It is all in what you like everyone's taste buds are different. They are all good look for a good farmers market or grocery store and you may find one for a trial run. There are many great tasting melons out there for different taste buds.

The best cantaloupe melon ever for me was a large healthy Burpee Hybrid Early Crenshaw.

Burpee Hybrid Early Crenshaw is very nice when well-grown, with great Crenshaw flavor. It can have a slightly cottony or mealy texture at the wrong stage. Early Sugarshaw is better in our hot climate (plants healthier, too) but you can't get seeds anymore. Victim of a seed house takeover, I think. It is very sweet, has wonderful flavor and a tender, melting texture.

The new Lilly hybrid is sweet and prettier than either of the two above, but the flesh is not as thick or tender and it doesn't have as much Crenshaw flavor. If a Crenshaw is, as frequently claimed, derived from Persian and Casaba melons, Lilly favors the Casaba side. Its skin is bright yellow when ripe, and harder than that of the other Crenshaws. (I'm sure it ships better). It is smaller than the big hybrids above, near the size of the traditional Crenshaw. It ripens at about the same time as the two biggies above. There's a commercial hybrid out there somewhere that has green skin when ripe.

The traditional Crenshaw is smaller than the Burpee or Sugarshaw hybrids, more greenish when ripe, later and less prolific than the Sugarshaw or Lilly hybrids above. I have a hard time growing it due to disease problems, but when well-grown, it is a fine melon. Crenshaws are usually grown in hot, arid climates -- partly because of their soft skin -- but they sunscald badly if not protected (Lilly - not so much). The Crenshaws can be stored for a little while, Lilly probably the longest.

Charentais is also a wonderful melon, but quite different from the Crenshaws. Charentais melons are known for developing better flavor than most melons in cool climates. They have their own challenges - splitting, uncertain ripeness indicators, etc. They are much smaller than any Crenshaw. Best eaten soon after picking.

In addition to the "regular" or traditional Crenshaw, there is an open-pollinated "Crenshaw Blanco". It doesn't have the same flavor as most Crenshaws, and I don't like it as well.

In addition the the hybrids I named above, you may get commercial-only Crenshaw hybrids in the marketplace. I've seen some pretty yellow Crenshaws with a different shape and appearance from Lilly, for example.

Early Sugarshaw hybrid Crenshaw is my all-time favorite melon. Figures that it is the one they'd take off the market.

Is the Juan Canary a Crenshaw? I've been getting them at the market. Really like them so bought some seeds on sale at Pinetree.
Good to know about the sun scorching issues.

No the Juan Canary is a specialized melon in the Spanish melon group. It s characterized by its bright canary yelow color when ripe. The OP varieties have a long season, but some of the hybrids have gotten as early as 80+ days.
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Thanks for all the answers, guys. Lots of good info there. I was able to taste some home-grown cantaloupe (Goddess, an Athena type), a Charentais (unknown cultivar) and 'Lily' Crenshaw.
Here's what *I* thought:
1. The cantaloupe and Charentais were almost indistinguishable in flavor and sweetness. Is this normal? The Charentais was more perfumed on the outside though. Both were really, really delicious, far better than anything from the store.
2. The Lily disappointed me a bit because it tasted like a store bought honeydew. Perhaps it was not ripe enough?

Lily is not as flavorful or tender as most other Crenshaw varieties, but I think it tastes a little different from a honeydew. It is very sweet when well-ripened.

Since Early Sugarshaw has been taken off the market, the best alternative for most home growers who want real Crenshaw flavor is probably the old Burpee Early Hybrid Crenshaw. I really liked it when I was growing up in the intermountain west and it can be grown in hotter climates, too, though the plants are not as healthy for me as Early Sugarshaw. Texture is variable for me here, but the flavor is usually "Crenshaw". People with a long, hot, dry season can also try the traditional open-pollinated Crenshaw.

Lilly has its advantages, but it's quite different from the older Crenshaw varieties. I think its best use would be as a short-term storage melon rather than as a prime-season melon.

I had good success one year with St. Nick... a Santa Claus types that ripens very slowly.

In the home gardens I am having very bad disease pressure on melons just before ripening time. When the health of the vine is lessened..FORGET IT.

I tried Lilly one year. It set one fruit that never ripened. I need shorter season melons.

ltilton: Here, Lilly ripens at about the same time as Early Sugarshaw, and it was a little earlier than the Burpee Early Hybrid Crenshaw this year. Other years, Burpee and Sugarshaw have ripened at about the same time.

I've seen the Burpee hybrid ripen fairly consistently in cool fall weather in a Zone 5/6 garden with no special efforts to speed growth. Lilly leans toward a Casaba style melon. It may not take too well to cool ripening weather. But don't take my word for it, because we haven't had cool ripening weather. I don't really know if it ripens more slowly than the Burpee hybrid in cool weather.

None of the Crenshaws is remarkably productive for me, but I have repeat crops on Lilly and Sugarshaw this year. On the other hand, the melons are bigger than the typical muskmelon, so fewer melons per plant seems sort of acceptable, given their quality.

Wayne, one advantage of a St. Nick type melon is that if the plant dies early or if it just doesn't ripen before the end of the season, you can peel and seed it and pretend it's a sweet cucumber. You can try the same thing with honeydews. Our old dog pulled up a Piel de Sapo plant one year. He loved burpless cucumbers and I think he mistook the melons for cucumbers. I have seed of the earlier new variety Lambkin, but didn't plant any this year.

I don't grow netted muskmelons here anymore since they are grown commercially nearby. We get ripe ones at the grocery store and there have been some remarkably good ones in the past few years for not much money. I think there has been some improvement in standard commercial varieties. I only grow specialty types now.

I tried Lilly a couple years. Perhaps I got a good one or two, but when the plant was loaded with them the next year, I was disappointed in the lack of really great flavor. A super melon is such a work of art.

I left one Lilly on the vine for several days after it looked completely ripe, until it slipped. The weather was hot, so waiting for this variety to slip after it turns yellow could take a LONG time in more moderate weather (unless plants were watered a little too much). The melon that slipped had a texture closer to other Crenshaws, but was still not as flavorful as the other hybrids I've grown. Still think it would be a good short-term storage melon. It is sweet even when firm, and is attractive with its bright yellow skin and orange flesh.

Fwiw, Seminis distributed Early Sugar Shaw (developed outside of Seminis), but these days they've scaled down their melon offerings to traditional US-style cantaloupes and honeydews. They have a somewhat-limited home gardener market offering compared to what they offer commercial growers.

Unfortunately there comes a point where some specialty hybrids die out...it just really really really sucks when it happens and there's no top-quality replacement around. Sometimes there is a suitable replacement around, but it takes years to have it available to anyone but large-scale commercial growers.

I have never tried the Charantais but have routinely raised Crenshaws and canaries. I have not been impressed with Crenshaw but love the canaries. There have been textural issues and storage issues along with a lack of flavor in the Crenshaws. They require a long growing season and perhaps have not had time to develop properly for me. On the other hand, I have never been disappointed with the Juans. They will produce and ripen even when the vine is severely stressed. They also keep amazingly well and (I think) improve in storage. I tried Sapo, green nutmeg, and tigger this year along with a couple new honeydews--not impressed with flavors. The tiggers were hardy, beautiful, productive, and very aromatic but insipid in taste. Sapo possessed a weak canteloupe flavor but had a nice, buttery texture like a good canary; and the nutmegs had the same issues as the Crenshaws. Athena was a disappointment as well this year, but I'll probably give it another try. No matter what, I always return to Ambrosia.