Had our first taste of Cosmic Crisp this evening. Spotted them at Priceless, 4 in a bag at $2/lb.
They taste “good” but not phenomenal IMO. A fair amount of similarity to Honey Crisp, perhaps slightly better. But then Honey Crisp isn’t #1 in my book either. My wife says they taste like a really good pear.
They’re certainly good, but from this first impression, not quite worthy of the hype. Opinions could change when we eat the other 3 I suppose. Will see…
I do not have home grown Golden Delicious so I cannot compare. Hooople’s tastes different from store-bought Golden Delicious and it has aroma that store bought GD does not.
I read that there are a few different strains of GD. Some are better than others. I think @alan has a good strain.
Heard good things about Ashmead but have not heard much about Opalescent.
I wish we could buy Hoople’s and ripe Gold Rush here. They aren’t available. And the Racoons got my Gold Rush before I picked most of them 
The few times I’ve seen them for sale here, they had been picked green.
I like the flavor and brix of Cosmic Crisp better than the Honeycrisp that are grown in WA, but the texture has been variable. I hope the get more consistent, and in a good way. Honeycrisp here are around 11 brix. That’s not enough sugar for an apple for my tastes, I don’t care how crunchy it is.
Commercial growers there must not give a damn about fruit quality. They get non-stop sun and the rain season starts after harvest- the only way to keep the brix that low is to over water and pick them green.
Quality that makes eating most fruit enjoyable doesn’t start before about 13.5 brix, IMO and my favorite apples generally reach 18, although I’ve never had Honeycrisp top 15 here.
It is a shame that where it is possible to grow fantastic fruit every year the industry tends to produce crap. No wait, that’s what made my business viable. I might have ended up working in an office if the west produced and distributed the excellent fruit that is relatively easy to grow there.
Even during the wettest seasons my customers get better fruit off their trees than they can reliably buy in a store.
@alan Could you please share your opinion on the best strain of Golden Delicious? Trees of Antiquity sells one from decades ago that has a slight bit of russet so they said it is not the Gibson strain. I was thinking of going with their one, assuming the older versions are tastier. Is Gibson mainly for appearance? Not sure which version to go with.
Envy Apple. Very good Apple, really sweet almost no tartness to me. Liked it a lot, but for long run I prefer Cosmic Crisp Apple.
The problem is I don’t know the name or names, but I manage a lot of older trees and at one site some of the old Yellow Delicious died and they replaced them with new trees. These ones consistently had smooth skin and ripened 2 weeks or so before older clone or clones. They were noticeably blander- probably a matter of lower brix.
I have a variety that I was told by a knowledgeable grower that it is fully russeted and bears sound fruit without any pesticide most years. I got a few last year and a nice crop this year but it seems to be a common old strain yellow delicious. Some russet by mostly smooth yellow skin.
The old strain is quite pest resistant as grown in NY. People don’t know what it is because it doesn’t taste like the YD in stores and they usually love it.
Have you tried the Gibson strain? How does it compare to the one you are referring to?
I’m guessing Gibson is the earlier ripening smooth skinned variety as it is the most common variety planted today. The ones I like were planted before it was widely available. I’m assuming it wasn’t distributed in typical all purpose nurseries until at least 10 years after its original release.
I have 100% experienced this here. The old apple trees from the twenties that are yellow delicious are absolutely amazing and a late fall apple in colorado. Most are totally spray free and produce excellent although slightly biennial every year. The new ones definitely ripen in a different window and do not taste near as good. I always wondered if they were grimes golden but these trees are fireblight immune it seems. These same apple trees were planted from the 20s to the 50s and all over Front range and Western slope as Yellow Delicious they are a bit more pale or light green and slightly russeted although will get a light blush in full sun and are just amazing and taste like a improved opal more than a yellow delicious by comparison?
Also picked up some Cosmic Crisps at Costco they are pretty good and i do enjoy there flavour right at the skin, it is slightly unique and i feel the flesh reminds me a lot of honeycrisp but these were maybe not as crisp. I liked them and almost put in they had a old school “delicious” apple taste slightly but maybe that’s just the shape and smell why i feel that way. I would very much like to try one fresh of the tree
I had my first cosmic crisp apple today. I will attempt to grade it by my 2 favorite apples.
CC is very crispy, Unnaturally too crispy, like crispy sweet corn or crispy watermelon, a little unnerving. To quote the produce person where I bought it,“It doesn’t iodize like other apples!” Yup didn’t turn brown, Very sweet with a hint of welcome acid and a lingering aftertaste which was very pleasant. Overall, a good eat.
Compared to Orleans Reinette. OR is my favorite apple. Far more complex and better acid balance than CC. Both are very pretty apples. OR is a dense fleshed apple and wouldn’t be confused as crisp. OR will out cook CC by a mile but it will “iodize” much faster. Both will steore well.
Compared to Chieftain. Chieftain is a crispy apple with high sugars, good acid balance, and good resistance to oxidation. Chieftain will only store well 2 months. Chieftain also is a very pretty apple. Chieftain cooks like a champ and is field immune to scab in Iowa. No idea how CC performs in the field.
CC continuing performance will depend on the growers, if they will tree ripen it or pick it green like Honeycrisp and RD and let the flavor slip. If it’s like other new releases, growers will be greedy and this apple will become another ‘new’ apple. Not as good as what we can produce in our small orchards and backyards from older apples properly grown.
Envy usually have great texture and always high brix. Occasionally I’ve had one with some balancing acid and more interesting flavor, but it isn’t about the flavor. It’s a safe bet to be at least 7 out of 10 on the happy to be eating it scale, and sometimes better. It either stores way better than most commercial apples, or they take better care of it around here. There are stretches of the year where its the only one available that I’m pretty sure I’ll want to eat.
Thank you Jafar. The ones I tasted maybe picked for long time ago. Too sweet and powdered texture. I will taste them again in a different time. Generally I liked it.
I assume all the club apple are mealy and gross. I see the same apples looking undisturbed every time I walk through the produce section at my local supermarket. Nobody is ever buying them, and nobody seems to be restocking them. The same varieties have been on the shelf all year long, with no gaps. Unless they are contracted with S. American orchards, those apples are old as hell. I actually bought a semi-mealy Jonagold in early October, when mine were tree-ripe. I don’t trust supermarkets enough to pay a premium for something a common as apples.
Maybe I should buy them in late Summer time is better. We need the fresh season Apple to taste Justin.
Envys keep for a long time, and are good for at least a few days at room temperature if they were in good shape to begin with.
But sometimes its hard to differentiate degradation from cold or controlled atmosphere storage, vs degradation because they’ve been mis-handled by the grocer or been allowed to sit at room temperature for weeks.
One thing Envy has going for it is they are also imported from New Zealand. They are easily good for more than 6 months if handled properly, so its possible to get excellent apples year round (of course that can also get screwed up if some care isn’t taken).
Tasting tree-ripe Jonagold this year gave me a new appreciation for apples. The crunch is amazing compared to what you find in stores. I cut 1 inch into the fruit, and it splits in two like a dry log. Unfortunately, the rain came a few weeks early this year, and they were starting to split just as the perfume was coming out. I can’t wait to see how it does in a good year. Our Gala was very good too. I was pleasantly surprised by the flavor complexity of an apple I never held in high regard. Fuji was better than market, but the tree has some rotten wood in the core from years of neglect/abuse. It is also coming down after bloom, but I will probably harvest scion first. Red Delicious tree made small apples with thick skin and water core, but it is getting chopped after bloom. Not appropriate to this climate, and universally loathed by all concerned.
I already planted a CC/m26 whip to replace the Fuji. I have 2 more trees to replace, and room for at least 1 columnar type. Probably won’t know if CC is worth growing here for 3-4 years.
I wonder how Envy Apple tree doing in PCN and they’re not disease resistant variety?
Yes , i had one CC apple on M 26 as well even nurseries notice may not ripen well in cool weather in Western Washington areas Justin.
Yeah, but I am experimenting with Nanaimo and Frost peach as well. In a sunny year, we get a serious urban heat island effect. The sun didn’t come out this Summer until 12-1pm nearly every day. I think I slept with my bedroom window open 6 or 8 days this whole year, so this would probably be a crappy year if I had a mature CC tree. We have slow-draining loamy silt on a decent slope, so heavy Summer rains just run down hill. Most people irrigate with soaker hoses here because sprinklers just run into the street. I am hoping the overall sun/dryness here will compensate for some of the heat inadequacy. Being kind of a big-ass apple to begin with, I don’t care if it is a little small if the flavor is there.
