r/TrueReddit • u/ClockOfTheLongNow • 6d ago
Arts, Entertainment + Misc How Honeycrisp Apples Went From Marvel to Mediocre
https://www.seriouseats.com/how-honeycrisp-apples-went-from-marvel-to-mediocre-8753117119
u/cocoabeach 6d ago
Ironically, the Red Delicious went through nearly the same arc in the past century that the Honeycrisp has faced more recently, rising quickly in popularity before the very traits that made it famous became its downfall. First discovered in Iowa in the 1870s by farmer Jesse Hiatt and originally called the Hawkeye, it was celebrated for its sweet flavor, crisp bite, and handsome appearance. After the Stark Brothers Nursery bought the rights and renamed it Stark Delicious, then later Red Delicious, it became America’s most iconic apple. But as demand for mass production and shipping grew, growers began selecting for uniform bright red color, durability, and shelf appeal rather than taste. Over the decades this breeding emphasis stripped away its sweetness, tartness, and crispness, leaving it with thick skin and a mealy, bland texture. By the late 20th century the once-beloved Red Delicious had lost consumer favor, eclipsed by varieties like Gala, Fuji, and Honeycrisp that kept flavor at the forefront. At least for a while.
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u/unitconversion 5d ago
Do you have any articles about that? I almost find it impossible to believe the red delicious was ever good.
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u/cocoabeach 5d ago
And this is where history goes a bit fuzzy. In the 1940s, the Red Delicious most likely tasted great. According to MyRecipes, “it truly was delicious until the 1950s, when its success intersected with mass production. Taste was no longer top priority, giving way to efficiency and uniformity. Growers who grafted (cloned) Red Delicious apples sought out darker apples, yielding the unmistakable Red Delicious hue.”
https://weirdmarketingtales.com/this-is-why-red-delicious-apples-are-terrible-but-popular/
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u/nous_nordiques 5d ago
I had a next-door neighbor in the apple business when I was growing up and I used to receive a red delicious at Halloween. I've been chasing that high ever since. I break down and buy one at the store every few years, always a disappointment.
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u/Maleficent_Soft4560 2d ago
I’ve had a red delicious exactly once in my life that was actually delicious. It was an amazing apple. Sweet like a pink lady crisp and tart like a Granny Smith. I always assumed it was really fresh and the other red delicious apple I had were just too old. But maybe I was just lucky and had a truly red delicious apple.
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u/deviantbono 5d ago
Ironically I just picked some up at the farmer's market because that's the only apple they had and... they we're good. Better than the bland honeycrisps I've been getting at the grocery store lately.
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u/spinbutton 2d ago
Everything from the farmer's market is better than the grocery store. The apples haven't traveled as far or been kept in storage as long
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u/Seeker0fTruth 5d ago
I'm pretty sure Michael Pollen talks about this in the "Apple" chapter of his book "the omnivore's dilemma".
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u/Equivalent-Simple647 5d ago
1980s red delicious was pretty damn good. Golden delicious too was and still is awesome.
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u/No_Worldliness643 4d ago
The father of my college roommate was a farmer who had an apple orchard that grew red delicious apples, from old trees. Those apples were about the size of a tangerine, round, and oftentimes kind of scabby. But they tasted DELICIOUS.
When I asked him what would happen to those apples, he said that most of the time they would end up in something like McDonald’s apple pies, because no one would buy ugly apples, no matter how good they tasted. So it’s been kind of an artificial selection process because of the disconnect between what causes an apple to get purchased versus what causes an apple to be delicious.
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u/Impressive-Work2330 3d ago
This is from my great great great grandparents! Awesome family and story. I recall being told it and seeing it in the family book. It’s an amazing story and an even more amazing Apple. Yum! Go find it (I don’t get royalties lol)
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u/cocoabeach 3d ago
That’s incredible! Which part of the story comes from your great-great-great grandparents? I’d really love to hear more about their lives and what you remember being told. Your family’s connection makes this history so much more meaningful than anything I shared.
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u/Impressive-Work2330 3d ago
My ggggrandfather owned an orchard and a tree kept coming up in between the rows. He cut it down (I think 2 years) and it kept coming back. So he said whelp God must want it to grow. He let it grow a few years and had the apple off of it and took a bite and told gggggrandma this must be the best apple I have ever had in my life. He went on to travel the fair circuit(which is a thing in Iowa lol) and eventually sold the rights to the apple after winning best apple.
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u/cocoabeach 3d ago
My ggggrandfather traveled the Midwest sheep herder's circuit, which was also a real thing, so I understand. He was one of the largest sheep farmers in the Midwest.
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u/veerKg_CSS_Geologist 4d ago
Oh, so that’s why my Gala apples have been going down in quality year upon year.
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u/ClockOfTheLongNow 6d ago
A deep dive into the honeycrisp apple and the things that led to its decline. There's so much that goes into apple development that I just don't know, and a lot of this was new to me. Loved the read.
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u/rotarypower101 6d ago
TLDR: It was never designed or built to be a commercial year round Apple? Rather a peak seasonal apple selected for flavor and texture, not factors that help its industrialization.
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u/BeerorCoffee 6d ago
Give me Envy apples, or give me death! I'll also settle for cosmic crisp.
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u/ForestClanElite 6d ago
Cosmic crisp is a decent replacement for honey crisp
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u/JoeFelice 5d ago
I was all in on cosmic crisp, but there was a sudden change in the last year. Now they're twice as big and taste half as good.
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u/nabistay 3d ago
It seems our local store is 50/50 on if they have the extra large ones or the regular smaller ones. The difference is so Stark we only buy the smaller ones (and are always so excited when we see them!)
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u/frotc914 6d ago
Cosmic Crisps were crossbred from honeycrisps for the honeycrisp flavor but with longer shelf life and firmer flesh for transportation.
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u/plaskitboy 5d ago
I've noticed a lot of the apples that I've enjoyed have been crossbreeds of honey crisps. Sugar Bees were my favorite for a bit, but getting a good one is dicey anymore. It's like they stay crisp, but it almost seems like the flavor drains from them on the shelf. I don't know.
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u/boostman 6d ago edited 6d ago
Envy apples made me like apples!
EDIT: I've just discovered a wonderful website. https://applerankings.com/
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u/raymond_stantz 6d ago
This must be a regional experience, because they have Rave apples ranked so lowly, in my experience Rave apples have been extraordinary - sweet, tart, crisp and juicy. By contrast, all Envy apples I've had here have been bland and disappointing.
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u/Gastronomicus 6d ago
Same here - the envy I've had were OK but not exactly stellar. I find cosmic crisp to the most reliably delicious apple now.
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u/BeerorCoffee 6d ago
They shouldn't even be called apples, that word doesn't accurately describe them. And the fact that they need to share a display with those red "delicious" bastards is a travesty, lest some of the bland, tasteless, mush rub off on them.
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u/CReWpilot 4d ago edited 4d ago
I see this site often shared liked its gospel. It probably shouldn’t be.
It sort of presents itself as if it’s based on aggregate ratings from a large group of people. It’s not. It’s just one guy’s opinion, who has no specific qualification to be an “expert” (a standup comedian in fact). We also have no idea if the apples he tried were even in season, or from a good stock. Also doesn’t account for any regional variation.
It’s honestly a bit nonsense.
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u/jrussino 6d ago
Apple Rankings is a real gem. I discovered it when my grocery store started carrying Opal apples and I decided to google before buying one to try. I found a new favorite apple and a new favorite website that day: https://applerankings.com/opal-apple-review/
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u/fikis 6d ago
Envy are my current favorite, too.
Sometimes, Fuji are good as well.
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u/Downtown_Skill 4d ago
Envy and then pink lady's for a more sour apple for me. But that's because my local stores selection is limited and I really only haven't been getting the honeycrisp apples because they are twice as expensive as other apples, and the other apples aren't bad or anything.
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u/phophofofo 4d ago
The University of Minnesota breeds most of these we get them all way before everyone else.
First Kiss is the one that to watch for if it makes it your way.
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u/tcadams18 5d ago
Envy are where it’s at right now. Hopefully they don’t suffer the same decline as others have
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u/BeerorCoffee 5d ago
These new breeds have much stricter patents than the old ones did. Less licensed, too.
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u/prof_the_doom 6d ago
They're still better than a lot of the other options, and still great if you're getting them from an orchard / farmstand as opposed to a grocery store.
Having said that, the "local" orchard just started offering a new variety this year, the Sweet Maia... and it's what Honeycrisp used to be.
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u/Meme-Botto9001 6d ago
Like with almost every regional/seasonal fruit or or crop…don’t industrialize it to be available year around. There’s no need for and seasonal farming is much more desirable for environmental impacts.
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u/S_A_N_D_ 6d ago
That might work in warmer areas, but where I am that would mean nothing but dried or canned fruit and vegetables for 6-8 months of the year.
If you want fruit and veg in the winter, it's either stored long term, or imported, and storing long term is often more environmentally friendly.
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u/Splinterfight 6d ago
Oops all brassicas
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u/S_A_N_D_ 6d ago
Last time I checked, those don't grow well at -20 either. So like apples, they get stored long term or imported.
Our harvest is over by mid October, and last frost isn't until mid may which means best case the first harvest of anything doesn't happen until June. All fresh fruit and veg between those dates is stored long term, like the apples in the article, or imported from other countries.
It doesn't really make a difference if you're storing apples, carrots, cabbage, or potatoes. You're still storing them long term. More importantly, there is a reason why our diets are (or at least can be) a lot healthier and better than my grandparents and great grandparents. That comes from access to better food year round that they didn't have.
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u/helmint 6d ago
The University of Minnesota has been waaaaayyy more strategic about the licensing they allow for their newer apple varieties because of what happened to the honeycrisp.
If you’re ever in the Twin Cities in the fall, you can visit the UMN’s Apple House at the Arboretrum and they usually have samples of apples that are still in development (designated by numbers, no names yet).
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u/talkingwires 6d ago
I was surprised that the article did not mention the licensing issues. UoM have a new apple variety, called Sweet Tango, that they trademarked to hell and back so that they could maintain control over where they’re grown and who is growing them.
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u/skunkboy72 6d ago
Just like the author I switched to Galas.
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u/Gastronomicus 6d ago
Galas remain pretty mediocre too. Cosmic crisp is a much more flavourful apple.
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u/woodrowwilson5000 6d ago
FASCINATING article. I remember the first time I had one ... it was amazing and unlike any apple I'd ever eaten. Of course, I lived two miles from the U of M arboretum at the time.
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u/KaetzenOrkester 5d ago
I first had one in 2004 or so and it was amazing. Now they’re just not worth the price.
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u/mtwrite4 6d ago
Going back about 30 years, I worked in a produce department and we had Macoun apples in the fall. They looked absolutely terrible, but were the best tasting apples. Now when shopping, Macoun apples look beautiful, but taste just meh.
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u/notacrook 6d ago
The secret to getting amazing apples is to get them right as they're in season. They get mealy and soft as they sit in storage.
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u/FirstNoel 6d ago
One of the benefits of living where I do, fresh apples, I can get HoneyCrisps fresh off the tree in season from local orchards.
Its sad though, the rest of the year, it's a victim of it's own success.
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u/blueooze 5d ago
I'm a fan of the Sweettango but seeing as they are becoming more popular the same thing might happen. I used to run a produce department and getting to try out all the new apples was the BEST
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u/Pwr-usr69 5d ago
Too late for this comment to go anywhere but I'm placing it here as a personal bookmark for later.
This Is the second time I've seen a personal anecdote in a popular thread become an article that's then posted back to reddit in less than a day.
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u/andersonb47 6d ago
“It was a chilly Saturday morning in October…”
Uuuuuuugggghhhh why must this style of writing persist? It’s so ponderous and dull.
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u/boostman 6d ago edited 6d ago
I actually realised a couple of paragraphs into this article that I can’t really handle most food writing.
EDIT: After the 'flavour' text in the introduction, the story is actually very interesting.
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u/draebor 6d ago
They should put a 'jump to the explanation' button at the top of these articles, like they have for recipes.
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u/talkingwires 6d ago
Not that I think it was a particularly great article, but fuck that.
Skimming text is a skill more people should develop. The act of evaluating whether information is pertinent or not helps one to think more critically about what they are reading. We‘ve swung too far in favor of summarization and bullet-pointed info dumps, and if you disagree, well I’m sure your favorite AI model will be happily regurgitate summaries for you.
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u/vesperythings 6d ago
haha, that's interesting.
any other examples that led you to that conclusion?
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u/boostman 6d ago
I first tasted one 10 years ago, standing at my mother-in-law’s kitchen counter in St. Louis on a cool September day. I grasped the rosy fruit she handed me and took a bite. The apple’s paper-thin skin produced an audible crunch, and a burst of sweet, tart juice immediately filled my mouth. I chewed carefully.
It's just everything about the style and especially the ways of describing textures and flavours is somehow extremely annoying. It's not that I hate food writing. I absolutely adore Elizabeth David, for example. I think it's more specifically millennial journalist food writing that I hate.
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u/MissingSocks 5d ago
What do you mean persist. Has something else replaced it?
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u/andersonb47 5d ago
If something had replaced it then it would not persist…
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u/MissingSocks 5d ago
Pedantic and not useful, but true. Allow me to withdraw and resubmit my question as follows: What's a good candidate style to replace it?
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u/notacrook 6d ago
I had to copy the link into ChatGPT to get a summary because the writing was so extra.
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u/Mellero47 6d ago
For the price, they never seemed so special to me. Paid $2.50 for one, same ol stuff.
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u/Happy_rich_mane 6d ago
Not sure about availability in the rest of the country but if you’re in the northeast pick up evercrisps which are usually ready around late October. Crisp, amazing flavor, and they do last seemingly forever.
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u/goddamwarrior 6d ago
They were AMAZING when they first came out. Now? Yuck.
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u/VampiricClam 6d ago
Red Delicious apples in the early to mid 80s were, well, delicious. Went downhill pretty quickly in the 90s.
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u/jebrennan 5d ago
Honeycrisp apples used to be worth the higher price tag. And, I’ve stopped because sometimes they are just not good. Sometimes the magic is gone. Peaches are like that for me too.
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u/silentspyder 5d ago
I’m just mad that it’s getting harder and harder to find Macintosh apples. My local Lidl just stopped, hope it’s just a seasonal thing.
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u/DIDNT_GET_SARCASM 5d ago
Idk about honeycrisp but I know Fuji apples have really gone downhill. It’s almost a chore to eat them now. I have to end up peeling the skin before eating
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u/wabashcr 5d ago
Grocery store apples almost always suck. The orchard by me sells fantastic honeycrisps in season, but they also started growing Evercrisps a few years ago, which I like more, and they tend to store better. If I can't get one of those, I usually default to good ol' fujis.
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u/kathmandogdu 5d ago
Fuji apples are shit now. They were great when they first came to market in the US, but I haven’t had a truly good one for years now. 😪
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u/tylerjames 5d ago
Maybe where this author is from. But around here (Ottawa) the local honeycrisps are still superb. When they finally run out of local supply I just stop buying them. The imported ones are completely inferior
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u/RandoReddit72 4d ago
Look how shitty Sumo Oranges have become. They were huge ugly delicious now they are shitty smooth baseballs
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u/Representative-Try50 3d ago
I ate one last night and the sticker said it was from chile... why am I eating apples from Chile in the US at this time of the year? Why are stores buying honeycrisps from Chile when they are bred to grow in Minnesota. So many questions, and most likely many stupid non sensical answers
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u/Nearby_Original8985 2d ago
That’s so odd I came across this Reddit as the past 2 times I’ve gotten honey crisp I thought I got bad batches . Thought it was me . I’ve raved about them for years .. but this year seems different . Figured it was just me !
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u/Golgarivet 2d ago
I remember that I loved Red Delicious apples as a kid- they were crisp. But at least since the millennium, they are kinda soft, and in the worst way. I remember I loved yellow apples. They were softer- but SOOO sweet! Even so, they weren't soft the way apples nowadays are sometimes, just, squishy. So, now, of course, I usually go for Honeycrisp, or something like that.
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u/Clean-Midnight3110 5d ago
Serious eats has declined so much since Kenji left that I doubt the peek is even visible from the depths that they are at now.
Gala is a trash apple, not remotely comparable to honey crisp.
Kenji would never judge an entire variety off a sample size of two mediocre grocery store half rotten apples.
It's September which is PEAK honey crisp season across much of the country. You can go to an orchard and pick 2 months supply for like 2.50 dollars a pound.
Author is braindead.
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u/mf-TOM-HANK 6d ago
I may not understand the finer points of apple cultivation but disease and the side effects of mass production/distribution typically cause the quality of popular strains of apples to degrade over time