Well done.
Love reading apple taste test results- hope more people do them.
I did this with hard ciders a couple winters ago and posted results.
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It continues to be fascinating how different people taste different. I can understand that some folks have preferences for sweet or tart and will give a low rating to a variety others have given a 10. But samples from the same apple called both very juicy and dry? Flavorless and full flavored?
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I guess you could get the results youâre looking for if you control who is doing the sampling. Sampling done by rare fruit growers isnât going to get the same results as sampling on the sidewalk in front of a major supermarket!
Yes, true, except, even here there is, thankfully, a wide range of opinion.
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Perhaps some people are responding to tannins and astringency when they say dry, while others are describing texture, density, or how the cells burst to release liquid.
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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 girlsâ 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 havenât 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 â averaged 7.8 out of 10 â 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 hadnât 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 ânot a lot of flavor.â It saddened me because it had emerged as one of my favorite apple varieties.
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Last Wednesday (October 11) we conducted our first and perhaps only public apple taste test for 2023 at the Trumansburg Farmers Market, where we are vendors. All apples were grown in our orchard. As in previous years we asked participants to sample apples and complete our form to rate each variety. First we asked them to grade them on a scale of 1 to 10. Then we asked them to pick their top three favorites, assigning them 1, 2, or 3. More than two dozen people sampled some apple slices, and one dozen people took the time to complete the form.
Because of space and time considerations, we brought only seven varieties. Hubbardston Nonesuch, Macoun, Smokehouse, Starkey, Stayman, Tolman Sweet, and Tompkins County King.
For the grading section, based on average score, the apples finished in this order:
Starkey 8.4
Hubbardston Nonesuch 7.6
Smokehouse and Tompkins King 7.5
Stayman 7.25
Macoun 6.9
Tolman Sweet 6.0
As you can see, all were above average. They were helped by a generous 7-or-8-year old who gave them all 10s and her mother who almost as generous.
In the ranking of top three favorites, the apples finished in a different order, but each variety received at least one vote for #1.
Tompkins King (most #1 votes (3) and most totals votes, and a weighted score of 14). A victory for a local hero â Tompkins County King was first grown under four miles from the farmers market.
Starkey (2 votes for #1 and a weighted score of 11)
Hubbardston Nonesuch (only one for for #1, but 4 votes for #2, and a weighted score of 11)
Stayman (2 votes for #1 and a weighted score of 10)
Tolman Sweet (weighted score of 9)
Macoun (weighted score of 11)
Smokehouse (1 vote for #1, 1 vote for #2, no votes for #3, and weighted score of 5)
Here were a few of the written comments:
Hubbardston: âitâs got a sparkle on your tongueâ âtart and soulâ
Macoun: âa classicâ âtoo pithyâ "sweetâ ânicely tartâ
Smokehouse: âtakes you on a journeyâ âtart but sweetâ âcrispâ
Starkey: âalmost like a pearâ âso lightâ
Stayman: âsweetâ âkinda sourâ âmore betterâ âmaybe good for bakingâ
Tolman Sweet: âTrue to its nameâ âCarpet tastingâ âSweet, nothing elseâ âodd textureâ
Tompkins County King: âfeels like pieâ âtoo sweet for meâ âtoo tartâ
Note about the TC King: I sampled a few slices myself and discovered it tasted sweet or tart or bitter depending on the slice. That was odd.
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Great job this year!!
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My wife and I had an impromptu apple comparison in the car thus afternoon. She had picked up a Snap Dragon before heading out the door. She bought some from a roadside stand at a nearby orchard about a week ago. I picked up an Esopus Spitzenberg. It was the only apple from either of two trees that survived to harvest this year. The Snap Dragon was quite sweet but had a certain amount of extra character. The Esopus was not nearly as sweet but had a whole lot of character. My wife called the SD very juicy; I called it watery. The Esopus was juicy enough, with real flavorful juice to my test. Both apples were nicely aromatic, but we were in the confines of the car. After we traded several bites and exchanged our comments, we each finished our preferred apple in tacit agreement. I think you can guess which I preferred.
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I agree the Esopus Spitzenberg is a nice apple, it seems underrated, though not in your taste tests.
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Today during a lunch break from preparing garlic beds, my wife and I compared Ashmeadâs Kernal to Jonagold. Both were very good and quite different. We agreed on placing Ashmeadâs above Jonagold.
Preface: the weekend before last, we were going to compare several of this yearâs one-only apples â apples from trees that due to the late freeze only produced a single fruit. There were complications, so it didnât happen, so those we have eaten have been mellowing at room temperature in the dining room for a week and a half.
The Ashmeadâs had little crunch. The Jonagold was going soft on one bruised side, but the bites we sampled retained its crispness.
My wife described the taste of the Ashmeadâs as deeply sweet and spicy, with little tartness. I picked the Ashmeadâs a week later than I ever had before, and weâve usually eaten most of them in October. I liked the âdeeplyâ description. The taste was not intense, but not mild. Not simply sweet, it was full flavored. Comparing this Ashmeadâs to memories of Ashmeadâs of yesteryear, Iâd say it had finally come into its own. I had been a bit disappointed, because, while quite fine, it had never seemed to be the standout others have claimed it to be.
My wife noted that Jonagold had the taste characteristics of a modern apple. I think she meant too sweet without enough balance of tartness or other flavors. I liked the sweetness and did not think it was overpowering. It seemed quite comparible to Kiddâs Orange Redâ something I hadnât thought before. In my mind, it lived up to previous years as a great apple.
So two winners.
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The few times Iâve tried Ashmeadâs, it was very sour and perhaps moderate sugar at best (at least relative to the acid). It was hard for me to imagine how some people might like it better than Golden Russet.
Your description makes me want to try one that was picked later.
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Ashmeadâs is very good here in my orchard. Nice sweet, spicy, and a nice wow factor when you eat it when ripe. We enjoy this apple in my family.
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Yes, much the same here. Nothing else that Iâve tried is quite like it.
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Weâve conducted a few apples taste tests so far in 2024, not including allowing customers to sample apple varieties for sale at farmers market. The first was conducted at our farm during our cider pressing party on October 5. As in previous years we asked participants to sample apples and complete our form to rate each variety. First we asked them to grade them on a scale of 1 to 10. Then we asked them to pick their top three favorites, assigning them 1, 2, or 3.
Included in the test were Halberstadter Jungfern, Haralson, Pathâs End, Rhode Island Greening, Smokehouse, Spigold, Tolman Sweet. The list was short because a friend asked if he could bring some of his apples to include in the taste test. He arrived late, so only three friends sampled his Dayton, Winecrisp, and a variety he guessed was Autumn Crisp but did not look or taste like our Autumn Crisps.
For the grading section, based on average score, these apples finished in this order:
Haralson and Rhode Island Greening tied for first at 7.6. The RIG came from a mostly untended 100-year orchard two miles away. Haralson was praised for having the âright amount of sweetnessâ and âhint of sour.â
Spigold 6.8 (It got all very high marks except for two who gave it a 3, thus lowering its average. The two who did not like it did not say why.)
Smokehouse and Tompkins King 6.6 (a few said they werenât crunchy or crisp enough)
Pathâs End 5.1 (a variety that was growing here before our arrival. So named for its location on our property. It is very tall tree. If a branch hadnât broken partway off, I could not have reached any apples. Those who commented liked its tartness or thought it too sour.)
Tolman Sweet 4.9 (comments included, very sweet but not interesting, bland, missing flavor, odd texture)
Halberstadter Jungfern 4.3 (it was condemned as too soft, but one person did praise it as very apple-y. In its defense, at market two and a half weeks before, it outsold any other variety and got rave reviews. Had we had a taste test of our earlier apples, it might have won.)
The Dayton got all high marks and averaged 8.3 out of 10. Winecrisp did well, too, averaging 7.0. The other of his apples clocked in with an average of 6.6.
The other part of the test was to choose a favorite, ranking the apples 1, 2, or 3. Weighting the rankings, three apples tied for #1: Haralson, RIG, and Spigold. Since so few tasted the Dayton, it was not included in the rankings, but if others agreed with the three who did, it might have finished on top.
Favorite odd comment: Winecrisp: tastes grayish
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Weâve held one taste test at the farmers market during regular hours. Around 30 people sampled some apple slices, and one dozen people took the time to complete or mostly complete the rating sheet. Because of space and time considerations, we brought only six varieties. Dyer, Jonagold, King David, Macoun, Northwest Greening (which we purchased from Fedco as Briggs Auburn), and RI Greening.
In the rating from 1 to 10, they finished:
Dyer 8.4
King David 7.6
Macoun 7.3
Jonagold 7.3
RIG 6.2
Northwest Greening 5.9
In rankings (choosing three favorites in order), the top three finishers were Dyer, King David, and Jonagold.
Some favorite comments:
Dyer: so good
King David: bursting with flavor; started meh, but great aftertaste
Macoun: lovely taste, brown sugary
NE Greening: bland, but happy
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The best Ashmeadâs Iâve tasted havenât come from my own orchard. They are best when grown in full sun in relatively dry soil and their color should be golden when harvested for them to be truly ready and at their best, IMO.
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No Ashmeadâs Kernels this year from either of our two trees, so none included in our taste tests. Talk about shy bearing!
My Ashmeads took a long time to start fruiting, but it is very reliable now. Unfortunately the spotting is very bad, it gets these big dark spots which go pretty far into the flesh so when you peel it you need to remove a lot to get below the spots. This year I stopped spraying disease control in early June (mainly due to broken collarbone) but next year I plan on spraying in July/August which may make things better. If not I am going to remove it.
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We have two Ashmeadâs Kernels. Our second one is on G210 and was planted in 2020, and it has yet to yield fruit. Our first Ashmeadâs was one of our original orchard trees planted in 2004. It is on Antonovka, and, disappointingly, has never been reliable.