An apple a day: My personal ranking of apple varieties

[John]

I nominate this thread as the year's winner in the category of: "Thread that would seem to be insane, but is actually awesome".

Last year, I, too, discovered that the reason I never ate apples was that I had been buying those beautiful, perfect, symmeterical, deep red monstrosities.

And while after some experimenting the Galas, Honeycrisps, and Fujis from the super maket suit me just fine, I am now really excited for farmers' market season to start paying attention to what is coming in, what I like, etc.

Awesome thread, man!

I'm so glad this thread is inspiring you to seek out farm-fresh apples, Jon! The first new apples of the season will begin appearing in July, but July apples are mostly used for baking - they're not really the best out-of-hand eaters. You'll usually see the first interesting dessert apples appearing in mid-August. Around the second week of September is when the explosion of high-quality varieties appear, but don't neglect those August apples! You'd be missing standouts like Zestar! and my personal favorite, Burgundy.

[Bill]

...and my personal favorite, Burgundy.

Stay classy, apple eaters

[Ghosts]

In honor of the Commish I branched out (as much as a mid-February Chicago grocery store would allow, of course) and picked up two new types of apples today.

I tried both over the course of the day and got on to see what the Commish thought.

Ambrosia: I could not agree more with the commish. Kinda mealey, soft, not much flavor. Never again.

Pacific Rose: The commish and I apparently part ways. No, it wasn't super tart (it was actually very "watery"), still it was firm and had a pretty nice texture. I will look back sometime next fall and scoff at the words, but I have to say: I really liked it.

Anyhow, as insane as it seems, I gotta say the more I read about (and now try) apples, the more interesting they become.

[John]

Both Ambrosia and Pacific Rose are new fad "club apples" that are sweeping the supermarkets. Like you, Jon, I sampled mine from the supermarket. That's likely the problem. Supermarket apples by definition are going to be inferior. These apples are coming from great distances and lose something in the process. If I could get a Pacific Rose farm-fresh, it might be a different story, but since it's a club variety and supply is limited by design, that won't happen. That's okay; I'm plenty happy enjoying my old-fashioned heirloom varieties when I can get my hands on them.

[John]

I refuse to use the "apple a day" cliché, but apples are really, really good for you. Key points to take away from this study is that adding calories to your diet in the form of apples won’t necessarily increase your weight and may actually decrease it due to the presence of pectin, which has a satiety effect (it slows the removal of food from your stomach, causing you to feel full longer). This is on top of the fiber apples pack, which also contributes to their satiety effect.

Even more exciting that weight control is the effect apples have on cholesterol. In this study, women in the apple-eating test group saw their LDL cholesterol (referred to as “bad cholesterol”) reduced by 23%, while HDL (“good cholesterol”) increased 3%. To quote Bahram Arjmandi, co-author of the study: “So that’s incredible.”

Arjmandi goes on to say, “I’m not anti-drug, but in the case of cholesterol, if apples work so nicely, why not enjoy life? There is no side-effect associated with (it), or risk… except benefit, benefit, benefit, and so people should consume one or two apples (a day).” I’ll take that further. I am anti-drug as a general rule. I recognize that we can’t always avoid drug use, but my advice is to substitute exercise and consumption of healthy whole foods for drugs whenever possible. Why take statins and incur their side-effects when you work towards the same cholesterol-lowering goal by eating a delicious apple while receiving their side-benefits?

I also say, “Why stop at one or two apples a day?” If you’re going to indulge, by God, this is where to do it. There’s nothing wrong with consuming four to six apples a day. You can subtract the extra calories (about 180-360, depending on how many apples you add to your daily diet and their size) from other areas (processed foods would be a good choice for cutting). Because of the satiety effect mentioned earlier, you’re not going to feel hungrier despite cutting out extra calories elsewhere in your diet.

Let me suggest that while this study was conducted with dried apples, you use whole apples (fresher is better). Even more importantly, keep the peel on! Much of apples’ nutrients is housed in the peel. Remove it and you’re severely blunting an apple’s healthful effects. I shudder when I see people cutting off an apple’s peel. It’s the best part!

By the way, I've updated my apple rankings in the first post of this thread. New to the list is Lady Alice, which debuts at #44 out of 85 ranked apples. Lady Alice comes from a chance seedling discovered when Gleed, WA farmer Don Emmons accidentally damaged a Red Delicious tree with his plow. The tree sent out a new branch that produced a new fruit, which became commercially known as "Lady Alice". The apple's rights holders, Rainer Fruit Co., are intentionally keeping availability scarce to drive up the price. This article explains their strategy.

I've also added a "9th Layer of Hell" tier which houses just two apples: Rome and Red Delicious. If you are looking to get into apples, for the love of all that is holy, don't choose these two variates! Yes, I know they're readily available and thus convenient to purchase, but even if you must buy your apples from the supermarket (much better to get them from farmers' markets or straight from the orchard!), you still should be able to find superior choices like Braeburn or Granny Smith. To eat Red Delicious apples is to strip all the joy from apple eating.

[Bill]

Even more importantly, keep the peel on! Much of apples’ nutrients is housed in the peel. Remove it and you’re severely blunting an apple’s healthful effects. I shudder when I see people cutting off an apple’s peel. It’s the best part!

Just to play devil's advocate...it's also the part with the pesticides and the food-grade wax or whatever crudola they use to keep bugs out of them. I eat them too though.

In general, I never considered apples all that healthy. They are filling, but are not terribly nutrient dense. I've always been a bigger proponent of things like berries and nuts. Though this article has me reconsidering that stance. Certainly it's clear that we don't know everything there is to know about nutrition. Thanks for the link.

EDIT: I was looking up through the thread and totally cracked myself up with the 'stay classy, apple eaters' line....it's ironic laughing at your own joke months later...lol

[John]

Just to play devil's advocate...it's also the part with the pesticides and the food-grade wax or whatever crudola they use to keep bugs out of them. I eat them too though.

Always give your apples a good rinse before eating them. Choose organically grown apples to remove the fear of pesticides in the peel. And avoid that disgusting wax by buying locally grown apples. The waxy apples you find in your supermarket are delivered that way because the wax preserves them through shipping. Remove the need for shipping and you remove the need for preservatives!

In general, I never considered apples all that healthy.

Ack! Not all that healthy? Why, apples are one of the single healthiest foods you can eat! Just look at all these health benefits. Dietary fiber, vitamin C, pectin, bacterial regulation, LDL-lowering effects, antioxidants, cardiovascular benefits, blood sugar regulation, anti-cancer and asthma effects... the list goes on and on. Nuts and berries are extremely healthy and should be a regular part of your diet, but don't neglect apples! They're just as good for you, and with so many varieties to try, you'll never get bored.

[Bill]

In general, I never considered apples all that healthy.

Ack! Not all that healthy? Why, apples are one of the single healthiest foods you can eat! Just look at all these health benefits. Dietary fiber, vitamin C, pectin, bacterial regulation, LDL-lowering effects, antioxidants, cardiovascular benefits, blood sugar regulation, anti-cancer and asthma effects... the list goes on and on. Nuts and berries are extremely healthy and should be a regular part of your diet, but don't neglect apples! They're just as good for you, and with so many varieties to try, you'll never get bored.

I certainly was not implying that apples were unhealthy. Apples are a 50x better choice than anything human-processed. I just meant that, gram for gram, my impression was always that at face value they do not contain a lot of known nutrients.

See me for illustration: http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fru ... ces/1809/2

Some good fiber, a little vitamin C (but you could drink like a tablespoon of OJ and get more than that), and apparently a little bit of good fatty acids. But pretty much every other fruit I can name has more to offer per serving than that.

But there is clearly more than meets the eye here, as that study and others show. Science is just skimming the surface on knowledge of nutrition. Apples may be more than just fiber, pectin, and 10% Vitamin C after all.

[John]

Indeed, apples are far more than the sum of their parts, as are pretty much all whole, natural foods. Every day, new studies come in that are teaching us to look beyond the simple facts and figures on nutrition labels - X grams of dietary fiber, Y% of daily value of iron - and discover the myriad of benefits that these foods provide us. With apples, it seems like new research is rolling out every few months touting heretofore unknown benefits to the fruit. Nutrition and ingredients labels are indispensable for prepared/processed foods, but I would advise not getting too caught up in label-reading when it comes to whole foods. They don't paint the whole health picture, not by a long shot.

[Lions]

You're missing Cameo apples from your list. I saw these in the supermarket the other day and was wondering if they were any good. How can I know what to buy with such shoddy work, John?

[John]

You're missing Cameo apples from your list. I saw these in the supermarket the other day and was wondering if they were any good. How can I know what to buy with such shoddy work, John?

Hey, how about that? You're right; Cameo is missing. And it shouldn't be, because I've had it. I'm not a fan, but I won't rate it without doing an official taste test. And I won't do it the injustice of conducting that taste test with supermarket versions; I'll wait until I can get it locally in the fall. It's officially on my "to do" list.

[Bill]

I'll rate it for you: meh

[John]

I'll rate it for you: meh

Yeah, that's pretty much my take, too. Still, I'll do Cameo the justice of a proper orchard-fresh taste test come fall. But Bill pretty much summed up my thoughts on this particular variety.

[Arroyos]

You're missing Cameo apples from your list. I saw these in the supermarket the other day and was wondering if they were any good. How can I know what to buy with such shoddy work, John?

Hard not to miss a few, since there are over 7500 apple varieties world wide! Even John's not up to the task of tasting that many.

[John]

Hard not to miss a few, since there are over 7500 apple varieties world wide! Even John's not up to the task of tasting that many.

And there used to be so many more! Tens of thousands of apple varieties have been documented, but so many have been lost to history. A lot of these apples were lost to time around the turn of the 20th century, when the advent of roads and shipping coupled with the discovery of more durable cultivars like McIntosh made a few varieties popular nationwide at the expense of many more. Prior to that time, all kinds of weird apples were enjoyed locally. People a township away may have been eating varieties completely different than you.

There are efforts to rediscover some of these lost heirloom varieties. Seek them out, and if you find one, give it a shot. They're often misshapen and ugly, but man, oh man, many of them are exquisitely delicious.