We had some friends with kids over to do some cider pressing. At the end of the afternoon I conducted an apple taste test. We were a small enough group (three adults, a teenager, and two 10-year olds) that we could gather around the table at the same time. I described the apples and provided a brief history as I cut them up slices. I reduced the number of varieties to 8 from the 12 I have usually done, concerned about the younger girls’ attention span, but I think they would have been able to handle a dozen with no problem. I chose some top finishers from a few weeks ago, but added some later ripening varieties that haven’t been included in tastings before.
And the winner was Esopus Spitzenberg, easily, in its first time being included in one of our tastings. Highest rated – averaged 7.8 out of 10 – and ranked highest with two #1 votes, and one each for second and third. Esopus was consistently called tart or sour and still won. I thought the girls would not like it because of that. My wife and I (who did not fill out the rating sheets) thought it well balanced, not especially tart.
All the rest finished pretty close to each other, statistically insignificant. Connell Red, Tolman Sweet, Red Canada, Stayman Winesap, Northern Spy, and Grimes Golden all averaged between 6.6 and 6.5.
Power of suggestion? One of the adults commented on Tolman Sweet that it had a trace of licorice flavoring. I hadn’t tasted that before, but I tried another slice and agreed.
Poor Hubbardston Nonesuch finished last, but it still received a 6.1. It was my fault. After a couple years of getting better results by picking it two or three weeks earlier than I once had done, this year, even though there were lots of drops on the ground, for too long I kept thinking they are not quite ripe. As a result, in this taste test Hubbardston was called soft and mushy, and someone added “not a lot of flavor.” It saddened me because it had emerged as one of my favorite apple varieties.