Ashmeads Kernal is probably my favorite apple at the moment. I love its intense rich flavor.
Anyone growing any other varieties that are similar?
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Iâm going to break your rules, because I donât love Ashmeadâs Kernel. But hopefully thatâs because I just havenât had a proper one yet.
Karmijn de Sonnaville is supposed to be intensely flavored.
I much prefer Golden Russet. It is rich, strongly flavored, heavily sugared, and well balanced. Probably my favorite home-grown apple.
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There are many many apples in the ârich, dense and flavorfulâ category, since it seems that in recent history that was what most people cared about and selected for in England and France.
The supermarket apples of today are more in the âcrisp, juicy, sweet and refreshingâ category, and they are lovely and tasty, but since in times past we couldnât store apples, and keep these qualities constant, this aspect was much less important or appreciated.
All russets, and French and English heirlooms usually have plenty to offer in the ârich, dense and flavorfulâ category.
Ashmeads Kernel is particularly appreciated since you can eat it - and it is delicious, but you can also cook it into sauce or make a killing apple pie with it, and it makes stunningly great cider as well.
Old apples were mostly selected for these three uses together, since you would pick them in autumn and then have the whole winter to figure out what to do with them next.
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From our orchard, Karmijn, Hudsonâs Golden Gem, Esopus Spitzenberg, Orleans Reinette, and Goldrush.
One old, rare variety that has been called intense that Iâm growing but havenât tasted yet (this year at last?) is Wismerâs Dessert.
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Reinne de reinette is a good one. Very similar appearance to Ashmeadâs. I think Ashmeadâs may be essentially a âreinetteâ type, though âbredâ in England
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I also really favor denser and more rich/complex flavored apples.
I generally love most russets. Golden Russet (many cultivars) and Roxbury are staples for me. I find Roxbury better earlier in the keeping season, say early-mid Nov. My Golden Russet hits itâs stride about early-mid December and really gets tasty. Before that itâs more dry, tart and flat flavored.
Chestnut Crab IMO is among the best high flavor apples for early main season, about mid-Sept. here.
I believe Karmijn is an Ashmeadâs offspring. Iâve heard it compared to Ashmeadâs and itâs supposed to be better adapted to North American growing conditions.
Sweet 16 is quite potent, though some people seem to think it tastes like cough syrup. I like it, myself.
Thereâs always Coxâs Orange Pippin.
I have a number of âwildâ selections in my orchard, a number of which are probable cultivars. One, which I suspect based on limited research to be the Scottish cultivar James Grieve, has a distinctive carmined skin and excellent complex flavor. Iâve found the same cultivar at two different 1800âs farmhouses about 1 hr away from one another.
Carmine striping seems generally associated with certain traits, which tends to include complexity of flavor IME. Kind of similar to how russeting seems to go along with a lot of other traits like density flesh, dryness, syrupy flavor, and resistance to many bugs and disease. Carmine striped apples seem to be somewhat âof a kindâ
Another apple, perhaps my best find, has a very unique appearance: almost whitish skin with partial russet overlay. Iâd compare it most closely to blue pearmain appearance-wise, though itâs much lighter in color. It has a similar splotchy russeting, though over a pale white background with subtle gold steaks of red carmine. Itâs extremely flavorful. The tree I collected scionwood from was clearly part of a small abandoned orchard. There were two varieties on this tree, one quite inferior to the other, which I interpreted as rootstock grown up. If so, it wasnât half bad itself, but the other âgraftedâ variety is excellent. I wish I knew the cultivar. I wonder if maybe itâs Fameuse? Iâll post a picture of it next time I get it to fruit. Many apples seem to really vary in appearance depending where theyâre grown and when exactly theyâre picked. This one is quite distinctive though
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How big do your Ashmeadâs Kernel apples get on your tree? I had about half a dozen on my tree last year and they were pretty small. I am not sure if this is the normal size they get or perhaps it was an off year. It was the first year I had any apples off this tree.
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Hearing your description makes me understand why people brave a climate that can freeze you to death half the year. Iâm sad I canât grow and taste these apples down in zone 9.
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Ours are usually similar in size to Macoun, Liberty, and McIntosh.
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Karmijn has similar flavor but is much more intense and more tart.
Karmijn is probably the most intensely flavored of all apples. It hitâs you right in the face.
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I said Karmijn was an Ashmeadâs offspring, but itâs actually Coxâs Orange x Jonathan. I havenât tried it, but would like to.
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i was just about to say the same.
Karmijn de Sonnaville is an older Dutch apple.
https://edepot.wur.nl/564478 (Dutch source on apples bred by Piet de Sonnaville, the creator of Karmijn de Sonnaville )
lists it as triploid (confirmed by genetic testing) and also
Cox Orange Ă Jonathan as parents. However not confirmed by genetic testing.
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I was once like @murky and not a big Ashmeads fan, but my tree finally got into good production (it got munched severely by deer - it is still an oddity with an L-shaped trunk) and I have had some really amazing ones.
When I think intense I would put Reinette Clochard at or near the top, it is rich and lemony. It is not crisp at all though so will probably never be popular.
Rubinette is pretty intense, similar to Cox but more sour.
Chestnut I would agree is a very rich-flavored apple.
Some apples when stored a very long time can get pretty intense. I had a Suncrisp in March which knocked my socks off, it was very aromatic. Also I had another apple which I think was Grimes Golden and it was unreal. It was getting too soft but the flavor, wow!! Storage is a big factor to get the full richness out of many apples. Nearly all the old varieties were designed for food through the winter.
I donât find most of the yellow-flesh apples like GoldRush, Roxbury, Golden Russet etc as that intense, they are more in the strong sweet-sour category. I need more than tons of sweet and sour to call an apple intense. Well, these guys do have a lot of flavor as well, just not as much to me as Clochard etc.
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Of the Apples that have been named in this thread I have only tasted Rubinette, James Grieve and Chestnut. Very intense Russets I have tasted, that should be awailable in North America are Parkers Pepping and Damason Reinette.
Of Apples that are more locally known, the Oetwiler Reinette, which is said to be a cross between Reine des Reinettes and Blenheim Orange, is pretty intense.
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Intensely flavored? Someone already mentioned Spitz, and I concur. but are you interested only in intense tart apples? Goldrush perfectly ripened is tart and intense, and like Spitz and
Ash can also reach very high levels of brix, so by intense you may mean lots of acid and lots of sugar but some intense flavored apples lean more on the sugar⌠even Rush eventually becomes a full-on sweet if its in storage long enough and it achieved peak quality by harvest.
King David is intensely flavored but more on the sweet to acid side. Another even smaller apple that packs a flavor wallop is Wickson crab. Suncrisp is intensely flavored but leans on sweet. So does a ripe Cox, for that matter, in spite of its rep for tartness. Of the English types, Brambleyâs is also pretty intense.
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Here are the size of the Ashmeadâs Kernel apples on my tree last year. To me they look smaller than I thought they would be. Maybe this is the size they are normally. As you see it is has been in the crisper for a while. I am experimenting to see how long they can hold their flavor. So far, great.
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My Early Mcintosh is a pretty intense tasting apple. I have never found a store bought variety that even comes close.
It is a cross of Mcintosh and yellow transparent⌠neither of which I have ever eaten that I know of⌠just not available in stores here.
I suppose its taste is a blend of the two ?
When you first bight into it⌠guarantee it is going to get your attention with some wow tartness and flavor that finishes sweet.
Summer brfore last my SIL was recovering from covid and was in that stage where had lost his smell and taste still.
He took a bite of early mc⌠and said now there is something I can taste.
It makes some awesome apple jam, fried apples and a real wake up call for your mouth for fresh eating.
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Looks and sounds like a great apple. Are they normally the size you show here?
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@MikeC ⌠If I do a decent job of thinning them they look like thisâŚ
Not a big apple but more of a medium/small size. They may average 3 inch diameter and are usually a little wider than tall (somewhat flattened).
It is currently still blooming⌠in the later stages⌠last 1/3 or so and some of the earlier blossoms have little apple bumps already. Looks like it is going to be a good Early Mc year ⌠if no late frosts come around.
4/15/2020 we got mid 20s⌠i had half inch apples⌠lost them all. Dont want to see that again.
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Maybe that apple develops âintenseâ flavor where you are, or maybe you consider apples that are highly aromatic intense. We have early Macs here that are quite flavorful off the tree (and become mush in a couple of weeks in the fridge) but they donât represent what I consider an intense apple- brix isnât high enough.
However, I donât own the franchise on what defines âintenseâ flavor.
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