I hope they still have some flavor. All of the apples in the grocery store are devoid of any good apple flavor these days.
There is nothing like going to the old orchard in Granville Mass and getting some apples and them stopping by the general store for some local cheese.
The stuff they pass for GMO fruit is crap these days.
I have never been an aficionado of apples. However, growing up we had two apple trees at the run down old home we lived in. My brother and I would pick them clean each year. My mother would make pies with them. We never lacked for apple pie. Frankly my mom wasn’t a very good cook in most respects. But she had apple pie nailed (and fudge...damn she could make fudge).
Oh, and don’t ask me what kind of apples they were. They were green and they went into pies. That’s all I know. :)
During peak apple season several of our local grocery stores (Portland metro area!) Have all kinds of random apple varieties. Some are only available for a week or so. Pink flesh, yellow flesh, different kinds of baking apples etc. We seem to have choices with fresh fruit up here, pears, strawberries, cherries etc. Makes up for the lunacy of the I5 corridor, I guess. I hope the tastings don’t go away forever with COVID-19 protocols.
You should try the new Cosmic Crisp hybrid, expensive but worth every penny!!
You don't like apples the size of softballs?
Unscientifically (for me), it seems the larger the apple, the less taste they have.
“I hope they still have some flavor.”
The heritage apples are unbelievably good!
All of the apples in the grocery store are devoid of any good apple flavor these days.
= = =
But they can be stored for a long time, have a patented ‘cool’ name, can be grown and harvested like a hedge, and look good (well, look OK).
Maybe it is because our stores buy locally (next year from us!) but we always have really good apples even at the Megalo-Mart. But else where the bagged apples are the best. The big polished "buy one at a time" apples really are not that good. They are what our neighbor who raises cider apples calls "Water Bombs".
They are wonderful - there was a variety here in WI on my sister’s farm that was pink on the inside; it was 2.5 feet in dia and hollow - fell over in a high windstorm before we could get cuttings.
Then there were several varieties back were I used to live in WA across a creek past a dense forest including some plum and cherry trees from a long gone homestead.
I have taken to honeycrisp and cosmic crisp for flavor.
I’ve also found that unwashed apples have some really bad preservative flavor on the skin.