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This rankings site [1] was shared on HN a couple years ago [2], and since then I’ve switched to Honeycrisp.

While I agree they aren’t always the most tasty, they are almost always (like 98%) crisp and never mealy to the point I want to stop eating it, unlike nearly every other breed I’ve tried (which admittedly is only about 7-8 or the most common ones).

I will take a less flavorful crisp apple 100% of the time over a mealy apple.

So even a mediocre Honeycrisp is, to me, still way better than nearly all the other ones.

[1] https://applerankings.com/

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33639206

18 comments

As an apple connoisseur myself I’ve switched from honeycrisp to cosmic crisp over the last three years and I’m never going back.

I’m fully aligned I eat apples for the texture above all else, with flavor being important but nothing close to how much crunch eat bite has.

I have no dog in this fight but I’ve always been amused at my farmers market by the cleverly named Ludacrisp.

https://applerankings.com/ludacrisp-apple-review/

If you get a chance, try WineCrisp. Loads of flavor and stubbornly crisp. The things keep for months, even in less than ideal storage (such as a fridge), and even after losing a great deal of moisture retain a snappy bite.

Only real downside is that the appearance isn't very flashy; they're the russet potato of modern apples.

I realized I like my apples real sour so Pink Ladies are my favorite at the moment.

YMMV but I've found Honeycrisps mostly crispier than Cosmic Crisps. (I switched in the other direction -- had Cosmic Crisps first.)

Cosmic crisp is amazing. I also like a good Fuji, though they're not as consistently good. Jazz and Ambrosia can be good as well. It's nice that we have so many varieties to choose from now. When I was a kid it was either Red|Golden "Delicious" or Granny Smith.

This is the way... there's research already at WSU for when the Cosmic Crip runs its course and the world is ready for the next apple with the same basic characteristics.

If you ever come to France, try the Chantecler, truly my favourite of them all, extremely consistent and perfect for cakes too.

I agree that Cosmic Crisp are better. But I still prefer MacIntosh, Empire or Cortland, though.

> I eat apples for the texture above all else, with flavor being important but nothing close to how much crunch eat bite has.

You may enjoy the Fuyu Persimmon also. Eaten with firm skin is definitely crunchy. The flavor is moderately sweet.

I discovered cosmic a few months ago and refuse to buy anything other

Cosmiccrisp is great. Like a honeycrisp, but with some tartness.

Out of curiosity, where do you live? I've been a Midwesterner my whole life and I don't relate all that strongly to the article.

I'm fully on the "SweeTango" hype train, which AppleRankings #1 rated breed:

https://applerankings.com/sweetango-apple-review/

SweeTango's #1 fault, which the site calls out, is that they do not store well. The recent bags I've taken home are notably less crisp and hardy than earlier in the fall.

That said, they'll still be absolutely delicious for another few weeks, highly recommend buying a bag. Trader Joe's usually carries.

SweeTango is a cross between Honeycrisp and Zestar. It would be interesting to know how many highly ranked apples are also crossed with a Honeycrisp on the top of the list.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SweeTango

SweeTango tastes great. I’ve been buying apple cider made of it for the last two autumns.

I’ve gotten SweeTangos twice (in season, from Washington) and found them totally unappealing. No sourness to add interest to the flavor, not very crispy, just intense sweetness with a tiny bit of a mealy feeling.

Even if I just got duds, they fail the consistency test that honeycrisps pass.

The SweeTango I had was cloyingly, almost artificially sweet. Can’t tell if it was an unlucky pick or I just have different preferences—I like an Ambrosia.

we put them straight into the refrigerator as soon as we get them home, and this works for any apple variety we buy, to preserve quality and flavor.

I just bought a bag from Trader Joe's and it was absolutely disgusting. Completely mealy and flavorless. My family agrees and will probably never trust my apple picking skills again.

This is my take as well and I've tried a ton.

A childhood friend's dad is one of the people who developed the Honeycrisp and SweeTango (and Rave/First Kiss, Zestar, etc). We always had access to the latest and zaniest variants, but the Honeycrisp was just consistently very good. Yeah, sometimes you'd find an incredible fruit punch thing, but the next day you'd try another and it was gross and mealy. Honeycrisp was always reliable.

SweeTango is also excellent and reliable but it's harder to find and more expensive.

Glad that you've found what works for your you.

At the same time, it is worth noting that not everybody likes crisp apples, so the ranking in that website is... daringly interpretive.

Yeah, I find the idea of using a rating site like this extremely bizarre. And after clicking on the link, that opinion is only further cemented by what seems to be a deliberate opinionated and sarcastic tone. I can only assume they want to court controversy for the sake of clicks.

For what it's worth, the only apples I buy, when they're local and in season, are McIntosh, which this site helpfully puts in the "pure shit" bin. That's just, well, wrong? Apples can be good without being bred for flavorless crispness like so many are today. And there's a difference between "soft" and "mealy", and good McIntosh apples are firmly (ha) on the soft side.

I like pink lady apples too, which this site rates "excellent", and honeycrisp are consistently acceptable - the Starbucks of apples - so it's not that they're making things up, but I think they are only rating apples along one axis and seem to have a thing for recent cultivars over classics and heirloom varieties.

I mean, the author is a comedian:

> Brian Frange is a comedian and writer who has been yelling about apples for years. He started yelling about apples professionally in 2016 while working on Comedy Central’s Not Safe with Nikki Glaser while serving as co-host on the Not Safe Podcast. [...] What started as a bit revolving around his love of apples has now become a full-time job where Brian makes $700,000,000,000 per week providing apple advice for wealthy fruit enthusiasts. Brian is not in the pocket of big apple and all reviews are inarguably accurate and not corrupted by corporate influence.

https://applerankings.com/about/

It's all in good fun. Obviously if you prefer Red Delicious you're free to [strikethrough]have terrible taste[/strikethrough] disagree.

I don‘t care much for Kanzi and Fuji and Pink Lady. To me, Braeburn is good, Boskoop is great, and Berlepsch is amazing, but sometimes hard to get outside the apple grow regions.

The list doesn't have Tentation and it has Jazz at mediocre.

I wouldn't put much trust in it, at least if you are in Europe.

Growing conditions really matter. We really like Gold Rush apples and our farmers market has three orchards who grow them but the ones from one of those vendors consistently aren’t as good, even though it’s clearly the same variety. Something about Pennsylvania vs. northern Maryland made more of a difference than I thought.

Its worse offense is not even mentioning many very good European apples like Cox Pippin or Mingan. Is just a list of commercial apples, many of then unknown or ignored in Europe.

Yeah, it goes completely against my taste (and maybe against how apples are over here)? I had only delicious Fuji apples for example, from consistency to taste (if you like sweet at least), which the site describes as utterly awful. Especially the local ones are awesome. Incomprehensible ranking for me.

So honeycrisp is the Top 40 radio of apples. Simply that which offends least.

More like the radio edit of your favorite track: was great, got diluted by assholes pushing it on the masses, is still great if you can find the original version you fell in love with.

Can't trust a site that has Fuji 39 points lower than honeycrisp when they are extremely similar.

I've never had a Fuji that's anywhere near as delightful as a Honeycrisp.

I live in MN and my preferred apple depends on the time of year, I try to get locally grown apples whenever possible by visiting orchards, or Lunds if I can’t get to an orchard.

I like First Kiss (Rave) apples in August and early September, SweeTango in September and October, and Honeycrisp at any other time. SweeTango is my favorite, you can still get them as flavorful tennis/baseball size apples in MN vs the monstrous grapefruit sized flavorless Honeycrisp apples that seem to be everywhere these days.

There are still fantastic Honeycrisp apples available with lots of flavor, just ignore the gigantic ones.

This site has come up in conversation multiple times as if it's some sort of serious resource, but iiuc this is just one guy's opinion, and if you read the reviews, it's clear he's mostly just writing these for entertainment. Also, it's not clear how many times he's even tasted these apples and when those tastings occurred. Sometimes an apple just has a bad year!

Anyway, I'm mostly just salty that he panned the cosmic crisp. They're good this year!

To be clear (to respond to a few people panning the legitimacy of applerankings.com), I didn’t actually take the site super seriously, it just made me take more notice of the Honeycrisp and try it out.

That’s when I realized that they were very rarely mealy, something I’d been in search of for years.

But agree that the site is mostly intended to be a more humorous take on apples. (And, to be fair, it is quite funny.)

What is the most sour apple?

I really like granny smith apples for the sour flavor profile, but most review websites rate it poorly.

Empire is my favorite because of it's crisp texture and semi-tartness. Granny Smith is probably next, it's the most sour one I can reliably find.

Pink lady's texture is not great and I find it too sweet.

Granny Smiths are probably the most tart generally available apple, but any cooking apple in general is usually sharper. You might also like McIntosh or even Pink Lady.

You could also go down the cider apple route or even crabapples if you really want, though they often tend to be more bitter than tart.

Granny Smith is ubiquitous. It's often difficult to get a more sour apple than a Granny Smith. Pink Lady is less sour IIRC. McIntosh or Braeburn are definitely less sour.

If you're in the Midwest (especially MN, WI, Iowa, etc) you can get Haralson, which are kinda like Granny Smith but more just straight sour.

Haralson is probably my favorite. But disclaimer, I also like eating straight lemons, so ... yea. Many people will use Haralson only for baking.

I hear that in Europe they have a few types that are more sour, idk.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonovka Very sour, but tbh not my favourite in terms of taste.

Crabapples, and all the fancy ones with red meat

And a lot of cider apples

Weird, there’s a variety at my local farm market called Crimson Crisp that is my new favorite because it is tasty and extremely crisp. But it’s not even listed on that ranking site… maybe it’s regional?

And I’ve never heard of the Cosmic Crisp, which is showing up in a lot of comments. Again, maybe regional?

It also depends on when you get them. Here in the PNW, Honeycrisp apples in the fall are delicious because they're grown locally and not stored long. Just eat it as seasonal fruit and it lives up to its promise.

Empire has this problem. Fresh off the tree they are some of the ideal apples. After a couple weeks of storage though, they lose all that crispness and become a sad experience.

I’ve eaten many mealy honeycrisp apples. Just let it sit on your counter for 2 months then try it. Discount grocery stores are often selling many-months old apples.

I’ve been very fond of yellow Opal apples recently. Very firm with a good taste.

Rock it apples have been the most consistently good for me.