Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Apple Rankings

applerankings.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

371–380 of 484 posts

Re: Apple Rankings

#371

Post by inferiorhuman »

wilsonnb3 wrote: post #312
insane_dreamer wrote: post #107

Now this is the kind of important tech/nerd info that I come to HN for! 10/10 Notes: I'm only familiar with several of the varieties on this page, but I definitely agree with the rankings. We used to buy Gala, Fuji or Juici, since there were the cheapest at the store and we didn't know better, but once we tried Honeycrisp we never went back. (Cosmic Crisp also ok but not as good. I'd also rank Envy a bit lower.) Also…

I am actually now interested in trying one of these "Arkansas Black", "Cortland", or "Newtown Pippin" apples just to see if an apple can really be worse than a Red Delicious. I hadn't thought such a thing was possible till now.

Pippins are in season here and they seem to be exceptionally high in tannins and not too prone to turning mealy. They're not great for snacking but I bet they'd go really well in a pie.

Re: Apple Rankings

#372

Post by RektBoy »

Is this an American thing to know types of apples from top of your head? I'm from EU and apples are just apples, of course we have multiple types of apples at store, some are better than others, but really can't remember their names.

Re: Apple Rankings

#373

Post by dom96 »

I wish this listed which countries each can be bought in. Anyone know which of the best ones are available in the UK?

Re: Apple Rankings

#374

Post by inferiorhuman »

mike_d wrote: post #368
thomasahle wrote: post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. Exactly. Don't expect to get a good apple in March. Eat something else instead.

I grew up in the apple producing capital of the world. There is no such thing as a fresh apple in retail. They are all picked just before they are ripe and stored in massive cold storage rooms with all the oxygen pumped out. Apples can spend up to two year in storage, and the best tasting sweetest apples are often the ones that have been stored the longest because they form more sugars. Your entire concept of when an…

As with everything it depends. The heirloom varieties that make it to grocery stores (at least in the Bay Area) have a short enough window each year that they're definitely not being kept in cold storage for too long. The window of availability for something like Gravensteins and Pink Pearls out here is about a month.

The sweetest apples you're talking about are probably the mealy ones folks are complaining about (although some varieties are more prone to becoming mealy than others).

Re: Apple Rankings

#375

Post by derac »

droopyEyelids wrote: post #325
ishjoh wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

A golden delicious is neither crisp (mealy) nor tart (bland, watery)- are you thinking of Granny Smith?

I've had some spectacular Golden Delicious apples. I hypothesize that these otherwise mealy apples in the right condition have a soft pearish texture rather than a crisp cucumber-like one, but it is a fragile structure that degrades more rapidly.

Re: Apple Rankings

#376

Post by whyenot »

ckastner wrote: post #361
kernal wrote: post #355

Savage >Oh how the mighty have fallen! Believe it or not, the coffee grinds in a leather glove known as “The Red Delicious Apple” was once a robust firebrand credited with reinventing the apple from mere cider-fruit into a full-fledged lunch-worthy sidepiece. It even won the Stark Brothers apple contest in 1894. Likely your great-grandma’s favorite apple, this once flavorful Prometheus has been mass-produced into des…

It seems to have inspired an even better review, of the Golden Delicious: > [...] with our collective distaste for the Red Delicious fully realized, this ill-fated adopted brother may as well be called the “Golden Bin Laden.”

I have a golden delicious tree in my yard, and the apple are amazingly good. I wonder if there isn't a bias against apples like red delicious, yellow delicious and Granny Smith that store very well and may be getting stale at the time of purchase. For example, mealiness is usually an indication that an apple is getting stale.

Re: Apple Rankings

#379

Post by CoffeeOnWrite »

chefandy wrote: post #345

Anybody who'd give the two top slots to sweet tango and honeycrisp -- the proprietary, designed-by committee apples that prioritize inoffensive, bland appeal over character-- doesn't deserve an opinion on this topic. It's like ranking a bazillion craft beers and giving the #1 slot to Blue Moon and the #2 slot to Sam Adams. They're the Applebee's and Olive Garden of Apples. Also, the descriptions show that the majorit…

Just FWIW re your last sentence, per Wikipedia the US patent for the Honeycrisp cultivar expired in 2008..

Re: Apple Rankings

#380

Post by Fiahil »

So sad that it's missing so many niche varieties and their translation... Am I to assume it's always the case with American authors?
Post reply on HN