Comments
I wish they'd sell old varieties of apples. The new ones all insist of having Red Delicious (so called) as part of the genetic makeup. It does not impart a good flavor. There are all these nice old ones, like Cortland and Winesap, but you can't get them anywhere.
In Sweden and I think Europe, there seems to be quite much product development in apples. I think one of the reasons is that storage seems to have been more or less perfected so that the produce can be sold over almost a whole year.
Using only traditional methods there are several "new" Swedish varieties, Aroma, Frida and Saga that are very nice - and especially Saga is absolutely fantastic - On par or better that international varieties Jazz, Pink Lady and Honeycrisp.
Some of the more traditional varieties are also sold more and for a longer period because of the improved storage, even though that I think they have a shorter storage window.
By jaapz 2026-03-0914:59 Another reason I think is that not all of these varieties thrive as small trees, and most factory farmed trees are kept small because it makes picking them easier.
I love Boskoop, and they are thankfully still all over German supermarkets. If not, Holstein Cox will do, and if they have it, Elstar.
The real good ones, like Berlepsch, are hard to find here, though, unless you travel to a plantation.
By FinnKuhn 2026-03-099:11 Also love Boskoop, but I feel like they can be more difficult to find than other Apples in German supermarkets.
Any other Apple variety just feels not nearly as juice and regularly too sweet for my taste - especially when you want to use them for baking.
By black_puppydog 2026-03-0820:37 +1 on Boskoop. But also Cox Orange and James Grief
By IncreasePosts 2026-03-0820:161 reply Cosmic crisp seems very commonly available(at least, here in colorado) and has a great taste and texture with no red delicious genes present
Honeycrisp is still a grandchild of golden delicious, though as it turns out not the one the university intended. They claimed it was Macoun and Honeygold but it was a different one of their test experiments after genetic testing.
By IncreasePosts 2026-03-0914:251 reply Yes, I think both enterprise and honey crisp partially descend from golden delicious, but golden and red delicious are not actually closely related
By hinkley 2026-03-0920:24 The implication was that red delicious are kind of garbage and definitely pedestrian and it’s the same company that introduced both to the world. So I’m lumping them into the same boat on general principle. As an adult I won’t touch red delicious but I will once in a while eat a golden.
But the thing is that apples the size for eating are all tetraploid mutants, but meiosis does not guarantee that the pollinated flower receives 2 full sets of genes from both parents. So you get a lot of giant grab apples which are okay for cider or a pectin source for making jam but that’s about it. Most of the modern crosses are coming from one or two ag universities running giant breeding programs.
They say that you need about a thousand (or was it 10,000?) saplings to yield one interesting specimen. Mark Shepard has a sort of yolo mentality here does wild crosse and grows what he can, which is only in the hundreds, and culls any trees that struggle, because he doesn’t want to throw good time after bad. And sells his surplus for root stock. His thought is that if enough farmers do it then one of them will win the lottery. He likes to diversify and hedge his bets.
By ac29 2026-03-0821:11 There's an apple orchard that sells at the farmers market in my city with >40 seasonal varieties, most of which you'd never see at a supermarket. Apples grow well in a lot of the US, its worth looking for local options
I always feel personally attacked when people bad-mouth (ha) the Red Delicious. It's true that many are this mealy disaster -- but I think that's a product of crappy long cellar times and trying to get money for 'old' apples. If you get a good fresh one, it should be the right level of tart, sweet, crisp, and juicy. And when they are good, they are probably my favorite. It's just so damn hard to get the good ones and no great ways to tell if they're good before biting in.
By SauntSolaire 2026-03-0822:151 reply I've picked them straight from the tree and they still end up a mealy disaster. But hey, maybe I'm just bad at picking 'em.
They’ve long since been overbred to look pretty at the price of texture. They’ve done the same to Macintosh, too.
By SauntSolaire 2026-03-091:03 That makes sense, they were by far the prettiest apples at the orchard near me. Of course that just makes it all the more disappointing when you go to eat one.
By simulator5g 2026-03-092:32 Oddly enough, the same exact thing has happened to Macintosh computers...
By hinkley 2026-03-0823:15 Because golden delicious and red delicious were everywhere in the 90's and spontaneous hybridization is a very, very low success rate.
Ambrosia apples appear to be a spontaneous cross of grandchildren of Golden and Red delicious apples.
By grosswait 2026-03-0820:35 I’d like to see a citation - I’m not sure this Red Delicious assertion is true.
Depends on where you are maybe? Cortland is still readily available here (Quebec). Hope it stays that way, I'm feeling slightly worried. Seems like the trend of trademarked new apple varieties has not quite caught up here yet as orchards are not interested in replacing tried and true stocks.
By ghaff 2026-03-0821:24 Yeah, I think my neighbor has a few Cortland trees in New England. Lots of Mcintoshes which aren't great for cooking but generally good for eating. Apples are probably about the last thing I'd say you couldn't get varieties of.
By simojo 2026-03-0819:53 Not if you have a local amish plug
By dodger-dog 2026-03-0819:31 Have you ever even Honey-Crisped, Bro?
The improvements in fruit over the years has improved my quality of life so much. If you have never tried a sumo citrus, I recommend it -- they are only in season till April iirc.
Benefits of sumo citrus: Easy to peel Pith does not remain attached to orange Super juicy Excellent taste and texture, balanced acid and sugar levels.
By fanatic2pope 2026-03-0820:452 reply Funny enough I was eating a Sumo as I came across your comment. They are certainly very tasty, but for the price (which is high at least here in Ohio) I much prefer the tartness of a traditional in-season California satsuma.
By throwup238 2026-03-0821:492 reply All the California satsumas I can find here in California have all converged on the dekopon/Sumo taste and form. It’s confusing because the satsumas on Google images are still mostly the round ones without the bumps.
The prices vary wildly. At the end of the season I can find them in some ethnic grocers for $0.33 a pound while right now they’re $1.50-2 a pound. When they were first coming out years ago they were $4 a piece at Trader Joes.
By bitshiftfaced 2026-03-0914:09 There are dekopon trees that give fruit with the bump and without the bump. You may be finding the ones without the bump. But satsumas have a different enough flavor that you should be able to tell. Also, satsumas are smaller, more oblong, and tend to have a thinner skin.
By hinkley 2026-03-0823:11 Japan does have the bumpy ones. Clementines tend to be more thin-skinned.
I highly recommend trying a cold Sumo. Refrigerated sumos are a bit of an aranciata vibe.
Sumos are bright and brightly flavored fruit often have a better experience when chilled.
By bitshiftfaced 2026-03-0914:111 reply It depends on the season, but they tend to have too much acid at first. Leaving them in the fridge reduces the acid over time improves the flavor profile. But really you should refrigerate all citrus.
By hinkley 2026-03-0920:30 Nah. Mandarins I prefer at room temperature. But I refrigerate apples because I like the crunch.
By HerbManic 2026-03-0819:18 It is always a good time of year then they come along. I have had WAY too many of them but thats not going to stop me from having many more.
By bitshiftfaced 2026-03-0914:05 Similarly, the Tango variety is becoming more commercially available. It has a zipper peel, seedless, and outstanding flavor. It's usually marketed as "Mandarin", though. You kind of have to know what it looks like to be able to tell what's a clementine or not.
Others to watch out for are Gold Nugget (my favorite, but I very rarely see them at the store), and I also saw Kishu at the grocery store for the first time this year.
By waldothedog 2026-03-0823:13 Like sumo, but love minneola!
By pinkmuffinere 2026-03-0818:531 reply I love fruits and vegetables, and am excited about this! That said, I do worry long-term about changes to increase sugar content. Sure it’s delicious, but I think it’s almost strictly worse for me. If only the high-sugar items sell, it will become harder to find low-sugar items. Not to mention the amount of self-control that will be required.
One thing I love about low-sugar citrus is the ability for it to not spike my sugar levels.
I use Miracle Fruit extract which alters the taste buds temporarily to turn sour flavors into sweet flavors. I can eat an entire lime and it tastes like sweet candy, with no real sugar content. No artificial sweetening either.
By vscode-rest 2026-03-090:061 reply I worry for your enamel.
By leptons 2026-03-0918:16 It's not like I'm eating a lime every hour, or every day. It's just an example.
