For the first time - that I know of - a local grocery store will offer this apple and I want to try them for sure since I read a lot of comments about them… but I’m wondering: are they going to be from 2020 harvest or 2021??? I know big producers can put them in industrial fridge with gas management etc. but what about the taste after 6/7 months of storage??
I would like to eat them as fresh as possible… The ad says that they are from Washington state so there must be someone in this forum to answer me, right? Thanks! Yes, this is a serious questions from someone who lives near the North Pole and not very knowledgeable about different climate zone in the USA. Marc
They ripen in the fall, so if they are getting them in now, or soon, the apples were picked in 2020 and kept in cold storage.
These can be really good apples (for store bought at least). But as some of us have found, depending on which store you get them from, they can be very bland too. From my experience, if they are large apples, the grower took the time to thin and get better fruit. If they are smaller apples, they left everything on the tree and less sugar per apple.
2nd this. Biggest apples I’ve eaten were these. Full afterward and these were not bland-- nice crunch, juicy, balanced sweet/tang. I did have one or two that had a grassy aftertaste, assumed it was residues on the apple rather than the fruit itself but not sure.
Edit: I am not sure when they are typically harvested, but my experience eating them has been Jan/Feb of 2021 so I’d assume ~3 months in storage/logistics post-harvest.
My advice would be to wait until the new crop. I tried Cosmic Crisp apples around Jan-Feb 2021, a couple of different batches. They were delicious–wonderful taste, perfect texture. But the last batch I bought about 3 weeks ago from the same source is mealy and nasty. I’m feeding them to the chickens. Obviously they had been in storage too long.
From what I’d read on, this particular apple took almost two decades to develop and hundreds of millions of dollars of investment and marketing. They call it a consultants and focus group apple. This was revolutionary breeding program in the apple industry.
My experience, living in WA state, is that the quality is all over the place. It’s been hard to have rules for getting consistently good ones. I’d buy one or two and give it try.
The one rule for me so far is that they need to be mostly dark red.
Well… not a good experience with the Cosmic: the taste was… absent. Bland is the exact word. Funny: the 4 apples bought were all quite crispy inside and quite hard on the outside, and juicy but bland.
Don’t mean to brag but I’m a « connaisseur » or connoisseur as you say and write in English because « connoisseur » doesn’t not exit in the French language. So, yes I would qualify myself as a avid apple fan and I am positive that Cosmic apples when picked and eaten at the right moment must be one hell of a fantastic apple. Marc
Sorry you got stuck with the lousy Cosmic Crisps. The science and testing that went into the breeding of that apple was very interesting, but the fact that you are playing the lottery to get a good apple means they still missed the mark (or some of the growers just don’t quite know when to pick the apples).
I got one fruit from Frostbite before my tree on a dwarf Geneva root died.
Picked before ripe, it was still sweet. My new tree is a small simi-dwarf (and I hope free-standing and more drought tolerant)…can’t wait for a tree ripened one to see how it does in zone 6…or even 7.
Kroger had CC on sale at $1.79…I pushed the shopping cart right by and never stopped. Tried it last year, and it didn’t quite equal the hype. EverCrisp I’d rather have. I still have Braeburn and Arkansas Black in the 'fridge…so shiny and red didn’t tempt me to ignore my apples and buy cc.
@Shabou, I’m at best a zone 4A on the Canadian prairies. My frostbite was planted in 2017 on Bud 118. I would describe it as healthy and a moderate grower. Still have not seen a single blossom. How long did it take for yours to blossom and fruit? When is it ripe for you? I am concerned I may not have a long enough season to ripen it.
Keep in mind that Frostbite are small and even very small apples…So you don’t need a long growing season in order to get some. This variety was developed in Minnesota so hardiness is expected from it…My Frostbites trees took 2 years to get blossom before getting established. In total 2 years to get blossom and the third year I got about 10 fruits. For summer 2021 (fourth growing season) I got about 15 apples. Marc
Cosmic Crisp was not good at all this year (bought 10-14 days ago). They’re big and beautiful (pretty deeply colored) but mealy and taste is lacking and definitley no tartness. They taste sweet blah mealy.
Expensive too. Honeycrisp (smaller apples) from Aldi grocery vs. (big) Cosmic Crisp, the Honeycrisp’s are 10 x better.
Last year they were somewhat better but I’m not a huge fan of them.