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Apple Rankings

applerankings.com

411–420 of 484 posts

Re: Apple Rankings

#411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to like red delicious as a kid and my perception is that they got worse over time. I still like the other apples I ate as a kid. So I don’t know if this is all in my mind or not.

You're probably right, not sure how old you are but growers kept selectively breeding solely for appearance up to (I think) the 2010s.

Appearance and shelf life. That's how an apple attracts a buyer on a store shelf.

Once you've bought grocery in a store, you're not going to return it if it's so-so but not outright dangerously rotten. And your choice of large stores nearby is limited, so you're not going to stop going to that store.

Re: Apple Rankings

#412
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?

It very much depends on when and where you buy them.

Fresh, these are superb. After a week on a shelf, they get soft and a bit bland.

Re: Apple Rankings

#413

Honestly - 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…

Even assuming the flavor of red delicious was at all palatable in any sense of the word, it's impossible to get past the fact that they have the tepid texture of water soaked pile of corrugated cardboard. I think you may be an outlier.

First apple I looked up was Red Delicious, just to see if they're ranked as badly as I think they are. "Coffee Grinds in a Leather Glove" is the tagline for that apple!

Re: Apple Rankings

#415
post #392

This list reeks of middle-brow hipster ignorance: 1. If you’re judging an apple by its year round availability (as the site creator does), then you’ve basically admitted that you’re only randomly running into apples that are at their best. Some apples are amazing at their peak, but very mediocre when not at their peak. 2. As others have mentioned, there are many variables that influence the texture, taste, and appear…

>This list reeks of middle-brow hipster ignorance I agree! For example, a lot of their complaint about Cosmic Crisp is the marketing campaign around it. Like, buddy, that apple tree didn’t design stickers or write press releases. It makes no sense to penalize the apple itself for that.

This is an entertainment site maintained by a comedian

Re: Apple Rankings

#416

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Weirdly, this isn’t the first bias I’ve seen against the golden delicious — which is still one of my favorites — and excessive fawning over the honeycrisp.

I suppose I don’t disagree with a lot of elements in the general order ranking, but listing the honeycrisp as a 90-point apple and the GD at 33 seems…extreme.

(And I fully realize the absurdity in calling an online ranking of apples “extreme”)

Re: Apple Rankings

#417
post #415

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>This list reeks of middle-brow hipster ignorance I agree! For example, a lot of their complaint about Cosmic Crisp is the marketing campaign around it. Like, buddy, that apple tree didn’t design stickers or write press releases. It makes no sense to penalize the apple itself for that.

This is an entertainment site maintained by a comedian

And I’m quite entertained by criticizing it!

Re: Apple Rankings

#418
post #175

Missing my favourite apple: Aurora. This is the best apple by far. Last long, taste is amazing (though maybe a bit too sweet after a while). I can't rarely find them. Does anyone know how to track down where apples are grown?

Assuming you mean the Aurora Golden Gala, this is also my favourite with Honeycrisp a close second. The only place I have ever found them for sale is in Vancouver. I discovered them at the UBC Botanical Garden Apple festival ( https://botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/apple-festival-2022-recap/ )

Berkeley Bowl used to regularly sell them—not sure if they still do.

Re: Apple Rankings

#419

I am a fan of the Pink Lady. It is a real treat if you cut them into slices add a smear of Peanut Butter and a squeeze of Sriracha.

My favourite too, a really great apple, but only eaten plain for me.

Re: Apple Rankings

#420
post #404

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…

OK let's go, give us your top 3 favs.

I can't name many more types of apples than "Fuji", "McIntosh", "Rome", "Red Delicious", "Gala", "Granny Smith", and "Honeycrisp", but I feel like Honeycrisp apples are too perfect - too sweet, too crisp, but somehow not as apple-y as other varieties.

If you only have one Honeycrisp after years of eating Fujis and Galas it will hit you like a ton of bricks with how good it is compared to what you've been eating. You might even wonder why you would bother to get anything else. But it's soo saccharine, so uniformly "good" that it gets old fast IMO. Hard to explain, but sometimes I'd rather have something that tastes more like a good old fashioned apple and less like apple juice in apple form.

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