" and "crispness" (despite his claimed categories) which is fine - those are generally appealing things for eating. That said - many of the apples in the "shit" category are fucking delicious. There are days when I want a sweet, crisp apple, and there are days I have a serious hankering for a good ol' granny smith. Even the classic Red Delicious - whic…
I love Golden Delicious apples. To me they are the standard of what a green apple should taste like. Crisp and tart, truly an amazing apple. Rating on this site was a 33. I suspect you're right that sweet was the highest priority.
I also really like HoneyCrisp but I would rate it in the 70s, not the 90s.
Re: Apple Rankings
#286Honestly - I think this list prioritizes basically just "sweetness" and "crispness" (despite his claimed categories) which is fine - those are generally appealing things for eating. That said - many of the apples in the "shit" category are fucking delicious. There are days when I want a sweet, crisp apple, and there are days I have a serious hankering for a good ol' granny smith. Even the classic Red Delicious - whic…
You might find this breakdown of popular american supermarket apples (in the context of pie): https://www.seriouseats.com/the-food-lab-what-are-the-best-a...
That list is incomplete without honey crisp being listed
Re: Apple Rankings
#287No Cox?
Came for that. The list is severely lacking.
Re: Apple Rankings
#288Earlier quoted context omitted.
And god forbid you have premade line juice. Roses is the absolute worst (and people keep bringing it to make daquaris), but the extra effort for fresh juiced is worth it.
You might want to reconsider that, at least for homemade pre-made juice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RA3AaCO7A8
I love Super Juice! If I'm going to have friends over for a get together or party, I'll make a batch (or multiple if I want more than 1 fruit) a few days ahead of time to increase the speed in which drinks can be made. The downside is that garnishes still generally tend to need peels, so I still need to have a couple real fruits hanging around.
Re: Apple Rankings
#289LOL! Example:
https://applerankings.com/arkansas-black-apple-review/
Arkansas Black Apple
This teeth-shattering oddity, boasting a deep red hue that’ll make a dark cherry look like a fluorescent glow stick, will destroy your helpless mouth with every unfortunate bite. A ten out of ten on the Mohs Hardness Scale, this apple would perform admirably as a drill tip in a diamond mine. While true the hardness marginally decreases if left in your refrigerator for a full year, those patient enough to plan lunch into the next decade will be sorely disappointed with a thick-skinned carbuncle that tastes and feels like an uncooked russet potato. Truly despicable.
Re: Apple Rankings
#290Everyone in my family loves Granny Smiths, even the 4 year old. Her apple consumption greatly increases every time they're in season.
The top varieties listed here are indeed good but I quickly come to find their sweetness cloying. Meanwhile I'll eat a 5 lb bag of good Granny Smiths in a week.
Which brings us to another important point about apples. They have to be in season. If you get off-season Grannies from Chile, you're in for a leathery/papery-skinned, mealy disappointment.
Peak Granny season in the US is early/mid-fall, aka right now.