Apple country here... of the newer varieties of the last 20 years, I've loved Braeburn the most, but apparently the orchards are being ripped out in favor of some even newer and patented varieties. Haven't tried too many of those. After Braeburn became so hard to find (at least the organic ones grown in WA), I switched to Pink Lady. They are pretty good.

Gravenstein are my lifetime favorite for cooking. Golden Delicious can still be found if you head to orchard country, but I think they are only good for eating for about a month after harvest (and they are scrumptious when first picked) - then they get mealy.

We see Braeburn from New Zealand in the markets in the Spring, when they are being harvested in the Fall in NZ. But since we're the top apple producing state, I just can't bring myself to buy apples that have traveled around the world.

No one that I know eats Red Delicious - they all get shipped out because they are so beautiful, but tasteless, because they are bred for shipping.

This is pretty interesting about new apple varieties (from NPR):

Club apples

Macintosh for early apples, Honey Crisp and Mutsu for fall varieties.

We mix HoneyCrisp, Golden Delicious, and Granny Smith for our pies. HoneyCrisp makes a fabulous chunky applesauce, and is our favorite "eating" apple too.

Ginger Gold for eating fresh. They are early season, and I missed them entirely this year :-(

i'm partially on the same page as caflower. My favorite apple is also Newtown Pippin, for a combo of sweetness, tartness, and maintaining its crispiness. They were commonly grown and available during my childhood and much less so now. There's a family operation in Watsonville called Gizdich Ranch that grows apples. We go there for pick-yourself pippins when we get the timing right or buy from the ranch store otherwise. The family matriarch uses pippins in her baking business there to make the best apple and dutch apple pies I've ever had.

For another "ditto" with Caflower, I was exposed to Northern Spy apples maybe 10 years ago during a Fall trip to upstate NY. I asked at a orchard apple stand if they had anything comparable to pippins and got pointed to the Northern Spy. Very tasty. I think they're very similar to pippins, maybe even a bit sweeter. We came home with a box of them. The next year, Trader Joes had frozen apple pies made in Canada from Northern Spy apples. Quite good (but not in the same class as Nita Gizdich's pies)

Honey crisp. I also like a granny smith now and then.

Well now I'm wondering why I'm the only one that thinks Honey Crisps are tart. I wonder if it's because of where I live (not in a big apple state). The apples I buy are shipped in from somewhere. Perhaps they are picked before completely ripe to allow for shipping time and therefore never achieve their full flavor on the shelf in my local store?

I had been eating Gala apples until I tried Fuji. I switched to Fuji as my first choice.

Honey Crisps are little bit tart, littlebug, maybe you are just sensitive to tartness. I love the HC apple! We can buy huge peck sized bags of them for $6 at the market during the peak season.

I just bought a bag of galas for cheap at ALDI that were pretty darn good for just an eating apple. Sometimes they aren't all that good though. I do not like granny smith apples unless it's for use in a pie and I do not like red delicious because they have no taste. Other than those two, I am not that picky about apples.

McIntosh. Oh, how I love them!

Nobody has mentioned Jonathans. They were my favorite for years in Ohio but rarely find them in Minnesota.

Yes Rob it struck me as funny as well. I was looking at my Halloween and fall decorations yesterday and that was what was on my mind when I read about the Gravenstein apples. Of course then I was reminded of Young Frankenstein the show and I would win and I was wondering whether it was pronounce Gravensteen or Gravenstyne.

Clip from Young Frankenstein

https://youtu.be/nxxSIX3fmmo

I found a site which describes the apples and what they are used for. Probably not all of the apples are in the list but still it gives sweetness and so on. I'll be looking to see if the varieties mentioned are at my stores

https://bestapples.com/varieties-information/varieties/

My favorite is Cortland.

McIntosh and then Gala...

We have an old delicious apple tree from the 1960s and it's fruit *is* delicious. It tastes like what apples used to taste like...before they were bred for color and thick skins instead of flavor. They are really tasty and not at all mealy on the inside. Unfortunately, we rarely get apples from our trees any more. But when we do, yum!

Heh! Sounds like we might have the same silly streak in regard to that. I watched Young Fronkenstein recently. I'm still laughing over "Well they wrong then, weren't they" to myself.

We grow our own, and of my 9 apple varieties McIntosh and King are my favorites. King apples never appear in stores. It's a very old variety, very large and very delicious.

I've read raves about Macouns, which has McIntosh in its lineage, and I bought a tree for my son and his family. Unfortunately, it died in its third year; we don't know why. A local grower said he had one Macoun apple left this year, and he gave it to me to try. Either he made a mistake or Macouns taste just like Macs. That's how it tasted to me anyway. Looked like a Mac too.

We had a terrible apple year, BTW. Tiny yield of unusually small apples. I actually had to buy some (what a concept!) to make applesauce for the freezer. I got a half Macs and half Cortlands.

My favorite apple varieties are Winesap and McIntosh, but it's hard to find Winesap apples in this area. I can remember my Mom and Dad buying whole, large boxes of them when I was a child.

I don't like Honey Crisp apples; too sweet, bland, and no tartness at all.

Ambrosia and Tango. Ambrosia has an almost effervescent quality

I haven't had a Macoun apple in years. I looked for them over and over. They were just great.

I got some honey crisps a while back that were pretty tart. I think they were just picked too soon.

I like my apples crisp and not too sweet. I miss getting them straight from the orchard. There area lot of varieties I've never seen or tried. I usually buy 2 or 3 of several different flavors when I'm at the store. I cut and core them. We all sample. Since we never know what is going to be good, I'll buy several different kinds that look good and make them into applesauce and fruit rollups. That's always a hit.

Cortlands and Macs are my favorites. Honeycrisp and Pink Lady would be next in line.

Looking forward to trying the new Cosmic Crisp next month.

https://chicago.suntimes.com/2019/10/19/20922393/new-apple-introduced-grocery-stores-december

For me it's the local Honeycrisp.

I went to a new (to me) store today, in a community about 2 hours from my town, that I'd not been to before. (for you Washingtonians, the Chimicum Farm Store). They had lovely organic produce (a smallish country store, kind of like a food co-op type of groceries, local meat and produce, etc.) They had a great selection of locally grown apples, plus some that are WA grown but from Eastern WA (the main apple growing area). Because of this thread, I picked up a Macoun and a Cortland to try. They also had Kings (which I haven't seen for years) Orions, which I'd never seen and about 1/2 dozen more that I wasn't familiar with.

Unfortunately, I can't remember which is the Macoun and which is the Cortland! Oh well, I'm sure they'll both be great.

The Grimes Golden would be my favorite apple if I could find them. A crisp, tender, spicy sweet flesh for eating as is and makes the best pie, cobblers etc. Used to get them at an old orchard in Ohio. These days they seem to have disappeared.

Igmd_gaz, I can't believe I was just going to come here and post about the Grimes Golden and you have. That was my Grandma's very favorite and each year she would go to the big apple orchard that used to be in the area and get them. Fond memories. That orchard closed a few years back. Sure hate that, it is only about 4 miles from me and you could buy all the different older apples and a few new ones. They had a pie baking contest each fall and you got a few apples of your choice to enter and one year I won! I still have my plaque.

Sue in Central Indiana

The Grimes Golden is widely available in Ohio. We pick our Honey Crisp apples at places in central Ohio and Grimes Golden are on display there.

If you're ever looking, I know of 5 orchards that grow an abundance of Grimes Golden.

Michael, that orchard in Ohio where I got Grimes Golden was near Akron. I just saw online a list of Ohio orchards where they are available. One near Columbus, I think near some friends that will be visiting here soon. I will ask them to bring some if possible.

Gala and Fuji are my favorites. I have bought Honey crisp and can’t remember what I really thought about it. I recall Winesaps from a long time ago but haven’t had those available around here in years.

I like red delicious, but only buy the organic from HEB. They aren't hard as a rock, or waxed, and taste more like the red delicious apples I remember from my childhood.

I'm not a huge apple eater but I buy them a lot for my husband. He likes Honeycrisp and Galas. But recently I bought him a couple of Snapdragon apples. I have never heard of them! He said they were pretty good.

Igmd, was it Rittman Orchards? We picked apples there for many years.

There's about a dozen pick-your-own orchards surrounding Columbus.

marilyn

HEB in Austin? :)

What, no Empire apple lovers? They're a crisp juicy sweet/tart cross between Red Delicious and Macintosh.

I've never met an apple I wouldn't eat....but I do have favorites.

Breenthumb, I like Empires enough so that I planted an Empire tree some years ago. It's usually covered with dark red apples in fall, but not this year. I actively dislike Red Delicious, but not when it's combined with McIntosh, apparently. :-)

We recently had some Cosmic Crisp apples sent from Bellingham WA. Really nice!

The Cosmic Crisp, a Washington State apple, is a cross between the Enterprise and Honeycrisp. That's why it tastes so good!

I just finished my first Honey Crisp. Yes, it was big. I didn't eat it all at once. It certainly was crisp, which was good. But like Rhizo, I found it to be a bit too sweet and bland. It was also extremely juicy, which was nice as I was eating it raw. But I imagine it could make things like pie and applesauce a bit sloppy.

It's all a matter of individual perception. I enjoyed the apple, but am not likely to choose that variety again. The farm market I shop at offers multiple kinds of apples, all at 69¢ a pound, which is a great price for here. They also sell half-bushels for $8.99. I came home this morning with one Honey Crisp, one Jonagold (haven't tried it yet), and lots of Macs.

I didn't know that Michael...I'll have to look for Cosmic Crisp. Hopefully, someone is growing them organically. Not sure if they gmo to get new varieties?

Michael, no, it wasn't Rittman Orchard. It was Pattersons, now listing34 different apples on their website but no Grimes Golden among them.

"Not sure if they gmo to get new varieties?"

No!! That is just selective breeding, like they do with virtually all other fruits....and most other plants as well.

It's a bit of a misunderstanding to think that virtually everything you find at the grocery that is not labeled organic is GMO'd. In reality, very few plants are GMO'd as it is an extremely expensive undertaking and usually only done to provide what is perceived to be a better harvest (reduced pests and diseases, weed-free growing, etc.) but not just to create a 'new' type of plant or fruit/vegetable.

I am only aware of two types of apple that have been GMO'd and that was after the fact. (Arctic Apples has patented an Arctic Gold (Golden Delicious) and an Arctic Granny (Granny Smith) that are supposed to not turn brown or oxidize when cut.)

Honey Crisp for me too.

I recently tried one called Envy and it was delicious. Honeycrisp can be hit or miss, I find, but a good one is really good. For baking I like Macintosh.

Am I the only one who likes Granny Smith? They really are my favorite.

I like Granny Smith, although I admit I don't eat them by themselves very often. I'm more likely to bake with them, or use them in my favorite Curried Egg Salad With Apples, a recipe that has been shared at the KT more than once.

The Granny Smith is very tart! I think you'd have to enjoy the very tart flavor to enjoy those. They are great for baking though. I like to just dice them and microwave bake them in a casserole dish with the lid on. So simple and really tasty. You can sprinkle them with cinnamon if you like.

I don't like Granny Smith, even for baking. I like a sweet apple when making pie. The best I ever had was an apple called Fortune. I was told it was from upstate New York. Made such a delicious pie.

We have a good produce type grocery store/nursery and I like to buy my fruits and vegetables there. That's where I got the Fortune apples but I've never seen them since.

I was at a Farmers Market yesterday and they had some beautiful apples there, quite a few different types. The guy recommended some gorgeous looking Jonagold when I asked him for a good pie apple. I wish I had seen this thread before I went there. I've learned so much. Thanks, yeonassky, for that great listing of apples. I bookmarked that page. I'm making my pie on Tuesday, I think, and if I remember, I will come back and let you know how it turns out.

Thanks gardengal, I knew I had read about genetic modifying some new apple varieties, specifically for non-browning qualities. I wasn't sure how common it was in creating new varieties or if they were just hybridized.

I know GMO is very common - corn, rice, tomatoes, soybeans, sugar beets, canola oil - so many of our foods are affected because of one or more of those ingredients. Even though GMO wheat hasn't been allowed for marketing, it's approved for test crops and has found it's way into our crops/food chain, either deliberately by farmers seeking higher yields or by escaped seeds.

When I was looking up the varieties of GMO apples, I found that not only were some newer kinds GMO (Arctic, Opal), but that Golden Delicious, Fuji and Granny Smith are now available GMO. Apparently, Arctic is the brand of GMO Golden Delicious. (As you stated above).

I'll continue to seek out and choose non-GMO foods because I don't believe we understand the full consequences of what is being done. Not only for consumption, but for the ecosystems surrounding our agriculture.

Other than the feature of them not browning - which is of absolutely no consequence to me....that's what a spritz of lemon juice is for - you have to wonder why anyone would go to the bother and expense of genetically engineering an apple. There is no particular benefit.....does one really care if a sliced apple starts to brown?

btw, I have never seen any of the Arctic apples in area stores. I suspect the market is not as big as they think it might be.