to think Golden Delicious are posher than Granny Smiths?

[mcmooncup]

I've always thought Granny Smiths are really common, whereas Golden Delicious have an air of sophistication and understated glamour.

Fuji are the best but hard to find. I usually eat gala apples because they are tasty and easy to find.

DH tells me to buy golden delicious apples when he is going through a fruit phase. I judge him for it. If he ate tastier apples he would probably eat fruit more regularly

Well don't know what programme culturemuncher was watching but it was made up old tosh...

Lots of modern varieties have come out of New Zealand not Australia

Root stocks don't influence flavour they influence the tree's ability to crop and how vigorously they grow (one that controls growth for good soil, something that allows more growth for poorer soil, entirely natural, these were developed in Kent at East Malling Research and every fruit tree in a commercial orchard worldwide grows on them)

Whilst lots of modern varieties do have relatives like Goldens, most are related to gala or Braeburn (Rubens, Kanzi, jazz etc) only light coloured ones are likely to be closely related to Goldens, something like Opal or Amelia

There are 1000's of varieties available, most aren't grown commercially because they taste foul, grow 3 apples once every 9 years, don't store or look awful
Sainsburys is probably your best bet for a range of varieties (52 different apple varieties sold in the last 12 months) they always have russet in season, they also usually have the first discovery in August

Can you tell what I do for a living

Personally I think that discovery are about as foul as Goldens and Granny Smiths, sorry Elfycat and the other fans, they taste like soap unless you get them straight form the tree (their big win for me is that you can tell when they are ready to eat as the orchard smells gorgeous)
Spartan, Zari and Rubens are my favourites beautiful to look at, taste fantastic and you can cook/juice them
British are best, always, just think how far the others have travelled...

Oh, and the only reason why we don't grow pink lady is that the European production license is held by a French company who won't license British growers to plant!

Goingto be Ruth, tell me about Fuji apples please. Why are they so difficult to get?
You know your apples.

I stand corrected. No more aimless channel surfing for me

Golden Delicious are bland vile yellow things, that have the taste of cotton wool.

Empire > Cripps Pink > Cox > Granny Smith > Braebrun.

Golden delicious are looked down on. This is because they are sold green and under ripe. A properly ripened on the tree golden delicious is, er, golden and tastes completely different

Yuuk to golden delicious.. A nice tart granny smith sprinkled with a bit of salt & chilli powder is lovely. Just a tiny bit to bring out the flavour.

Empire apples are tasty & so are braeburn.

All apples straight off the tree taste much nicer. The over squishy over sweet ones like Golden/Red Delicious need to be eaten unripe. We had a Worcestershire when I was growing up and the apples went really quite nasty IMO and had to be eaten when their pips were still white.

I'd eat a Granny Smith over a Golden Delicious any day (but then I'd actively decline a GD) but Coxes are much much nicer. I don't really know the other varieties well enough to judge.

We live in Canada now and they don't have Coxes. Or Bramley apples which is even more of a problem to me as I don't think eating apples cook well in general. Of the eating apples we like Ambrosia best but they've a short season and then they go a bit mealy.

I have two types of apple tree in my garden, one very early (ripe in August!) and golden which makes good apple sauce but rots on the tree given half a chance, and the other more like a proper apple. Neither as good as an English Cox though.

Leave my golden delicious apples alone! I much prefer them to a sour yucky granny smith.
I am partial to a pink lady, and braeburn too.
Granny Smiths, pah.....yuck, yuck.
I had one yesterday, and had a couple of bites, and left the rest, might as well eat a bag of lemons!

In Australia granny smiths were always considered cooking apples!! They make a lovely apple pie.

I only use Granny Smiths to make apple sauce

I've just bought a kilo of the new season fujis, and prefer them to other apples available in Oz. How I mourn the lack of russets, though.

I've just googled them: unsurprisingly they are Japanese in origin.

My local greengrocer tried stocking fujis that had been waxed in the American style. That didn't last long. :o He couldn't shift them for love nor money.

Agree about the demise of the Granny Smith which is now closer to the Bramley in terms of sourness. And so fecking hard.

Pink ladies.

Checked Dr. Google - Fuji apples are the No. 1 apple in Japan and No. 4 in the U.S.. So why can't the British Isles get them?

Both are tasteless crap.

One fruit we do grow well in the UK is apples. I don't get why anyone would choose imported tasteless cotton wool versions.

I don't think any apples are particularly posh (although the argument for pink lady apples is strongest given their high rrp). Can't stand golden delicious though - agree with earlier comment that they are the equivalent of mild cheddar!

GoingtobeRuth I can agree about the selection of apples in Sainsburys. I love that even whatever's in the Basics bags is usually nice, if a little small or ugly and, for most of the year, is British.

If I need to choose a favourite variety, it's Egremont Russet. Not beautiful in the bowl, but so tasty.

At the risk of getting all Alan Partridge....Pink Lady is a brand name, not a variety of apple. The actual variety is Cripps Pink.

Asda sell Cripps Pink far cheaper than Pink Lady. They might not be as uniform in terms of colour and size, but that doesn't bother me at all.

Another Discovery fan here! They're amazing apples.
Haven't had one for years (can't get them here). Coxes are also unheard of here in Italy. Supermarkets here just stock horrible tasteless mushy/huge and watery apples on the whole. Granny Smiths are often your best bet. For cooking I've found "Renette" a good substitutes for Bramleys.

Now considering scheduling a trip back to the UK to coincide with the Discovery crop in August :)

Discovery? Cor I've not had one of those for years, nice though.

I could right go a nice discovery now.

I love Sundowners. Thinking of planting a tree. Granny Smith are cooking apples! Golden Delicious are horrible in the UK, but then you have your own apples. Travelling or being grown in a climate which doesn't suit them just doesn't seem to work for them. Love GoingToBeRuth's spirited defense of the New Zealand apple industry as if everything that comes out of Australia is automatically rubbish. Heh.

I have a Katy apple tree in my garden and the apples are perfect.

You lot know shite about apples, the Kanzi apple from Waitrose are THE only apples to ever eat. They are a Gala/Braeburn cross, and are crisp & tangy, and are the dogs bits.

Coxes. Definitely. Good size, good crunch, lovely tangy-sweet flavour. But unassuming and not flashy.