We did pick one large HC recently at an apple farm, we’ll see how it will taste here. So far the apples here taste a lot better than anything I can find in my local Sprouts.
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I live in northern Utah with almost the exact last and first frost dates as Minneapolis. My 10 year old honeycrisps are still my favorite apple after trying dozens of locally owned varieties. I give away a ton of fruit to friends but honeycrisp is one I keep for myself.
But store bought ones range from a step down to sweet cardboard so don’t judge an apple by mass production…
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The Honeycrisp at grocery stores here in WA state are always crisp, but very rarely sweet. They are primarily sour and crisp, makes the name misleading. We’re talking 10 or 11 brix.
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I’ve grafted about a third of my Granny Smith tree over to HC here in the SF Bay Area. We get hot days and cooler nights (50-60degrees). My HC ripens middle of August and are very sweet and crunchy. I do not water the tree at al during the summer, but am sure the roots extend to pick up some water from surrounding garden beds.
The Granny Smith is edible late October, but if left on the tree, it turns yellower and is much sweeter in December. Much better than store bought very green Granny Smiths.
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By my measurement and memory, once they get to about 12.5 they become good and above 13 quite good- still not an important apple to me, but others love them. I give them all away and keep other varieties for myself. And yes, the ones I love often can get up to the high teens and into the low 20’s. Even if HC got near those numbers, it still wouldn’t be a top 10 apple for me. The crunch to my mouth senses isn’t much different than Jonaprince and the flavor is non-distinctive. In fact, when folks try Jonaprince they usually think it’s an excellent Honeycrisp.
Jonaprince is a particularly red and high brix Jonagold- perhaps partially because it doesn’t get quite as big as the original.
I’ve only had a Jonagold once that I liked, it was at an apple ID table. Enough people love it that I’m convinced it’s the quality of the apples I’ve tried and not just my palate.
I’m not a fan of old-strain Jonagold most seasons. I am a fan of Jonaprince as a nice sweet keeper that I love to shred into my waffle mix. It also makes an very nice dessert by simply microwaving it to softness after hollowing it out, filling with yogurt or ice cream- I drizzle the plain yogurt with some maple syrup.
It is one of several varieties I like to have in the fruit fridge through winter.
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Another thing is that in a given year a crop can be better or worse. This year my prairie magic was pretty good but it did not hit the same note it did two years ago. My guess is the fact that in August it rained for just about the entire month, they did not get many chances to soak up sun.
Just ate this HC this morning, it’s big, but very average, not crunchy, not juicy. I had some better from Sprouts. So I think it maybe the location.
So far I like Pixie Crunch the best. Had a few McIntosh apples, they are definitely better than store bought in California, a little bit on the tart side, but crunchy and juicy. But I remember they had a nice smell in my kitchen when I bought it years ago, maybe 40 years ago, so that’s why I picked some this time.
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