What is your favorite Apple Variety and what do you use it for?

[wyoDreamer]

I love apples! But, I am also an apple snob. I have specific varieties that I use for specific things.
Here is my starter list of apple varieties and what I like/don't like about them:

Red Delicious - I don't like these. Yes they are crispy and pretty, but they are also very low in flavor. You can't cook with them as they stay firm and they don't have any taste when dehydrated.

Yellow Delicious - One of my top 5 favorite apples. Can't grow them here. Great for pies, dehydrating, general eating. Great flavor, holds shape when baked in a pie.

Jona-Gold - One of my top 5 favorite apples. Can't grow them here. Great for pies, dehydrating, canning, general eating. Makes chunky applesauce

Macintosh - A good apple, but doesn't make my top 5 list. Grown in my area. OK general eating - lacks crunch. Cooks down to much for pies in my opinion. Excellent for applesauce.

Macoun - One of my top 5 favorite apples - Best for eating, very good for dehydrating. Does not cook that well, so no pies or applesauce.

Braeburn - One of my top 5. Good flavor, cooks well, crunchy for general eating.

Jonathon - One of my top 5. Good flavor. Great for pies, sauce, general eating and dehydrating. Hard to find.

Idared - another great apple. Good all-around and tasted great. Hard to find now-a-days.

So, how about you - what is your favorite apple and why?

 

[bambi]

Also forgot to add whatever apple I am using or eating at that moment

 

[PatriciaPNW]

My husband and I thinned and picked apples for two summers in the 1970s recession. We were REALLY sick of apples ... until the next summer! They are amazing for the variety of tastes and uses. I have several old trees I can’t identify for sure but great taste. Otherwise it’s the classics - offshoots of old standbys like Jonathan, Granny Smith, Akane. I like the term “Doorway fruit” = varieties too delicate for commercial and shipping use but great for the household. Agee with most of the feedback on varieties. I did order the new Cosmic Crisp even though I get tired of the too sweet Honeycrisp fast (one of its parents). My orchardist said the flavor is tart-sweet and complex (not just one flavor or taste in your mouth, has an after-taste too).

 

[milkmansdaughter]

I never liked Red delicious...... UNTIL I lived in Washington State and got them fresh. They are wonderful fresh, but don't necessarily travel or store well.

I grew up with my grandma's old McIntosh apple tree and they were my all-time favorite, but current ones that I can buy usually are too soft, and have a LOT less crunch, juice and flavor.

I'm in the same boat with Granny Smiths. Too often when I buy then now, they are either not quite ripe or they are almost woody. Sooo disappointing! They used to be my favorite for baking.

And the 100% apple cider I recently got has no flavor.

I DO think a lot of it does have a lot to do with where you live, and which apples grow well in your area. I've planted probably a dozen apple trees in my yard in the last few years, and am really looking forward to our own fresh fruit in the next year or two. Our goal is to then graft several of my grandma's McIntosh apple branches onto trees here.

@bambi I'm glad to hear about the black Arkansas. I've never had them but planted two trees I got free from our extension office.

 

[bambi]

I never liked Red delicious...... UNTIL I lived in Washington State and got them fresh. They are wonderful fresh, but don't necessarily travel or store well.

I grew up with my grandma's old McIntosh apple tree and they were my all-time favorite, but current ones that I can buy usually are too soft, and have a LOT less crunch, juice and flavor.

I'm in the same boat with Granny Smiths. Too often when I buy then now, they are either not quite ripe or they are almost woody. Sooo disappointing! They used to be my favorite for baking.

And the 100% apple cider I recently got has no flavor.

I DO think a lot of it does have a lot to do with where you live, and which apples grow well in your area. I've planted probably a dozen apple trees in my yard in the last few years, and am really looking forward to our own fresh fruit in the next year or two. Our goal is to then graft several of my grandma's McIntosh apple branches onto trees here.

@bambi I'm glad to hear about the black Arkansas. I've never had them but planted two trees I got free from our extension office.

I hope to hear how well your trees produce. Arkansas Black are not really white on the inside more of yellow and crisp and tart

 

[Britesea]

There were two apple trees on our property when we bought it. One was Red Delicious, which, as others have said, are good fresh but that's about it. I tried freeze drying some this year so we will see how they turn out. The second tree is something that works well for baking and cooking- we don't know what it is. I would like to try grafting a couple of other varieties some day. My all time favorite has always been Winesaps, which sadly almost became extinct when Mt St Helens blew her top. But I've heard that they are making a comeback finally. I haven't seen any in the grocery stores or offered in seed catalogs, but maybe someday...

 

[thistlebloom]

I have a Honeycrisp and a Sweet 16 in back. I think they are both great, but the Sweet 16 develops a really complex flavor when it's left on the tree to mature more. I discovered this by accident. I didn't pick most of the apples we got this year, and after letting several friends pick their fill, and they went for the Honeycrisp primarily, I picked a bucket to bring in before an expected early freeze. They were wonderful.

We also have four trees out front that were Prairie Fire crabs that died at the graft and the rootstocks took over. They are all different from each other and three of the trees produce really tasty fruit, and a lot of it.

I had a Zestar that only fruited one season before being killed by a buck using it for an antler rub. Those were good apples! I should replace it, but we don't use up what we already have.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Not lazy per say. But, it is my gardening style. Deep mulch, no till, allow many plants to re-seed themselves. Choice of plants and trellising to avoid bending over to harvest. No hilling of corn or potatoes... Letting chickens do a lot of my soil prep, insect control, and weeding.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I'm with you on the Red Delicious. However, I was gifted a couple hundred pounds of them. A majority have gone for pig/chicken/goat snacks. I have also turned many lbs of them into apple butter and it's quite tasty - probably because of the sugar and spices, lol. I have dehydrated some - not a lot. I find them "ok" for snacking.

I love a good Honey Crisp for out of hand eating. Also enjoy a Granny Smith on occasion, but really like them for pies.

Apples don't grow well this far south so most of what we get (and how it tastes) is dependent upon good storage and delivery.

 

[bambi]

I love to mix apples when making applesauce along with a pear.

Ambrosia: wonderful flavor
Back Arkansas: late-season grower, great cooking apple and good storage apple. Can't find them as easily around here like you use to.
Honey crisp: eating apple
Macintosh: it complements most apples when mixing Apples
Granny Smith: tartness and flavor Good cooking apple

There used to be so many Apple orchards around where I live. but now not so many.