Because that's what people think an apple looks like. I'd be willing to bet there are people, lots of people, who haven't ever had any other kind and you tend to love what you grew up with. I was spoiled, there was a marvelous apple farm near-ish to my home. Dad would go there on his way home from work or we'd all go as a family for a special treat. It was in a gorgeous area and they had a cute little farm stand at the end of a long, windy canyon road. We'd taste the varieties they had out and then go home with grocery bags full. Mom would make some of them into apple pie filling (that almost never made it into any actual pie) and can jars of it so we'd have it all winter long and into the summer.

I miss that place.

Yesterday at my market (which had 6-7 varieties of apple), I ended up buying Jonathons. They were so *ugly* compared to the red delicious, but I knew they'd taste better.

I think, for a lot of people, they want the prettiest food and don't want to spend money on fruit that has marks thinking it's spoiled or a bad bargain.

Tiamat is right on - they "look" like the classic fruit of every "A is for Apple" illustration I've ever seen.

I even just ate one and hated every second of it - I just went picking at the gorgeous Nashoba orchard in Bolton, MA, and the Red Delicious's looked so picturesque I couldn't help but pluck one off the tree. Then I thought, great, I have to eat this now. I much prefer Galas and Pink Ladies, or even the Cortlands I got for baking.

How well do Red Delicious keep? That may be part of it -- if Red Delicious keeps longer than other apples, then it's less of a loss for the supermarket.

I have a friend who grew up in Yakima (apple producing area in WA), and she said the old variety, the ugly variety, of Red Delicious was actually quite tasty, but no one grows them anymore precisely because of their look.

Personally, I've always found Red Delicious and Fujis (can't stand them either, yuck) to go bad really quickly. The apples that I buy from my producers here, Honey Crisps, Gaylas, Spartans, etc, stay firm and crisp for much, much longer.

Because people are really out of touch with how they buy their food?

And just because we all have been to an orchard, tried other varieties and made the distinction doesn't mean 90% of the rest of the population has?

That's true, jdp--we are a skewed sample. :)

I think it's just habit and that people have a tendency to buy whatever is in front of them. Then, of course, the grocer thinks that they're popular, so he stocks more of them and the cycle continues. Kind of like how a bestselling book stays on the bestseller list because it's getting so much attention by being on the bestseller list.

I'm a big fan of talking with your grocer and making requests. Not only is it helpful to everyone but it helps foster a sense of community.

Red Delicious is the ONLY variety my SO will eat! It drives me INSANE! I have to buy them for him, then I have fun picking out a large variety of others for myself! I do enjoy a good honey crisp!

The whole story of how Americans came to "prefer" Red and Gold Delicious apples is outlined in Michael Pollan's "The Botany of Desire." After I read that, I never bought another one. Bring on the Fuji, Braeburns and Granny Smith!

Not my favorite apple however it is great for cooking as it has a low moisture content. This is what I use for thinly sliced apple tarts, Jacques Pepin recommends it for this and I have to agree. Apparently the delicious apples are the closest to what is available in Europe as my Greek friends all load up on these at the U-pick while I look away in disgust.

I grew up in WA and I love all kinds of apples. I feel like Red Delicious used to taste different (I'm talking 20 years ago), crisper, skin not quite so thick, easy to get a really tasty one. Am I just imagining that?

In general apples today are so sweet (I'm thinking fuji's especially). If I'm shopping in a regular grocery store I usually get Pink Ladies -- they're sweet but have a tartness/flavor complexity too.

i'm guessing that a lot of people have simply never tried other kinds of apples and think a prettier apple is a better apple.

i'm 32, and i had never tasted an apple other than red delicious, golden delicious, or granny smith until i was in my 20s and living in new york. the grocery stores where i grew up (in tennessee) simply did not sell anything else, so it never occurred to me to search out any alternatives.

In talking with one of our local growers about apple cider, she said that a good cider has a mix of three kinds of apples - unfortunately, I don't remember what she said they were. But one of the specific examples she used was Red Delicious. Of course, in cider, its texture isn't an issue, and its relative lack of complexity is balanced out by the other two types you select.

My dad used to bring home this enormous Red Delicious apples. They were massive and shiny and deep deep red. I hated them. But yeah, the first response is likely the most accurate: this is what an "apple" looks like in the popular imagination.

I was intrigued by the smooth, spherical, multicolored Macintoshes that were available in our grocery, so I asked my mom if I could try them. Haven't eaten a Red Delicious apple since then, and I think even for my mom it was an eye-opener: apples don't have to be gross.

I don't go to orchards or anything, but every market in town sells a variety of apples, Fuji, Braeburn, Jonathan, Pink Lady. Even Wal-Mart has a variety, and has for many years.

I guess my question would be, who *still* buys Red Delicious?

I agree with Squirrelly - Red Delicious used to taste different to me when I was little. I was born in Washington State and then moved to Hawaii and California. The apples were on the sweet side but not overly so and seemed more fragrant. Now they are more waxy and have a sort of flat sweetness.

In college I had a friend who had a sister doing graduate work on cross-breeding strawberries to be larger and sweeter. His house had some of the "rejects" which looked perfectly fine, but he said that the flavor was not always right. Do you think that maybe Red Delicious apples have been altered to make them last longer for market and/or a supposedly improved taste?

They're my favorite apple, but only in the autumn when they're actually good. I like crispy, juicy apples, and I've found other kinds (and I've had many, I worked in a pomology lab at Cornell) are too grainy or too sweet for my tastes.

People who still buy Red Delicious are probably people who grew up eating them, and thinks that's the way an apple "should" taste. For example, I can't get my dad even remotely interested in any other kind of apple, in lettuce that isn't iceberg, or bread that isn't white and squishy. Lots of people stick to what's familiar when they make food choices.

I have to admit that my favorite apple is a golden delicious. but I also like pink ladies, ginger golds and galas. And there's this apple that I've only seen at my farmer's market called a Strawberry Chenango that's only available at the start of apple season. And its so freaking good words can't express.

But I'll eat a red delicious if that's all that's available. Any apple is a good apple mostly. My all time favorite fruit.

I had some very delicious Red Delicious apples back in 1995. They were spectacular. Crisp. Juicy. Tender skin. As sweet as an apple should be and no sweeter.

Haven't had a decent one since then.

Oh Jonathan apples... They are the only apple to me. They are so sweet it hurts sometimes. Even as a kid I didn't eat Red Delicious. Jonathans were always sold in grocery stores when I was a kid (they are a Missouri tradition according to a lady at the local orchard), but only in the fall and winter. They keep great-- they tend to just dry out and get wrinkly rather than rot.

I also can't stand that grocery stores refrigerate all their apples now! It makes them bland and destroys the texture. I don't even buy them because they always disappoint.

My husband was recently taking a group of biology students on a tree-identification trip. Their professor pointed out an apple tree and told them they could pick whatever they want. A lot of students picked them, looked them over, then tossed them away because they had spots-- hail damage from earlier in the year, not rot or bugs. I guess they would rather have the petroleum-wax coated ones in the grocery store...

I'm so glad someone in the apple-growing world finally said it.

Emily

My grandfather grew up on an orchard in Washington and he says red delicious used to taste REEEALLY different. But the "ugly" fruits didn't sell, so orchards started breeding for looks instead of taste. so now we have beautiful, but tasteless, apples.

I think I'm going to go eat a honeycrisp right now.

i have friends who grew up in apple country, their family sends them down boxes of apples rejected by the supermarkets. why? because they have imperfect skin, the apples themselves are perfect. apples in the supermarkets are waxed too to make them shiny.

my supermarket claims its because they have to wash the apples before sale so they lose the natural wax they need to stay crisp. i buy unwaxed apples from the markets all the time however and they last much longer than from the supermarkets.