They taste the same as most apples and they are higher cost. Is this just a fad?
The best apple I ever had was a Honeycrisp.
OTOH, a couple of the worst ones were Honeycrisps too, which is why I haven’t bought any in years.
Give me Fuji and Pink Lady* apples, which are much more consistent in their good qualities - firmness, juiciness, and sweetness.
*Here’s to you, Helen Gahagan Douglas!
Good ones taste better. Either your taste buds don’t agree or you haven’t gotten good ones.
HoneyCrisp also stay fresh for a long time. They aren’t the best apple out there but they are very consistently good and useful for many things. Their crispness and decreased browning make them the best dried apple rings we’ve ever made, for instance. They also work great for school lunches as they are still white and crunchy at noon after 5 hours post cutting. But they aren’t tart enough for pies and not mushy enough for applesauce.
My #1 is a prairie spy- but they are only in season for 1-2 weeks and do not seem to be cold-storable for more than a week or two. But absolutely supreme apple.
I have two apple booths at my farmer’s market- they let me know what is best that week. But come December - March, HoneyCrisps are the way to go.
Honeycrisps are generally pretty dependable, but they’re not my favorite, either, and – to my tastes – they’re a bit overhyped. My favorite reasonably commonly available apples are braeburns and jazz.
HoneyCrisps are good. However, the best apple ever is the King David. Eaten fresh, they taste like an apple Jolly Rancher and in pies, they’re unbeatable. Winesaps run second to them IMHO.
Cortland apples are also good for fruit salads since they have snowy flesh that doesn’t brown. For best flavor they should be picked when half red, half green but too many orchards pick them too late. Then they’re kind of mushy.
Overhyped, definitely. I do live in one of the great apple-growing areas of the world so I just buy local varieties, there are dozens that never get out of New England. I prefer my apples sour and very crisp, even hard, but there’s an apple for everyone here.
Honeycrisps are more expensive because they are a lot harder to grow than many other varieties. Even the local growers charge one price for all their other apples and another just for Honeycrisps. Which to me are pretty boring but tolerable because they are at least crisp.
A good honey crisp is a truly wonderful apple.
However, they do appear inconsistent (moreso in the last two years imho). I threw away half of a honey crisp the other day because it was so tasteless. I agree that Pink Ladies are much more consistent.
I’m not into apples in general but my wife and kids swear by these things. We used to go to an orchard every fall where you pick your own and fill up a big bag for 10 bucks or so. You always had to ask/find out if they had Honeycrisp that weekend or it wasn’t worth going.
I love Honeycrisp apples. But only if they’ve been recently picked. I still buy them off-season, but the flavor isn’t nearly as good.
I recently tried a Cosmic Crisp apple. It was just as good as a Honeycrisp, IMO. But harder to find.
They taste much better than many other types of apples. They are more expensive because people growing it have to pay a license to the creators of the strain.
Red Delicious apples used to taste good but all the flavor has been bred out of them in favor of apples that looks nice on a shelf because those sell better. Capitalism.
I love Honeycrisp apples as well. They seem to be consistently good, rarely do I get a dud. But I like other varieties as well, especially something like a freshly picked Macoun. I’m exploring the varieties that are similar to Honeycrisp when my local shop doesn’t have them, no consistent winners yet.
But we’re in a Golden Era of apple varieties compared to my youth, when you had Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Macintosh, Cortland, Empire, and Granny Smith as your only choices.
Do try the new Cosmic Crisps if you get a chance. They’re juicy and crunchy like Honeycrisps, but have a slightly tarter, more apple-y taste.
Another vote for Pink Lady, my apple of choice since forever (1970’s?).
I prefer Braeburns. Honeycrisps have an unnatural crispness, like they have been treated with a non-nutritive crunch enhancer.
Braeburns are way better than honeycrisps.
Braeburn lovers unite!
I prefer Opals, but Honeycrisps are very good. I prefer sweet to tart apples, so most of the tart-ish apples that people like aren’t my style.
I do find Cosmic Crisp apples overrated. Not bad, but not worth the not-on-sale price.
Honeycrisp were first developed about 20 years ago, so they are definitely a New Thing.
My favorite remains the Stayman Winesap. Tart, crisp, late season, and thick skinned. Sweet apples are for pussies.
I was at our local grocery store a few years back. Looking around in the produce section and an employee with a handlebar mustache sidles up to me. “Hey, man. Wanna try an apple?” I look around furtively and whisper back “Yeah, man. What you got?” “Envy. It’s new.” hands me a slice “Nice.”
Apparently it’s a Braeburn/Royal Gala hybrid from New Zealand. I’ve been buying nothing else since.