Your one absolute favorite tasting apple…what would it be ?
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Don’t make me choose!
Cox’s Orange Pippin, but Karmijn de Sonnaville is a worthy sub if you can’t get the Cox’s, and Kidd’s Orange Red and Rubinette are in there too. You may see a pattern there. And that’s just for eating out of hand; for cooking I doubt you can improve on Calville Blanc.
Mind you, there’re a zillion I haven’t even tried, let alone grown, and what impresses me as grown here might be way different grown elsewhere, in a different year, and so on. And I still love Macoun and Liberty and MacIntosh.
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The original Hawkeye Red Delicious comes close.
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I love Tolman Sweet, not sure it’s my favorite…but it’d be one of them
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Cox’s Orange pippin for me as well. Also agree that Calville Blanc is by far the best baking apple.
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Golden Russet.
It’s hard to separate flavor from texture and the other elements of eating experience.
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Northern Spy, E. Spitzenberg
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I like Cox Orange and Rubinette as well. Then Topaz, Rubinola, Glockenapfel. Prinz Albrecht von Preussen.
Boskoop for baking
Edit: forgot Ananas Reinette and Oetwiler Reinette.
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Off the tree, Spitz, out of storage Rush.
However, I wouldn’t want to be limited to both of them and on any given day and season I might prefer to eat any one of about 20 varieties.
I wonder why Cox is so popular. I think it’s a nice apple but hardly worth the bother in my orchard. I’ve grown it at other sites where if isn’t so fussy but it has never been a client’s fav whether they like tarts or sweets. Ashmead’s is my fav Brit.
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That’s interesting. Maybe regional differences, maybe individual taste, of course.
Unfortunately, I’ve never had Spits, Goldrush, Hawkeye, Rubinola, Glockenapfel … I should live so long!
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I’m in the same boat, so many interesting sounding varieties, so few of them I’ve had the opportunity to sample. But, one of these days… I have many of the varieties discussed grafted and awaiting enough maturity to fruit. Hopefully a few “new to me” varieties next year.
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We all used to be in the same boat. I’ve been growing fruit now for over 25 years in the northeast and my tastes and favs change almost every season.
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Bastian Orange crab.
Have removed or abandoned all but 5 or 6 of the 60+ apple varieties we orginally planted 25 yrs ago.
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Give me a Myer’s Royal or Red Royal Limbertwig right off the tree. OMG my mouth’s starting to water. 
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Spi-Gold!
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Tough question as so many to choose from. I would have to say my favorite is McIntosh. I never get tired of eating them. For fresh eating anyway.
For cooking my favorite remains NW Greening. Superb in tarts and apple tart tatin. Makes a great pie too. Never had the chance to try it against Calville Blanc in a cooking test but would like to if I ever find Calville Blanc available around here.
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Yeah, I assume I’ll find some I like, some I dislike. And topwork the losers over to what is my at-that-moment favorite. Here’s to hopefully years of choosing new favorites…
I have both on M-111, grafted 2 years ago, so still a ways to go probably. Luckily I’m patient 
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Rubinette
Very consistently good in my climate. And has a long ripening season.
But I like lots of others — Golden Russet,Hudson’s Golden Gem, Goldrush, Wickson,Cherry Cox etc.
But Rubinette produces every year and in large quantities while being reasonably disease free
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Of the thousand-plus apple varieties, is there really that much variety in flavors? When someone discovers or produces a new variety, who’s to say there isn’t already one that tastes identical already? I have mostly gone by recommendations on this forum in choosing scions to try to graft to my existing trees. How many people have sampled more than one or two dozen varieties, and if they have, can remember them all?
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I can’t personally testify to more than a dozen or so varieties. That said, yes…there’s a huge range of flavors. If there wasn’t, would our ancestors have wasted their time growing different trees?
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