I am finding the same thing up here. For the first couple of years the HC apples we bought were great. Then they became just Ho Hum in flavour, and this fall the skins were positively tough. I know a home grown apple would be better but I now refuse to pay a premium price for apples that have only “crunch” as a feature.
Pink Lady is now following the same pattern, what gives?
From what I’m gathering, HC tends to be able to consistently get high brix in the arid west and in more northern areas where many other varieties can’t even survive. If the Washington St. product is declining in quality, it may be that growers are just not managing the trees to get adequate sugar. More water during ripening increases yield at the expense of brix. They can usually control that as they please. The problem is that the apples sell for the same money even when they decline in quality and the individual grower has to decide what to do in a competitive environment. If one keeps the quality up it helps sustain the value of the variety, but if other growers are undermining that you are throwing away money by selling better apples.
We would get much better fruit if accurate average brix readings were part of the labeling on the boxes they are shipped in.
It will never happen because the average consumer will ask themselves “what the hell is brix?”. Then they would just buy based on whatever apple has the fanciest name or the apple that they think is the prettiest or some preconceived notion. The growers/stores knows this so why would they go thru the hassle and expense of labeling the brix?
People learn pretty fast. I think it will happen some day. It takes growers wanting to play the quality game and figuring out how to get paid for it. People have indicated via the HC craze that they will pay for quality.
Maybe people falling out of love with HC due to poor quality will make it happen.
If they can figure out how to sort apples for brix on the packing line it could happen pretty fast. I’m not sure if that’s possible.
You would only have to sacrifice a small percentage of the apples, I think, even if it required cutting into 5% of apples coming form any given orchard. They are beginning to sell a lot of presliced apples anyway so it could be part of that process. It would be great if farm stores and farm markets started doing it.
One of our vineyards has a restaurant named Brix!
The Tragedy of the Commons?
In this case the resource is the reputation of Honeycrisp.
Honey Crisp a wonderful grade from Minnesota. As well as any variety has advantages and disadvantages.
Disadvantages.
Few apples in the supermarket taste like they are “supposed to taste” because they are picked before they have ripened sufficiently to reach that “perfection” you are looking for. Find a small orchard with a roadside stand or a farmers market with some Honeycrip…I first found it about 2009 in Hendersonville, NC at an orchard-side market…and have not eaten any from the store as good as that first one.
@marknmt, I just received my Raintree Nursery catalog today. They are selling Cosmic Crisp trees, semi-dwarfs on MM106 rootstock. However, you are limited to 1 tree and must reside and grow the tree in Washington. Bit of a bummer, but it would probably struggle in the SoCal summer heat.
@JCT- Hmmm, I wonder how they expect to enforce those terms! Well, I’ll wait until I can buy the fruit at our local grocery; I don’t have space for more trees, and anyway we home growers enjoy an embarrassment of riches when it comes to fruit. But I am really curious to try them, and may try to finangle a scion down the road.
Thanks for the heads up-
I’m looking forward to trying one too. They will probably be uncommon at first and super expensive.
By the time I’ve explored all the great varieties of apples not being restricted as club varieties, I will be dead or their patents will have expired. We may desire the object most difficult to obtain, but that doesn’t mean it is the best. My experience is that products made to appeal to the broadest American demographic possible never actually appeals that much to me. They are all trying to nail the next Honeycrisp, but Honeycrisp is off patent and I don’t like it all that much. It’s the same apple it was when it was illegal to graft it. They can keep their forbidden fruit, it is not being bred to be the best home orchard fruit anyway.
Well said alan, I was trying to put into words how I feel about these club apples. I am more interested in testing those varieties that are not the norm. There are many who will want the mainstream apple varieties and keep them in circulation. Far few growers up here who are interested in apples that do not appeal to the masses.
same here, despite not being a big fan of apples in general…
but to be fair-- as with any other fruit species or cultivar, taste is subjective and region-dependent.
also, there’s no denying that there really are folks who love HC’s, and they may be reading this thread…
maybe just live and let live, and to grow and let grow 
Honeycrisp can be pretty good like pink lady, Fuji, gala etc. but does lack distinctive flavor present sometimes with other apples. It is sweet , crisp, and refreshing but lacks anything beyond that. Most grocery store fruit is similar eg. Bartlett pears are sweet but lack complexity which is at times nice. Bosc is the exception to most other grocery store fruits and at times is extremely good! Red delicious apples from the store are so bad you can certainly see why people rave about honeycrisp. It’s all dependent on what your comparing HC to but have most consumers ever had a really fantastic apple? I grow kieffer pear as well and enjoy them but they are after all a kieffer the same as honeycrisp will never be more than it is. I enjoy honeycrisp greatly in Waldorf salad as I like kieffer very good cooked. Definately understand why someone eating goldrush, wickson, Rubinette, Newtown pippin etc. would not consider HC as having complexed flavor. I like the HC for what they are as I love kieffer for what it is but I understand the shortcomings and the benefits of growing both.
What fruit growers don’t often remember is that most people have not tasted multitudes of different apples. Also the varieties of apples offered in the markets of a lot of areas have very little variance. I happen to really like HC but then it’s usually the best apple offered in my rural area of Texas where apples are not king. So, the masses buy them and love them because we know no different. To put your knowledge in perspective one of my coworkers the other day had brought some apples to work and left them in the fridge where some of them stayed for a couple of weeks. She saw them and said aloud “I guess we need to throw them out because they’ve been in there a long time”. It’s only because of my association with this forum that I could laugh at that…and educate her to Apple storage facts (as best I know them). So don’t forget you guys are a special group and can’t always relate to “the masses” that buy these apples in their market.
Katy
This is very true. Most folks have very limited experience, and have only tasted what they can get at the store.
Meaning that their feelings might be hurt to know other people have different opinions about apples? I’m passing judgement on the apple, not the people who like it and my opinion on any apple is based on my experiences growing it in my area. If HC was easier for me to grow at high quality I’d be a fan of it, but I’m talking about apples and not people.
I will agree that snobbery can be socially battering, but it’s hard for me to imagine people interested in fruit enough to participate in this forum would be hurt because members dis their favorite apple. What many are saying is that quality has declined, probably because it is being grown in places where it doesn’t get the greatest quality, which is useful info for people growing their own apples.
Apparently HC does best north of z6 and some areas south of it, especially in the west.
No. For certain ethnic populations, HC and Fuji are desired apples. For my tastes, I’d rather be eating Gordon.