Absolutely. Obsessed with Empire Apples. Nothing beats 'em picked right off the tree in upstate NY. We use them for everything, but they are best for eating.

Fuji all the way!

Pink Ladies!!

Honeycrisp all day long.

I love Cox Orange Pippin. They are a heirloom variety and usually hard to find but so worth the search. They're a dessert apple and actually taste super sweet like an orange.

Gravenstein!!! And its such a short season-my farmers market is already out of them. Sniff, sniff...

Fuji FTW!

Macoun. Just that hint of tart, yum.

Northern Spy is my absolute favourite - it's good for snacking and it makes the best apple butter and apple pie.

I could survive on HoneyCrisp alone. And it makes them ever so much more delicious considering that they're only available in late September, early October (I wait all year for them to show up in food markets)

Arkansas Black

As far as I'm concerned, there are no apples but Granny Smith. Every other variety I've tried is nauseatingly sweet.

My boyfriend loves Northern Spys. We also like Ida Reds, Jonagolds, and my favorite baking and saucing apple is the Opalescent. I've only found it at one local orchard (I live in the Hudson Valley) and on five, very old, very gnarly looking trees. The apples are huge and the flavor is fantastic but they're not very juicy, which makes them perfect for sauce.

I would love someone to make state-by-state guides of orchards with heirloom apples!

I love some Granny Smiths.

Living in Florida, I get what I can from Whole Foods, but the most "exotic" varieties available to us are Fuji or honeycrisp, both of which I love. But I also have a weakness for nice, tart Granny Smith with thin slices of Parmesan cheese. Loved that combo since I was a kid.

@hgirl - Second the Pink Ladies!!!

stayman winesap or honey crisp. so good! really though, anything local is (almost) always tasty =)

Macs -- like my preference in computers!

Fuji apples on the west coast. Giant Fujis if I can find them.

Honey Crisps on the east.

My favorites to eat are honeycrisp and fuji.

Honeycrisp! Sweetangos are pretty good too (newer variety; lots of them in Michigan stores/markets this year).

pink ladies.

In the last few years I've been totally obsessed with Cameos--shown in the photo above. I don't actually see them around widely, but the apple folks at my local farmers market (in Brooklyn) have them every year. Although I have to say that last year's crop was a little disappointing...hoping this year will be back up to snuff!

Oh, to describe Cameos: perfect balance of sweet and tart, and nice and crisp. (Last year's were disappointing because they were a little mealy...:( Kind of closest, I think, to Fuji or Honeycrisp--not that I remember those well, haven't eaten anything other than Cameos in years...

Galas...and only Galas. My wife thinks I'm an apple snob because I only eat one kind.

I just had an Akane apple yesterday - wonderful! Like a cross between a Spartan and a Pink Lady. I also love a good Granny Smith or Fuji. I really go through phases with apples, but the one constant is they MUST be local! :)

Jonagolds for baking. I'm sure they're also good for snacking, but sadly I'm allergic to raw tree fruit.

I grew up on an apple farm... spent my youth taking care of the orchards, picking apples, picking up windfall, grading and packing, selling at the market... and I still love apples! My favourite - Granny Smith.

Harlsons! They're the perfect sweet/tart mix, with a crisp texture, like a Honeycrisp, and something else that makes the flavor more complex than a Cortland. I like the risk of scraping my mouth.

Red Delicious. I feel, it has lot of food value compared to others. Well, thats only my feeling.

Growing up I used to only eat Granny Smith. Then I went through a Golden Delicious phase when I finally tried one. Now I like Galas or Pink Ladies.

I have NEVER been a fan of Red Delicious they are too grainy for me.

Pink Ladies for me although I could be persuaded to eat a Honeycrisp if I had to. My husband will only eat Empire though. He was spoiled by growing up in Upstate NY near an orchard.

Granny Smith is my favorite.

Cortlands!

Honeycrisp!

For baking I love gravensteins at the end of the summer, cortlands in September and winesaps and Northern Spies for October and as long as they last in the fridge through the winter. I also just tried swiss gourmets for the first time. They are great for both eating and baking.

Love cameos, honeycrisps, and galas for eating fresh.

My least favorite pie apples are jonathans, jonagolds and fortune's. They all produce a floral perfume-y taste which I am not keen on.

Connell Reds for snacking. Gravensteins for baking.

Honeycrisp! Ambrosias are decent too.

Honeycrisp when I can get them. Sonya & Jazz are quite fine, too.

Pink Ladies, Honeycrisp, and empires if I can find them.

honeycrisp !

Jazzzzz!!!!!!

Nestars? or Nestors? We just found those in our supermarket the other day.

I went to an heirloom apple festival quite a number of years back, the heirloom apple growing hobbyist sliced an apple with his pen knife, and said, "I feel guilty after you eat this, you will be ruined for supermarket apples, the only kind you will ever be able to find."

To this day, I bite into a supermarket apple, and wistfully wish I had room for an heirloom apple orchard in my backyard.

I love trying all of the University of Minnesota apples (the folks who brought you the Honey Crisp!) in the fall... easy to do since I work on campus. :) The SnowSweet is really amazing; the flesh stays creamy and doesn't brown for a long time after they're sliced.

Royal Gala. It's the only type I'll buy. I'm kind of an apple snob that way.

Another vote for Honeycrisp (but only when I'm able to find them). I'm a Gala girl for my every day apple.

Gravenstein are good probably my favorite on the West Coast grown locally in Sebastopol area.

You lucky people on the East Coast how do you pick. The farmers market in Union Sq. NYC is the place to expand your comfort zone.

My favorites:

1. Fuji
2. Honey Crisp
3. Macoun
4. Pink Lady
5. Gravenstein

Jonagolds! Apples are all about texture for me, and these are perfection.

Pink Ladies!

Galas, Royal Galas. But I'm in Texas, and most of our apples come from elsewhere.

Jonathans for baking, Jonagolds for raw consumption.

Pink Ladies but wouldn't turn down a granny smith either

The best is MinnJon (Minnesota Jonathan), but extremely hard to find, even at the St. Paul Farmer's Market, but Honeycrisp and Macoun are close second. I second the vote for UM varieties - I moved away, but miss them!

For eating out of hand, I LOVE Ambrosia apples for their perfect texture and their sweetness - we only get them very seasonally, so I stock up when they finally hit stores, and I like Arkansas Black, too. But for baking I'm Granny Smith all the way. Though I guess if I was making something unsweetened, I could maybe try something else one day...but not likely.

Nothing can beat the Pink Ladies.

Cox Orange!

Honey Crisp. I am impatiently anticipating their arrival to the fall season.

Also, I had an apple called "Jazz" that was really good. I don't know what hybrid it consisted of or if it was sold anywhere else but New Orleans.

In the off season, I prefer Fuji, but Honey Crisp is like cocaine to me and when it's available, it's all I'll eat forever and ever amen.

PINK LADIES!! I'm kind of a snob when it comes to my apples. Has to be tart, crisp and juicy. YUM! The harder the better. My husband prefers them soft. Weird.

Those new SweeTangos are pretty darned good for eating, but they seem to have a short season. Otherwise, Gala and Honeycrisp.

Sweetangos, despite their dumb name, are, in my opinion, the end-all-be-all of the eating apple. If you haven't had them (and they're hard to get), imagine a Honeycrisp with the beautiful tartness of a Pink Lady. I swoon when I eat them.

McIntosh - I grew up eating those off the trees and buying them at the stand at the apple orchard in the little town I grew up in. Their smell and taste will always remind me of childhood and autumn.

I grew up on an apple farm, and now consider myself a bit of an apple snob, which I'm okay with. McIntosh are the BEST to make applesauce with. Winesap and staymen's are good as well for cooking, and they keep so well (until March in your fridge!) I love apples, and am so sad I live further away from my parent's farm - they always have the freshest produce.

Another vote for the Macouns.

Braeburn. Great for eating and cooking. Not too sweet and not too tart.

I love Jonathans and Jonagolds, too!

No way I can choose just one!

Lobo is the best! but I think they're only in Quebec!

A couple of weekends ago I went picking and got JonaMacs, a cross between a Jonathan and a Macintosh (upstate NY). They made great apple butter!

Zestar. Tart and crispy, like I remember apples being when I was a kid. The Chicago Tribune just did a good article on new apple varieties.

Ambrosia and Jazz apples are my favorite. The ambrosia have such a wild but sweet flavor. The Jazz are always crisp and sweet.

For pie making I prefer a mixture of Granny Smiths and Braeburns.

For snacking I like Pink Ladies. Yum.

Jonagolds--delicious for eating & baking!

We don't get very many apple varieties in Hawaii, but out of what we do get, I love eating the Southern Dessert Rose.

Cortland & Braeburn. Tart, super crisp and juicy.

Macintosh all the way.

I like all apples but Red Delicious. Couldn't pay me to eat one!

Braeburn is the best by far. Has the nice tart kick of a Granny Smith, with just enough sweetness. The first time I bit into one, my immediate reaction was "This is the perfect apple". I never see them locally though, even though I live in the heart of orchard country in northern RI. Macs and Macouns are my faves when I'm picking my own at a local orchard/farmers market.

I Love the Honeycrisp but they are so expensive I feel guilty buying them!

I'm in complete agreement with thekitchn's list! Grannysmith 4eva and still enjoying honeymoon phase of Honeycrisp
— @Laurie's Mom, totally agree.

1. Pink Lady
2. King David

Luckily living close to Hood River OR means there are dozens of fantastic uncommon varieties to try.

Honeycrisp and Ambrosias.