I was at Kroger last week and the only apples on sale were Sweetango at $1.49 compared to 2.49 -2.99 for the rest of the club apples. I saw why when I looked closely. Lots of bruised ones. I bought two and they were really tasty. I like them better than Envy.
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I bought a small bag of ‘fancy’ deep red fresh MICHIGAN Red Delicious apples last Thursday. Yummy.
Fuji or the newer child called Evercrisp are my next choices if
they’re coming from the supermarket.
Got the RD for $1.15 a pound…most large as a 10-12 ounce coffee cup.
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How can I take that seriously when Honeycrisp is 2nd and rated nearly perfect? Maybe I’ve never had a good one.
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@jerryrva I agree. The taste of the SweeTango is similar or slightly better than a great HoneyCrisp. Last week I bought another dozen of organic SweeTangos at Whole Foods and they were also on sale. I think they were at $2.50/lb. I didn’t have to work as hard to find ones that weren’t bruised this time. But when I went home, some were showing bruises likely from handling by the cashier or ride back home. Fantastic apple, probably my absolute favorite of all time, but the ease of bruising is really a bummer.
Oh wow, i disagree with those rankings!
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Some apple growers like me chuckle when hearing apple varieties younger than themselves called “older.” Even Braeburn is just a pipsqueak.
Pink Lady/Cripps Pink 1973, introduced outside of Australia 1992
Goldrush 1994
Honeycrisp 1991
Braeburn 1952, introduced outside of NZ mid-1960s
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And Newtown Pippin at the bottom of that list. That, to me is funny; definitely not taken seriously. I use apples in lots of ways, so anyone who has not picked an apple & waited months for it to come into its own has experience limited by the market. Or dried, or baked in pie made yourself, or slow-baked whole, or squeezed to make cider, or sauced, or…
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I think the fact that it’s on so many lists says a lot about it!
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I enjoyed these videos from Keepers Nursery in the UK:
Their site also has a lot of info about rare varieties:
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That alone is enough to make me discard the list. It is not a list that would please many apple snobs who have the pleasure of eating ripe apples off their trees and comparing them to what they are taking out of their fridge 6 months later. When you eat many types of apples on a regular basis, you aren’t likely to put something like Honeycrisp on the top, although some will. There’s a lot more to apples than a single but great type of texture and very little happening aromatically.
Honeycrisp is not on my personal top ten list, but in my orchard varieties are variable season to season- that may not be so much the case on the west coast. Honeycrisp is only good if the weather isn’t too wet in the few weeks prior to harvest- it is not an especially high brix apple to begin with- other’s can get into the low '20’s on a good year-good site. I don’t think I’ve ever tested a Honeycrisp above about 15. When they are under 13, as they are some years, I’m giving all of mine away. There are always takers.
@Alan: You are so right. Although I had Honeycrips by accident, I am now glad for the experience. You may be right about consistency. Winekist will get more color inside in a cooler summer than we’ve had of late.
When some more years pass with the cultivars that are producing now I will have a better base for comparison. And a fuller list of favorites & how they stack up.
Yeah, it’s not just about rain, cool nights as apples ripen can also increase brix and color, I think because it slows down the respiration involved in vegetative growth, therefore denying fruit of some of its sugar. On warm nights that respiration is greater.
Anyway that’s my theory, but cool nights in the two or three weeks before harvest seem to help Honeycrisp sweeten up as well. I had forgotten about that.
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I enjoy his videos too. I’d love to grow a Cox’s OP but the one tree I have dies halfway back every winter. I’m trying a couple of Cox’s offspring after seeing them on Keeper’s Nursery videos. I bought a tree of Suntan last year, and this year I got scionwood for Jupiter. I’d never heard of either before watching his walk-and-taste videos. 
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My Holstein appears to have winter killed - I may never know what they taste like.
So sorry to hear that about your Holstein apple. Are you going to try your luck at planting another Holstein apple tree?
I probably won’t replace the Holstein, except maybe if I take to grafting a franken tree. Right now I’m kind of in a cull and consolidate mode. I have way more variety and numbers of apples in my nursery than I probably should plant into my orchard. I had trees scattered all over my property in metal cages and I want to get my management areas narrowed down. I received & planted a Trailman crab at the same time, it appears to be doing well despite extreme winter exposure. Those two trees were sort of compulsive shopping when Fedco sent out info on a late season sale last year.
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How is your Zabegnau Reinette doing now? And where are you located? I also thought it was the best apple at Monticello and want to plant one but not sure if it will do well in the NC Piedmont.
What did you like about the Zabergau Renette?
We are in the Finger Lakes of New York State, so quite a different climate. We still have not had fruit, but two years in a row we had killing frosts in spring, it wasn’t a problem related to only the Zabergau. This year we has a tough frost in April. Zabergau was one of the apple varieties that lost all its blossoms and chance of fruit-making — except Zabergau is a fighter. It has recently produced a second round of blossoms.
In this photo
At the top of this photo are dead blossoms; at the bottom is a new blossom.
The blossom in close up.
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Fascinating. Any others open at that time to provide pollen - or you kept a supply to brush on, maybe?
BTW, recently you mentioned Braeburn released 1952. Me, too: 1952.