I had an identical experience a couple of years ago with Evercrisp bought late (in April?) from a local orchard. My best guess is that those apples intended for long storage are treated with some fungicide to protect them from various rots during storage, it gets absorbed through the skin and that was its taste. The word “organic” is a sham, there are a lot of chemicals of “natural” origin that are considered organic, and being of natural origin does not mean they are safe or good, just think of all the venoms that various creatures produce…
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I sure would like to try a tree ripened cosmic crisp because I bought a handful the other day and was not impressed again. With all the hype behind this apple I would hope for more. I agree with others that describe a chemical taste with a bitterness as well. I find it mostly in the skin but persisting into the flesh below the skin.
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Tried Cosmic Crisp twice since I started this thread several years ago.
The apples were lousy both times.
Not sure how some of the best plant breeders working with the best science and the best growing conditions can produce such a disappointing Apple.
All of the pre-release hype made it sound like the new Apple would be superior to others. I was afraid the success of this new apple would put additional pressure on local orchards all over the country, many who are working hard just to stay in business.
On a separate note I bought a bag of organic Fuji Apples at Costco from a well know grower/packer in Washington state that were terrible! Probably the worst bag of Apples I have ever purchased. The Apples were very green and never improved after sitting out on the table. They were so bad I cold not force myself to eat them, but the chickens liked them.
Apples at Costco are normally good so I was really disappointed.
Never buy Apples from that grower/packer again!
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It’s easy to forget there are lots of uses for apples besides fresh eating.
But, for fresh eating ripe from the tree, I’d take Red Delicious or Honeycrisp. And from the supermarket, I’d pick Fuji. But, I like many apples for some reason or other…even Granny Smith makes a good pie.
Of the ‘club’ apples in markets, I probably prefer Evercrisp in a red, and Opal in a golden.
I like cooked/prepared apples in many forms. Jonathan, and Arkansas Black are multi-use. Not favorites, but can cover the bases as a utility player…like in baseball.
And, since I’ve grafted over 100 cultivars of apples that I’ve never even tasted before…my “favorite” is definitely subject to change over time!
Hope to try Spitzenburg, Mammoth B.T., and Cornish Aromatic for the first time this
year, and get a better feel for Frostbite and Odysso.
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They performed extraordinarily well in taste tests. That is with real people and their tastes. I strongly suspect that the ones people are getting that they don’t like, don’t taste like the ones that were used in the taste tests.
I’ve had them running the full gamut from terrible, meh, outstanding. Based on timing, supply chains, and luck, it isn’t surprising that one could get duds twice in a row.
I’ve had bad luck with Costco apples. I don’t buy them anymore. I’ve probably bought Opal, Fuji, and Envy at least once each. Didn’t want to chance the Cosmic Crisp. It’s too big of a commitment to get a few pounds at once, have to deal with the plastic packaging, and expense is enough to sting if its a waste, but not enough to do a return.
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Not sure why they are so different than the Apples that so many folks tasted during the consumer panels. Most extensive and expensive market research on fresh apples I am aware of. Looks like a bust so far.
I’m happy to hear that spending a bunch of money of apple breeding and marketing for an exclusive managed variety has produced poor results so far. Hope this helps dampen the interest in another effort of this type.
I have had really good luck with tray packed extra fancy apples at Costco but this was the first time I ever bought a 3 pound bag of apples packed in the new stylish bags Learned my lesson! Not sure how a well respected grower/packer with a new multimillion dollar computerized grading line allowed such unripe apples to be packed and sold.
Cosmic Crisp production isn’t really managed, its just exclusive to Washington State.
They scaled up at an unprecedented pace, went all in from the beginning. So there are lots of growers and lots of young trees producing.
The genetics undoubtedly allow for production of highly accepted/desired apples.
How they are produced, distributed, stored, and managed, is another story.
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I’ve been getting cosmic crisp once or twice a month since last fall, some of the early batches were amazing and I think the off taste has been building up and they’re getting worse over time (which happens with all apples, this time of year is tough). I think I’m tasting the thing you guys are complaining about but it doesn’t bother me that much, I’m still buying them, I ate one this morning. I did a test and removed the skin and the taste changed completely so I think it’s in the skin. I get mine through our discount grocer “winco” and I want to say most of their apples are through chelan
Worse taste after longer storage? I’ve read that long-term storage in an oxygen-free environment (nitrogen) doesn’t affect taste. Wonder if it somehow does with at least the skin of Cosmic Crisp? Just a thought…
I like the hypothesis earlier shared, that for apples expected to go into long term storage, they may be treated with fungicide or other treatment that we may be tasting. And that taste may change with time too.
I’ll add, that Cosmic Crisp is supposed to store really well, so maybe they use simpler or less expensive storage methods that controlled atmosphere.
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I’ve only purchased cosmic crisp from the grocery store that I’ll call “Large Food”. To me they taste better than Envy, Wild Crisp, Twist, Honey Crisp, Gala, Fuji, or any other mediocre common apple they carry. I tried to bribe a friend in Washington to mail me some scions but he was very apprehensive about it even though he willingly ships other “green” material all over the US.
Our taste buds seem to be similar, Red Delicious, Evercrisp and Fuji are top five for me. I have not had a sweet Honey Crisp before (I tried it several times over the years, and the best was very mildly sweet), so can’t give a fair opinion.
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I think you nailed it! If they want to preserve the brand, they should put some specifications (e.g. size & brix) that growers have to adhere to in order to sell under the brand name, otherwise we see the mixed results reported here and elsewhere.
I heard that tomato sauce companies put brix or water-content specs for growers so that they don’t sell them watered-up tomatoes that cost them more to evaporate the water as they make the concentrates/sauces (in addition to the obvious paying for water at tomatoes price). So, it should be doable for apples too.
And they all lack acid and aromatics, to my tastes.
So bear that in mind when i say that I’ve had cosmic crisp, and thought it was a perfectly good, of somewhat bland, apple.
I strongly prefer crimson crisp, but maybe that’s because the crimson crisp i bought were grown locally. I was impressed with how well the local crimson crisp stored, though. I had a couple last month that have been in my fridge since the fall. They tasted like a decent red delicious (which is to say, i found them a bit bland) and were still surprisingly crunchy and attractive. Literally stored in a plastic bag in my fridge.
I have to admit I have not eaten a wide variety of apples, and never ate home-grown apple! But from orchards, the above three were excellent!
I ate a good specimen of Cosmic Crisp last year and to me it was an 8/10. I also ate very good Crimson Crisp from an orchard a few years ago and it was a 9/10 to my palate, I even put it in my list of future trees to grow. In my new orchard I have Fuji, Hawkeye, Evercrisp, Rubinette, Kidd’s Orangered, and Hoople’s Antique Gold.
Yes, I’m all for apples that don’t pucker my mouth for fresh eating.
My first experience concerning Honeycrisp…
my (former) “better half” brought a peck of Honeycrisp some 15 years ago at a roadside stand in Hendersonville, NC…aand I became a Honeycrisp fan.
Alas, they sure don’t all live up to that amazing first impression!
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Eating a store bought cosmic crisp again. These are what i would call an ok apple but i taste nothing complex or special in this particular apple. There are many apples i would much rather eat. They are crisp, juicy and sweet which means i rate them above red delicious from the store.
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Another example of the powerful telling the rest of us what to like.
Just as in politics…the little people don’t agree sometimes! Besides being friendly for the orchards to produce, is there anything that makes this apple better than a dozen others?
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Part of the problem is we have access to the very best! We know the difference in apples. Pears from the store are inedible half the time. Bosc has really impressed me from the store several times. Back to apples, home-grown apples blow this one away i just ate nearly every time. Pick a home grown apple including red delicious and it would have been better. It was like a hot house tomato instead of homegrown. Im going to stick to eating home grown pears after this sack of apples are gone. I’m not faulting the grower as much as myself for eating really good fruit 80% or more of the year. Growing your own fruit really is a great idea. Blueberry there is nothing i can taste that sets it apart from others. The fact it didnt taste like cardboard like red delicious is a plus. Once in awhile i get a great fuji ,gala etc. But this one just didn’t have it. The last time i tried them they didn’t have it.