No. Cooking down to thick sweet sticky apple paste is most lovely.
Wow. I don’t think anybody pointed this out: they sound different if they’re mealy inside. Tap them with your fingernail; the crisper the sound, the crisper the apple. If you hear “dunk, dunk”, then they’re not so good.
Ok, then we agree to disagree. That sounds disgusting.
Actually, it’s artificial grape flavoring rather than grape juice (check the ingredients on the package).
I bought a package once. It was $3.69 for 4, and definitely a mistake.
Around here, the red and golden delicious are the cheapest apples available by far, and I stopped buying the reds decades ago because of their mealiness, so I usually buy goldens. They also happen to be my favorite. I usually buy the smaller ones, green or yellow, and I don’t recall ever getting a mealy one.
wanders off to kitchen to get a golden
The best apples are eaten in-season and (preferably) harvested locally. I go for a batch that has lots of different shapes and sizes, maybe a little bit scabby looking. Lovely red “Snow White” apples always taste disappointing - it’s almost impossible to breed for looks, uniform size, yield, disease resistance, shelf life and flavour, so I just go for the varieties that promise flavour. My favourites are:
Discovery needs to be eaten almost straight off the tree, as they don’t keep very well, but they are possibly teh most delicious apple ever.
Russet is a scabby looking apple, but with a totally unique flavour and texture. Even when they go a bit old and wrinkly they’re still good. I love 'em.
Cox’s Orange Pippin is an old classic, but there seems to be no uniform quality in the sub-cultivars. Some can be big, uniform and a little tasteless, others are small, odd looking, and quite delicious.
As for the commercial varieties, Pink Lady is OK as they go, but Golden Delicious seem to be disappearing off the shelves. Which is no bad thing, though I have to say I did eat a GD apple straight off the tree once, and it was indeed golden and delicious, rather than the usual yellow and tasteless. I guess they lose a lot of flavour once picked.
Oddly, some varieties of apple need storing for a period to be at their best. Most are best as fresh from the tree as possible.
Fridgemagnet, I’ve never seen any of those varieties here in the US.
By the way, I think the reason apples taste better right off the tree is that apples taste better when they’ve been allowed to ripen on the tree. Apples sold in stores have to be picked before they’re fully ripe so that by the time they’re sold they won’t be overripe. I think that’s true, anyway. It’s the reason home-grown tomatoes are so good compared to store-bought.