Apple Rankings • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple Rankings

#361

Post by ckastner » Thu, Nov 17, 2022, 11:01 PM UTC

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.”

Re: Apple Rankings

#362

Post by ezekg » Thu, Nov 17, 2022, 11:03 PM UTC

There's not a lot that's better than a red delicious apple with some good peanut butter. All these sweet apples be damned.

Re: Apple Rankings

#363

Post by thomasahle » Thu, Nov 17, 2022, 11:04 PM UTC

tylervigen wrote: post #57

I 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…

> 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.

Re: Apple Rankings

#364

Post by dekhn » Thu, Nov 17, 2022, 11:05 PM UTC

pivo wrote: post #38

Waterluvian wrote: post #16

McIntosh: “ A Seal-Skinned Canadian Letdown.” 45, horse food. So it’s war then.

I've never had a McIntosh that wasn't grainy and bland. Where do you find good tasting ones?

picked right off the tree!

Re: Apple Rankings

#365

Post by mpol » Thu, Nov 17, 2022, 11:05 PM UTC

nl wrote: post #332

droopyEyelids wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

> I love Golden Delicious apples. To me they are the standard of what a green apple should taste like. Nor are Golden Delicious' green, so I guess they do mean Granny Smith

Down here in the Netherlands most Golden Delicious are green, only seldom are they yellow. Mealy is when they are not saved well, more often they have a bit of bite. And juicy they are. It might differ per region.

Re: Apple Rankings

#366

Post by mike_d » Thu, Nov 17, 2022, 11:06 PM UTC

rkagerer wrote: post #340

The SweeTango apple was developed by the University of Minnesota (UM), which also developed its parents, the Honeycrisp and Zestar! apples. Accordingly, SweeTango is intellectual property owned by UM and licensed to our farmer cooperative of 47 growers that sell the fruit throughout the United States and Canada. In fact, our growers lease the trees. https://sweetango.com/find-faqs/

> SweeTango is intellectual property owned by UM and licensed to our farmer cooperative

That is some Monsanto bullshit wrapped up in a quirky "small growers" story.

Nobody "owns" living organisms.

Re: Apple Rankings

#367

Post by hansoolo » Thu, Nov 17, 2022, 11:21 PM UTC

Kanzi in top three. So well deserved! I new saw one of those crisps I german supermarkets yet.

Re: Apple Rankings

#368

Post by mike_d » Thu, Nov 17, 2022, 11:21 PM UTC

thomasahle wrote: post #363

tylervigen wrote: post #57

I 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…

> 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 apple is good or not boils down to the time between when the ethylene is pumped into the room to start ripening to when you put it in your mouth.

Re: Apple Rankings

#369

Post by SergeAx » Thu, Nov 17, 2022, 11:27 PM UTC

I beleive this is very US-centric. Living in Europe I never heard of most varieties from top-10.

By the way, are description there GPT-generated?

Re: Apple Rankings

#370

Post by BoorishBears » Thu, Nov 17, 2022, 11:28 PM UTC

horsawlarway wrote: post #231

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…

The second to the top apple is listed for tartness isn't it?