HoneyCrisp is 15 or so years old, I think I ate my first one in 2007. A good one may still be better than any of the others on your list. Growing them in warmer areas or without regular spraying might be the downfall of them though.
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Thank you very much for your feedback BlueBerry!
Honey Crisp is one of my favourites in my collection. I’m from Europe, so it is quite difficult to find the rest of those varieties mentioned, but I’m working on it 
I really want to not just try them, but to posess them all 
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We have troubles in US getting new ones from Switzerland, Germany, Czech, Romania, France, etc, etc…so understand your plight.
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That’s from what perspective you look at it…
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Not on your list but I really enjoy Opal apples
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You might like to read through this thread discussing apples sweetness vs tartness.
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This is probably brix % for sugar, but it will not tell the whole story about the flavour though
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About 3 years ago I was considering to graft it, but then I leaned towards Sirius and Orion.
Now I regret, that I didn’t get Opal.
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Ruby Frost - best.
Snap Dragon - second best.
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On that list everyone will hate me but cosmic crisps first I really did like the ruby frost apples I tried Nice and sweet and tart but several on that list were just sweet and had a lack of depth and flavour tree ripened honey crisp would be third on that list for me as I assume the other two actually tree ripened would just be fantastic.
I think the best new apples are coming from your Czech German and Swiss (opal and topaz are great) breeders but skillcult and a lot of new guys are making new crosses
You could look at pristine and keepsake they are a friend of mines favorites.
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I believe that’s the first time I’ve seen Pristine listed as ranking in a taste test (without qualifiers such as “best early apple” or “best mostly disease free apple” or something).
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Well i think thats why for both of them and i would love to compare pristine to irish peach for early apples and the fact they can be grown organic and no spray in many areas is pretty impressive and figured they deserved some love.
The thing about early apples is its been so long since you had a real apple that they are kind of the best even though they are not really.
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I’d take a tree ripened SweeTango over anything on that list that I’ve had. Although I have only had HoneyCrisp, Ever Crisp, and Cosmic Crisp on that list. I do find it interesting that I sometimes will see the Washington Introductions locally long before Cornell’s.
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Does this resemble your “Irish Peach” or not?
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Is Pristine better than Early Geneva?
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Beautiful fruit 
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I would hope Pristine is better than Geneva Early…for Geneva early gets ripe one at a time over 3 weeks…and if you don’t pick them in a one or two day window they drop or they are like a 3 month old yellow delicious that hasn’t been refrigerated…mush.
So, for early cooking or frying before they are ripe…might be good…for eating Geneva Early is nothing to get excited about unless it’s been too long since you had an apple at all.
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I have Biliy Naliv which is quite good if picked before full ripening, otherwise it turns into mush just like you say Geneva does.
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I feel like it is probably Cosmic Crisp as it seems to be the most consistent (if you are talkin store-bought). And you can’t get Cosmic Crisp outside the store unless you happen to live within the state of Washington.
I think Evercrisp gives Cosmic Crisp a run for its money though. And is more widely available as one only needs to pay dues to the MAIA to grow it. Back in pre-COVID times when I was going to grocery stores, we had some very good Evercrisp apples that were better than the Cosmic Crisps we have been getting.
Honeycrisp is such a fickle apple and if you get it in a drought year and the trees don’t just up and decide to drop all of its apples, it is very good. But growing it is a pain.
Pristine is not as good as Williams Pride, hands down. Though it is slightly earlier. This is a hill I will die on.
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Sorry Blueberry but Honeycrisp is way over 15 years old! I lived in Minnesota when it was released. One of the people from U of MN came out to the nursery I worked at and asked us to propagate it. It was not yet named except with a number and was to be officially released 3 years later. He provided us with scionwood and we we were the 5th nursery in the U.S. to offer Honeycrisp trees. I don’t recall the exact date on this but that was roughly 30 years ago . He brought us sample apples to eat that day in January and I had to marvel at how crisp they still were since only kept in a normal refrigerator after being picked the previous September.
I sold many of our first small crop of honeycrisp trees to a friend who planted them at his orchard based on my suggestion on how good they really tasted. He was the first source offering Honeycrisp apples for sale at the St. Paul farmer’s market. Said they sold out fast and he made good profit on them.
It is my wife’s favorite apple. I have two trees in my orchard. While good to eat, it is the worst apple I have ever grown. Slow to bear fruit, biennial bearing, wimpy grower ect. I am holding out that perhaps one of the newer honeycrisp hybrids will be just as tasty to eat yet be more grower friendly.
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