The post yesterday on Red Delicious apples and their inexplicable popularity in grocery stores sparked a lot of conversation. Now we're curious; what is your very favorite eating apple? Not pie apple, not baking apple - eating apple. Tell us - maybe we'll all discover something new to try!
Related: A Guide to Fall Apples
(Image: Faith Durand)

Comments (105)
Macoun. Love them. I buy them at Union Square three times a week to have at work.
Honeycrisp, no question.
Michigan Honeycrisps
honeycrisp.
Honeycrisps. Sweet, juicy, crisp. In a word: delicious.
Honeycrisp FTW!
Honeycrisp.
Ditto on the honeycrisp!
honeycrisp and stayman winesap
I echo many others: Honeycrisp! I'm also a fan of Pink Ladies.
Pink Lady is my first choice, then Honeycrisp.
Honeycrisp
braeburn & winesap. they're not quite ready yet this season, so in the meantime, I'm eating Macouns
First of all how can MacIntosh not even be on that list?!
Courtlands are my fave, but they don't have them in CA. So Macs have to fill in.
A plague on sweet apples.
Yep, honeycrisp. Also had an heirloom variety a long time back called (i think) Roman Black - delicious.
MACINTOSH of course!
Honeycrisp!
MacIntosh and Royal Gala. YUM YUM
Gala!
Honeycrisp and Fuji being fair seconds. But Gala all the way!!
Cortlands.
Honeycrisp!!
I recently discovered this apple at my grocery store and I fell in love.
Macouns and winesaps...paulareds were good this year, and i also got a chance to try a bunch of old-fashioned russets, of which orleans reinette was the winner.
www.breadbabies.blogspot.com
Gala and Jonagold!
Empire! I have bought about 20 pounds of apples so far in the last month from our local (East Central Illinois) orchard. They also have a lot of heirloom varieties with names such as Northern Spy, Rusty Sweet, Sheep's Nose and Smokehouse, the latter of which is the precursor of the Red Delicious, only much better.
I did also buy a bag of Winesap and another variety (can't remember the name) which they told me needed to be cellared for a few months.
In the winter when I have to buy them at the store, my kids like Granny Smiths. (I buy the Honeycrips for myself and hide them.)
Gala, followed by Braeburn.
Yesterday I would have said honeycrisp, but really they're a bit too sweet for my taste. Then I bought some Suncrisps from the greenmarket, and have become a fan. A bit more tart, flavored like a golden delicious, and still extra crispy. It's absolutely perfect.
One more vote for Honeycrisp. I've been eating them all week.
Pink Lady is also good and Gala works in a pinch, but Honeycrisp just has that perfect combo of sweetness, juiciness, and crunch.
Ooooh yeah! Pink Ladies are delicious!
Pink Lady and Honeycrisp! I'm glad that so many others agree! I just wish the popularity would bring the price down a bit!
Winter Banana and Golden Russet from a local antique apple orchard.
honeycrisp! pink lady and paula mac too.
honeycrisp
honey crisp and pink lady!
pink ladies
Transparent. It's a big round ball of an apple, and it bruises into mush at a touch, so you'll never see it in a market. My grandmother had some huge old Transparent trees, and my mother found me two Transparent trees for my garden.
They're light and crisp, almost like an Asian pear but not so sweet, but again they'll be covered in bruises by the time you get to them. That's ok; the bruised ones make great applesaouce.
BLACK TWIG!! thin skin, great crunch like a granny smith, sweet and delicate taste, nice and juicy. LOVE LOVE LOVE!
My favorite? Hawaii Apples, with Arkansas Black as a close second.
My husband's favorite? Pink Ladies.
Honey Crisp, or Cripps Pink.
I feel deja vu with this entry. I think I've seen this post about favorite apples several times?
BRAEBURN!!!!!!!!!!
Honeycrisp!!!
Braeburn! (I don't think I've ever had a honeycrisp, although apparently I'm missing out on something).
One of my co-workers brought in an amazing apple that was magenta on the inside and looked like a pink pearl pearl on the outside. I have no idea what it tasted like, but it was pretty awesome all the same.
Macs.
Honeycrisp! The name kind of says it all.....
Jazz
I wish they'd grow them in Canada so they didn't cost so much.
Empire
Hopping on the Honeycrisp bandwagon here.
I love Braeburn. I hate mealy apples and I find that Braeburns are almost never mealy, plus they taste really good. I like Fujis as a close second, and Honeycrisp too!
Honeycrisp, Gala, and Spartans.
Pink Lady!
another Honeycrisp.
Gravenstein (for the short time they're in season) and Fuji
I'm happy to see so many other people love Pink Ladies as much as I do.
(Though a granny will do in a pinch.)
Jazz!!!! And I had a Jonagold the other day that was pretty rockin'.
Macoun. Been eating them since I was a kid.
Oh, the glorious Mutsu! It is not available here in Ohio until late October, but it is WELL worth the wait.
McIntosh. Beautiful, beautiful mcintosh. Mmmmm.
Honeycrisp! So sweet, so crisp, without even the least hint of mealiness. *swoon*
I went to an orchard in Iowa run by a crusty old guy named Wilson in the fall of 1995. He was giving my botany class a tour, and at one point he stopped, picked a bunch of huge apples off a pair of trees, and tossed them at us.
"This is the next big thing in apples," he said. "They just worked out how to grow these commercially, and in twenty years they'll be the most popular apple in the states. You watch."
I bit into the apple I'd caught, and tasted heaven.
That was my first encounter with a Honeycrisp apple. Mmmmmm.
Gravensteins (such a short season-SOB!) and Gala.
Honeycrisp!
Honeycrisps definitely!
Has anyone said honeycrisp yet? ;)
Honeycrisps are awesome, but I love the tartness of a mac.
Winesap.
Macouns. Pink ladies are also good.
Pink Ladies.
northern spy
Pink Lady!
Sierra Beauty and Black Twig - both tart and crisp and perfect.
Honeycrisp big time -- cannot wait for them to show up at the farmer's market and so sad when they are out of season.
Honeycrisps - didn't discover them until last year, but they immediately became a favorite! Crisp, but sweet!
Pink Lady.
Braeburn.
Gala or sometimes Cortlandts.
MacIntosh the only way to go.
My husband and I love Cameo apples. So crisp with a strong apple flavor, and as an added bonus, they're incredibly slow to brown.
Braeburn and Jonagold. So yummy! Although Honeycrisps are nice as well. :) My grandmother's favorite are Ida Reds.
Gala.
Rubinette. Tart-Sweet, great for eating and for pies. It stays crisp in cold storage for a long time.
Gala, Macoun, and most recent favorite: Empire.
winesaps and russets, yum!
Braeburns, but Arkansas Black and Pink Lady apples are also really high up on my list. I like really crisp apples with just a hint of tartness.
Honeycrisp
Braeburns, Empires, and Gravensteins, mostly Gravensteins. I love a little more tart than sweet.
I just discovered Ginger Golds at my local produce stand and have fallen in love. Super crispy and a lovely balance of sweet-tart--I've bought at least ten pounds in the last week alone. They make nice applesauce, too.
Mutsu aka. Crispin, lovely crisp tartness, fantastic for drying in the dehaydrator. Russets, ugly but very very crisp and firm, tart. Loved the Gingergolds, but the season was early, and already over!
Royal Gala nomnomnom
adding to this the absolute best apples i've ever had were in japan. i don't know what they were called but they were like a meal to themselves, incredibly crisp and they needed to be cut open over a bowl they were so juicy. it took a long time before i could bite down and enjoy an australian apple after experiencing what else was out there.
Don't know if they're available stateside, but here in Italy, I've found my apple soulmate: Annurca.
They're a type of apple that's been unique to southern Italy for thousands of years (possibly identifiable in mosaics and paintings at Herculaneum) and are now a regionally protected breed. They're picked while still green and then laid out on the ground and hand-turned over the course of a month or so to allow all of their skin to get reddened by the sun...
And oh my good lord they are the most gorgeous things you've ever eaten. Crisp and firm like a good Granny Smith and with some of that sharp tartness, but then a lovely bright and soft sweetness that rounds out the flavor and nnnnnnghmmmmm so so good!
Braeburn.
Honeycrisp! Cold!
Coxs of course! - they are the best in the world
There is a type of apple I have only seen at one orchard here in PA - they are called Nittany (after Penn State who helped create them) - they are so crisp and sweet and AWESOME. When I can't get to the Hollabaugh orchard for those, I choose Gala or Pink Lady, although as long as it's crisp, there is not an apple I won't eat!
honey crisps rule.
Tart and crunchy Granny Smiths have always been my very favourite, but (lately!) I love Pink Lady apples (they taste like those green and crimson apple lollipops you can get in candy stores!), and Fujis, too.
Oh--I like my Pink Ladies with mint & berries in cereal :D
My very favorite has always been Mutsu (often called Crispin). When I lived out west for a few years I couldn't find them, so I ate Gala and Braeburn instead.
I was a diehard Granny kid growning up. last Sunday I had my first Honeycrisp, and I think I'm sold. :)
Gala Apples
Jonamac! I've only had/seen them once but oh, they were the perfect apples.
(Although clearly I should try Honeycrisp.)
Spartan Apples!
They're from the Okanagan Valley in BC, Canada, and they're wonderful. Very crisp and sweet, never mealy, with very white flesh.
Gala, honey crisp, pink ladies
pink ladies all the way!
stayman winesap - they're complex and yummy slightly Tart, juicy, with just enough sweetness.
I'm glad some people know the wonders of Gravensteins and Coxes. I've never seen them in a store, but they are worth finding an orchard that grows them!
I am all about the Macintosh. Always have been. Like 'em as sauce, in pies, and all by themselves.