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Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

newengland.com

11–20 of 257 posts

Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

#11
post #5

The Red Delicious stands out to me as the textbook example of the power of naming and marketing. The origin story is unbeatable. The power of a name on our perceptions is undeniable. Realizing all of this has been one of the most empowering discoveries of my adult life.

True, but it also sucks because so many people say 'i dont like apples', including me until my mid 20s. Red Delicious are awful in every metric. Once a friend opened my eyes to pink ladies and honeycrisps, I was blown away and felt..cheated somehow.

Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

#12

Red Delicious was my favorite apple as a kid. Some of this might be questionable taste - my sister's favorite was a Mcintosh - but I wonder if they were better 40 years ago. Had one recently and it was underwhelming. My wife turned me on to Pink Ladies and Fujis and I'll never go back to Delicious.

The article is explicitly stating and explaining why they were indeed better 40 years ago.

Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

#13

Please support your local orchards if possible! The apples you find in stores don’t even compare to some of the unique cultivars you can find at many orchards

A big part of this is that a lot of varieties don't travel well.

But commercial apples like ambrosia and honeycrisp do and are pretty tasty. Ubiquity of red delicious is sort of baffling.

There's also a huge chunk of the country where apples don't grow well due to lack of sufficient freeze.

Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

#14
post #11
post #5

The Red Delicious stands out to me as the textbook example of the power of naming and marketing. The origin story is unbeatable. The power of a name on our perceptions is undeniable. Realizing all of this has been one of the most empowering discoveries of my adult life.

True, but it also sucks because so many people say 'i dont like apples', including me until my mid 20s. Red Delicious are awful in every metric. Once a friend opened my eyes to pink ladies and honeycrisps, I was blown away and felt..cheated somehow.

It's crazy. I always subconsciously assumed that Red Delicious apples were how apples have always been (because they taste/look so much less appetizing than the other ones, therefore they must be the most "natural"), and that those other apples were genetically modified. And, being an immigrant, I thought it might even be a cultural difference, and that Americans just prefer the taste of Red Delicious. This is blowing my mind.

Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

#15
post #2

> “It turns out that a lot of the genes that coded for the flavor-producing compounds were on the same chromosomes as the genes for the yellow striped skin,” Traverso explains, “so as you favored the more consistently colored apples, you were essentially disfavoring the same genes that coded for great flavor. This is also why so many cultivars of tomato and cucumber taste like moist cardboard. Once you taste what the…

What's a good cucumber alternative and how do I get a hold of it?

Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

#16
Apples, like Tomato are textbook examples of what mechanised volume production and warehousing does to "tasty". You can either have cheap food, or you can have good food, but good cheap food (where good means nutritious, delicious) is a lot harder and Cheap generally beats out good anyway, for most people.

Remember in context, we probably waste over 30% of the produce along the supply chain, seeking absolutely "perfect" blemish free apples in a tray, wrapped in plastic, cheaper than before.

Down here in Oz people have moved on from "organic is better for you" (debatable) to "I like it better" which being couched in the preference space, is less contestable. I do like things which taste bettter, and I am prepared to pay the premium to get them.

I would be interested if the same process which took red delicious to stable, thick skinned, resilient also reduced nutritive value, we read increasingly that abundant food production often includes reducing actual food value (vitamins, minerals, antioxidents, flavones), in favour of mass production but I don't know how true it is.

Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

#17
post #14
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, but it also sucks because so many people say 'i dont like apples', including me until my mid 20s. Red Delicious are awful in every metric. Once a friend opened my eyes to pink ladies and honeycrisps, I was blown away and felt..cheated somehow.

It's crazy. I always subconsciously assumed that Red Delicious apples were how apples have always been (because they taste/look so much less appetizing than the other ones, therefore they must be the most "natural"), and that those other apples were genetically modified. And, being an immigrant, I thought it might even be a cultural difference, and that Americans just prefer the taste of Red Delicious. This is blowin…

IIRC, most apples aren't genetically modified as we use the term today, just 'hybridized'/crossbred or whatever the word is. I think they're also all sterile.

Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

#18
post #14
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, but it also sucks because so many people say 'i dont like apples', including me until my mid 20s. Red Delicious are awful in every metric. Once a friend opened my eyes to pink ladies and honeycrisps, I was blown away and felt..cheated somehow.

It's crazy. I always subconsciously assumed that Red Delicious apples were how apples have always been (because they taste/look so much less appetizing than the other ones, therefore they must be the most "natural"), and that those other apples were genetically modified. And, being an immigrant, I thought it might even be a cultural difference, and that Americans just prefer the taste of Red Delicious. This is blowin…

> (because they taste/look so much less appetizing than the other ones, therefore they must be the most "natural")

This is just a problem of lack of familiarity with the space. Crab apples are indeed much less palatable than Red Delicious apples.

Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

#19
post #5

The Red Delicious stands out to me as the textbook example of the power of naming and marketing. The origin story is unbeatable. The power of a name on our perceptions is undeniable. Realizing all of this has been one of the most empowering discoveries of my adult life.

> The Red Delicious stands out to me as the textbook example of the power of naming and marketing. The origin story is unbeatable. The power of a name on our perceptions is undeniable.

Eh.... the Red Delicious's twin in naming is the Golden Delicious. Golden is a more prestigious description than red by any standard, and they're both "delicious". If you want to credit naming and marketing with the success of the Red Delicious, you need to explain why the Golden Delicious didn't succeed even more.

Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

#20
post #2

> “It turns out that a lot of the genes that coded for the flavor-producing compounds were on the same chromosomes as the genes for the yellow striped skin,” Traverso explains, “so as you favored the more consistently colored apples, you were essentially disfavoring the same genes that coded for great flavor. This is also why so many cultivars of tomato and cucumber taste like moist cardboard. Once you taste what the…

What's a good cucumber alternative and how do I get a hold of it?

Look for regional producers or farmers markets. I’m lucky to live in upstate NY with ready access to farm stands about 30 minutes away.

Usually smaller producers make different choices in terms of variety.

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