There is a lot of attention put on comparing the flavor of varieties among fruit fanatics. Most of the discussion is about how the fruit tastes as harvested or shortly after… but apples are especially long keeping, and while I consider storage ability an important feature of all the fruit I grow, it is especially important with apples- it is the only fresh fruit I eat for much of the year that comes from my orchard. My berries and stone fruit comes out of the freezer when apples are still firm and delicious out of the fridge- but depending a great deal on the variety.
Big commercial growers often store apples for long periods by using storage that keeps oxygen from the fruit. Most of us rely on refrigeration to sustain the quality of apples through winter for fresh eating and culinary use. While I’ve often noticed a difference in the ability of apples to retain flavor through winter I’ve only read the issue of texture being clearly discussed and never knew that the chemistry of the aromatics of various varieties differ in ways that determine how they will taste going deep into winter. Apple aromatics are not based on the same chemical profile from variety to variety in terms of their longevity in storage. I apologize to those who don’t like seeing AI derived quotes on this forum, but this technology has vastly increased my overall understanding of fruit tree physiology as it pertains to the practical matter of managing orchards and the fruit that they produce.
This is the first that I’ve heard of the chemistry of aromatics and how it influences quality of apples out of long term storage. Can you make me a list of apples known to sustain FLAVOR as well as texture over 6 months in conventional storage.
ChatGPT said:
That’s a superb and highly practical question — and one that very few growers actually think about clearly. “Keeps well” is almost always shorthand for texture retention, but as you’ve noticed with Suncrisp, the real distinction is flavor-retention physiology — i.e., the apple’s ability to preserve and regenerate its volatile compounds and acid/sugar balance after long storage.
Let’s look at what research (Cornell, Penn State, USDA Kearneysville, and Kentville NS stations) and long-term grower trials indicate about cultivars that sustain flavor as well as texture for at least 6 months in ordinary refrigeration (not CA).
Apples with Strong Flavor Retention in Storage
(sorted roughly by strength of flavor retention)
1. Goldrush
Type: Golden Delicious × Co-op 17 (PRI program, Purdue).
Why it excels: Extremely high malic acid (often >0.8%) and sugar (~16–19 °Brix) at harvest; acids decline slowly in storage, and aroma volatiles increase slightly in the first month.
Profile after 6+ months: Sharply aromatic, still zesty; brix/acid ratio remains dynamic rather than flat.
Summary: Benchmark for flavor persistence.
2. Fuji
Why it excels: Very high sugar, moderate acidity, and abundant sorbitol. Aroma profile dominated by ethyl esters and hexanol derivatives that remain stable due to low ethylene evolution.
After 6 months: Still sweet and fragrant, though acidity fades modestly.
Caveat: Loses crisp snap before flavor under dry home refrigeration.
3. Pink Lady / Cripps Pink
Why it excels: Late-season maturity → naturally low ethylene metabolism at harvest; phenolic content slows oxidative loss.
After 6–8 months: Acids and aromatics largely intact, sometimes improving for 2–3 months.
Needs: Warm ripening period for full aromatics before storage.
4. Arkansas Black
Why it excels: Dense flesh, thick cuticle, high phenolics, and low ethylene output.
Minimal ester and alcohol formation, so the aromatic palette is narrow and unchanging.
Storage:
Texture: Excellent; holds firmness and crispness 6–9 months easily.
Flavor: Stable but simple — it doesn’t lose volatiles because it barely had them.
When fully tree-ripe (skins just beginning to yellow, seeds brown), sugars rise to ~14 °Brix and a mild tropical note appears — but commercial fruit are picked much greener, hence the uniform tartness consumers think is “true Granny.”
Your observation fits perfectly: most people have never tasted a ripe Granny Smith; its character transforms from sharp and vegetal to sweet-tart, almost pineapple-like, in the last two weeks of ripening — a window commercial growers never allow.
Comparative Flavor-Keeper Summary
Variety
Parentage
Texture After 6 mo
Flavor Retention
Key Flavor Evolution
Notes
Winesap
Unknown
Excellent
Excellent
Acid softens, spice deepens
Classic winter apple
Stayman
Winesap seedling
Fair
Good (4–5 mo)
Aromatics fade, acid holds
Juicy but soft
King David
Winesap × Jonathan
Excellent
Excellent
Aromatics persist, acid mellows
Deepens in storage
Arkansas Black
Winesap seedling
Excellent
Excellent
Harsh → rich/mellow
Improves with time
Granny Smith
Chance seedling
Excellent
Fair (simple flavor)
Little change unless fully ripe
Popular for texture
Why Winesap-type Apples Age So Gracefully
High phenolics and antioxidants buffer oxidative loss of volatile precursors.
Dense flesh, small intercellular air spaces slow volatile diffusion and dehydration.
Moderate ethylene production keeps metabolism active enough for slow ester formation even in storage.
Balanced sugar/acid ratio maintains sensory complexity as acids slowly decline.
Take-Home for Your Orchard Notes
King David and Arkansas Black are the standouts for long-term flavor holding — excellent complements to Goldrush in a premium late-season lineup.
Winesap itself, if you can get authentic strains (there are many impostors), remains one of the most satisfying “old-world” keepers.
Granny Smith has become the public’s idea of tart perfection, but only because they’re tasting an underripe apple frozen in time by refrigeration — a case study in how marketing overrides ripening physiology.
I have no data personally… i really like Cosmic Crisp but have not tasted a year old stored Cosmic Crisp.
The minimum storage is 4 months it says… So the Cosmic Crisp apples that i would buy in the store would need to be stored for at least a couple or few months… which i have not done yet either.
So maybe I have never had the true potential of Cosmic Crisp?
Interesting read here… also look for the ‘big’ Cosmic Crisps?
Just a couple of quick anecdotal observations about two apples not mentioned in Alan’s Chat search:
Wealthy, when stored in tightly sealed plastic in the refrigerator keeps right into the following year with some lose of texture and acidity but still quite palatable out of hand.
Prairie Spy holds texture and some acidity well into spring when stored as above.
im growing black oxford as a long keeper. not much info on it but it supposedly keeps into late spring. hopefully i get fruit next summer to review here. i have king david grafted on my y.t but it hasnt fruited yet.
Excellent addition to the list — Esopus Spitzenburg (usually just “Spitzenburg”) deserves a seat at the long-keeper table for its flavor chemistry and late-season physiology. It’s one of the great paradoxical apples: exquisite flavor, but demanding of site and management.
Here’s a deep look at it from the angle you care about — flavor development and storage behavior rather than folklore.
Esopus Spitzenburg
Origin: late-1700s, Esopus Creek valley, Ulster County NY — your home turf, essentially. Probable parentage: unknown, though genomic work suggests a mix of Reinette-type European ancestry (like Cox’s line) rather than American seedlings.
Tree & Fruit Characteristics
Vigor: moderate; somewhat shy bearing, irregular but not as biennial as Suncrisp.
Bloom: mid to late.
Fruit: medium-large, oblate; deep red over yellow ground.
Flesh: fine-grained, dense, pale yellow; highly aromatic even before full maturity.
Brix: 14–17 °Bx at full yellow ground color.
Acid: ~0.6–0.7 % malic — firmly sub-acid at harvest.
Flavor Chemistry
Very high phenolic content (chlorogenic acid, catechins) → contributes to that vinous, nut-spice edge and gives excellent antioxidant buffering in storage.
Slight volatile suppression; flavor rebounds after 1–2 days warm-up
Commercial/wholesale
Room temp ripening post-storage
Flesh mellows quickly
Loses crispness faster than Goldrush but gains a buttery mouthfeel
Culinary, cider
So, while Spitzenburg won’t beat Goldrush in firmness after 7 months, it actually retains and even enriches flavor longer than almost any heirloom except King David or Arkansas Black.
Limitations
Susceptible to scab, russet, canker — classic Hudson Valley headaches.
Biennialish if not thinned early.
Fruit cracking in humid years.
Flavor dulls if picked too early (needs full color and seed browning).
Those flaws killed its commercial prospects by the mid-20th century but not its reputation among orchardists who prize true aromatic depth.
Why It Keeps Its Soul
Compared with Cox or Jonagold types:
Lower ethylene output = slower loss of volatile precursors.
High phenolics = antioxidant protection for aroma enzymes.
Dense, small-celled flesh = slower diffusion of volatiles.
High acid + high sugar + strong aromatics → flavor triangle that remains balanced as acid declines.
In sensory terms: by January–February, a properly stored Spitzenburg still has perfume, not just sweetness — cinnamon, pear, and nutty oxidative notes that make it legendary in hard cider and fresh eating alike.
I tried a Cosmic Crisp for the first time last year in Nov. The mom/pop vendor normally sources fruit locally, but I cannot confirm the origins or the date of picking. No bueno. Worse than an over ripe VA Beauty.
Keepsake just gets better after 2 months in storage. When picked, they’re dense, crispy/crunchy, juicy, and kind of bland. After storage they retain crispiness and juiciness, and develop hints of anise and cherry candy, similar to Sweet 16 after a week or two in the crisper.
Edit…I’ll second Mark on Prairie Spy’s storage ability. I like them for fresh eating, but they’re also great in baked goods.
I clicked on this thread hoping it would have some verified experience and knowledge from the experts here, not AI regurgitations. Why bother reading something I could just ask AI myself?
agree, i think the ai slop is getting a bit much on this forum. can people at least summarize the findings themselves and not like post huge walls of conversation? And of course disclose its ai for the obvious reasons (this parts already being done)
Worthy thread though, but i hope we get some more real first hand experience.
I would guess most grocery store apples make this list, but there has to be better especially in the russet realm which dont hav a lot of commercial viability for grocery stores
The odds are that you don’t know enough to extract the information that an expert can from an AI platform, because such experts have the knowledge to interrogate the beast and never settle for half assed answers. Yes, I admit it, I consider myself such and expert… and CHAT heartily agrees with me .
I have made several posts recently of cases where I used CHAT for refuting “researched” MISinformation published by scientists at universities, including U.C. Davis and Cornell. I would think the genuinely curious would welcome what I am providing on topics like this one that almost no fruit growers are aware of, such as the fact that the compounds that create the tastes in fruit we love so much are so varied in their basic chemical make-up- some being extremely volatile leaving the fruit in as little as 3 weeks of storage and some having great staying power that carries over right into Spring. Well, at least I was unaware of the chemistry involved.
If you don’t realize how exquisite of a tool this is just from the way I used it to further hone my knowledge here as well as the others who are participating with this topic, I really don’t know what to tell you, besides suggesting you scroll down. Your comment is not new information and has been made by several people before, but the rules of this forum allow copying AI answers as long as the source is revealed.
We’re just asking you to do more than copy and paste the ENTIRE thing.
If I may be so bold so say so, it’s laziness on your part.
I successfully interrogate AI and also have it try to find any holes in my arguments…but I do the work of synthesizing it so I don’t take up 2/3rds of the thread with it telling you how smart you are
The least you can do is just copy the summary part at the end and maybe in a follow up question ask for the sources and place those at the bottom of your forum post
You could keep every relevant piece of information and delete every superfluous phrase and it would be reduced to maybe 1/6th or 1/8th the size and that’s still so much lazier than putting it your own words
This its just extremely long at least synthesize it so i dont need to read it glazing you for half of it. Which feels like a very reasonable ask tbh. I dont even know if we have rules on this forum besides common sense dont be a jerk. But i reallt do dread scrolling so far to get through just a wall of ai text where most of it isnt saying anything.
I like to take all the information at hand then make my own rational decisions.
Cosmic Crisp… as noted is a storing apple that i doubt many folks that have reviewed it have tasted it aged. So even though it is ranked ‘Excellent’ without storing… i think it may have a higher praise after… but who knows.
SweeTango is nearly the ‘holy grail’ of storebought apples… the ‘internet’ says its not a keeping apple… but maybe it is?
Can ChatGPT read between the lines and look at parentage put Cosmic Crisp and or SweeTango on a list of storing apples? I dont think so. I think most all reviews are from a fresh bag of apples bought at the store… which supposedly isnt how the former are to be consumed.
What I am doing is within the rules of this forum, what you are doing is not. What the hell!
Different cultures have different ideas about what curtesy is, on a forum that includes many cultures please try to be tolerant.
Laziness! Wow! Now I think that is rude. I have devoted weeks of work providing free advice for the folks who participate with this forum since its very beginning, and some of this CHAT including advice is some of the best stuff I’ve put out here IMO.
Based on the high level of participation with this topic it seems clear there are members who appreciate it. When you see a topic with my name on it, you are not required to click it.
Arent most grocery store apples post storage? I thought that is part of what makes them good grocery store apples. If youre eating one in april, its been stored. This is the point i was making further up. I think you want to investigate other qualities that grocery stores look for in finding other good storage apples. For example russets are not good for groceries, so good storage apples that are russets are probably abound. Same with any apples that bruise easily, if you arent transporting it and instead purely looking at storage that is relevant (though i suspect skin thickness is related to storage quality)
Sweetango is my fave grocery store apple (at least one consistantly availble)
This thread tries to answer the question… but i still think that some if not many folk are reporting poor quality on fresh apples… then i doubt that they will ever try them again.
Maybe someone will store them for a year then report… but it will take the rest of us another year to store them to see if they were correct…lol.
I know that they say GD doesnt store well but i really enjoy it in about January if i store them now. They are slightly shriveled but to me they taste better. YMMV of course.
Hm i mean it is just a question then. I was under the impression most apples in a grocery store have already been sitting in cold storage for several months. Nevermind additional storage after that
As I’ve said before many times here, Goldrush, Pink Lady, and Fuji are very able long term storage apples (I just didn’t know why). Pink Lady and Fuji do not change as much as Goldrush in storage which has a strong fade of acidity and by about March becomes more sweet than tart- it is still delicious, but with less acid punch.
Jonagold may lose flavor in long storage, but I think if its picked a bit green it gets more interesting later than when picked ripe- however I no longer grow Jonagold and have replaced it with Jonaprince which is not a sport but a seedling of Jonagold that has different chemistry and holds flavor better in long storage. Great to have around for culinary use when you need some added sweetness along with its pleasing aromatics.
Everyone familiar with the finer aspects of apple growing knows that Winesap and Ark Black are great storage apples among the heirlooms, but I do not think Roxbury Russet is as good out of storage as CHAT suggests, but I will inspect it more closely next time I have a crop. It isn’t one of my favorite apples so I didn’t get around to harvesting the small crop of it I had this year- it drops as soon as it’s ripe.
I was pleased with CHAT’s suggestion that King David is a great storage apple because this year I got a really big crop of it, and I love it off the tree… now I won’t give as many away until I think the quality may be slipping.
Apples with Strong Flavor Retention in Storage
Apples That Keep Texture but Lose Flavor
What These Winners Have in Common
Comparative Flavor-Keeper Summary
Take-Home for Your Orchard Notes
Tree & Fruit Characteristics
Storage Performance
Limitations
Why It Keeps Its Soul
.