In the past I have ranted on about the “disgusting” overpowering anise flavor of Sweet 16. The last time I did so here someone made a comment indicating it was an earlier apple than I thought. It turns out that when you eat the apple earlier than I had been, its anise flavor is, in fact, appealing to me. I ate one yesterday and just a few are ripening on the tree. They will likely be peaking in a little over a week here in SE NY.
This is one of the things I love about participating in this forum- having mistaken presumptions corrected so I can be a better fruit grower.
H-man, your reaction is interesting to me, as I too have tasted this apple and find the anise flavor overpowering. It is overpowering enough as a spice, let alone in an apple. Still prefer to have my anise in Pernod.
I have only gotten2-3 apples off this variety (and it was 2 years ago). But we waited until the apples fell on their own (we watched daily). It was my kids favorite apple of all time and the anise flavor was more cinnamon-like. I didn’t notice any anise flavor at all.
I had to move it and we are waiting for it to produce again.
Our girls make springerle and pizzelle every year for the holidays. Both of those are flavored with anise oil and/or anise seed. An apple with anise or cinnamon tones in its flavor could be something we’d enjoy. Fruits with unexpected holiday accents sound appealing to me.
I am dealing with a similar anise issue with Ellison’s Orange. The fist one I had was very ripe and was cloyingly strong on the anise side. But the less ripe ones have been better. Overall its not looking like a good apple for me, I think it needs to ripen in less heat. I added sweet 16 this year, will see how it does.
Sweet 16 is the only apple tree I ever bought (about 20 years ago) . It made it about three years before dying back to the rootstock ( that rootstock is still alive to this day!) .So have never had the chance to try one but it is on my short list to try grafting next spring. There is a wild apple here that is a pretty good apple and has a narrow window of ripeness where it has a cinnamon-like flavor (in my opinion)
I should mention that although I find Sw.16 to be an appealing apple, the Zestars that I’ve eaten in the last couple weeks are much better. Really on the top of my list for a mid-early apple, or any apple. It is the only apple I’ve eaten so far this season where I bothered to finish eating the whole thing. It has more a Macintosh type crunch (right off the tree, not out of storage) than a Honeycrisp one and I don’t know how well it stores, but off the tree it is just outstanding. Other apples I’ve eaten so far this season include Sansa, Ginger Gold, Williams Pride, Pristine, Gala and Yellow Transparent- just so you know what I’m comparing Zestar to at this point.
I’ll ditto the Ginger Golds. My one tree got hit w/ fireblight pretty bad but still several apples. Very sweet.
My tastes in apples are different than peaches. I don’t prefer cloying sweet peaches (mostly whites) but I like very sweet apples. For summer apples, I liked Ginger Gold a lot. For my tastes I preferred it to Williams Pride, Zestar, Liveland Rasp., Pristine. Much better than Wealthy, which I didn’t like. Sansa didn’t fruit this year for me, but I understand it’s supposed to be very sweet.
Pixie Crunch was another very good summer apple. Swiss Gourmet (Arlet) is tops IMO for a summer type apple. Really really good.
My Sweet 16 didn’t fruit much this year. I think there was a total of 3 or 4 apples on it. There is one left which doesn’t look ready yet, but maybe I should pick and try it based upon Alan’s observations. Of course one apple isn’t a real analysis, but maybe it will be better than the apples from it last year.