Apples..."Red Delicious" specifically (misnomer) are crap. why are they so popular, when there's all KINDS of.

Question

GOOD varieties, like Braeburn, Winesap, Arkansas Black, etc.
i dont understand why something as flavorful as cardboard ends up being the most popular.
any ideas?

wow, mountain girl.....you're passion is inspiring

petey.....good man.

shhhh: points are pointless

Answer 1

I'll take gala over red delicious any day.

Answer 2

AMEN!!!! Preaching to the choir!

I will forego an apple instead of eating a Red Delicious--I'm not even sure they're real sometimes. They are so prevalent because the ship and store so well (just like the plastic tomatoes down the aisle).

My all-time favorite is Granny Smith; I love the tartness when raw and how wonderfully they cook. For apple butter and/or apple sauce, I tend toward Turley Winesaps with a few Jonathans, Johnagolds, or Grimes Goldens thrown in to round out the flavor. For pie, I like to mix Granny Smiths and Winesaps. Early in the season, you can't beat a cobbler made out of the first Lodis of the year. Of course, Red Romes cook up to a very nice pink--use a few for color in any apple dish. They also polish up great and are a good out-of-hand eating apple.

Any of these are best direct from the orchard--unfortunately, my favorite orchard was closed a few years ago due to family inheritance issues. What a loss!

Now I want a good apple and I'm marooned away from anywhere that has them!

Answer 3

Mountain Girl is kind of right. Red Delicious apples, like most apples, were originally bred to be delicious and they were. But they got messed up by the growers in order to make them look prettier and grow faster and ship more easily. Growers look for a specific type of mutation. Eventually a tree will grow one branch with apples that turn red sooner than the rest of the crop. The growers usually have to wait several years before this happens but once it does they breed the seeds from that branch and everyone gets red and shippable (but underripe) apples. The scientists who bred the apples in the first place hate this because their precious apple that took 25 years to create and perfect suddenly gets corrupted but they have no control over what the growers do.

Also apples are meant to be grown in the region they were bred because they're sensitive to climate. When they're grown outside of their comfort region they aren't as good.

So the Red Delicious probably got popular because it was good so growers started growing them in unsuitable regions and then they found the mutation which made them all crap but people were already used to eating them. Plus it takes a long time for a new apple to hit the mainstream.

Answer 4

They do suck, but it's a matter of the apple business marketing their product by giving it a catchy name.

Red Delicious have thicker skins which make them tougher to eat (they bruise much less easily because of it, so in a way it's a positive.)

I like Galas, because they're good, but you can still get them on sale.

FYI, I worked in produce at the grocery store for almost a year, and I've never heard of "Arkansas Black" or "Winesap". We had red delicious, gold delicious, granny smith, braeburn, gala, and rome (off the top of my head what I remember.)

Answer 5

I don't like Red Delicious apples either. I don't like their texture or flavor at all. The skin is too thick and they taste worse than pears(which I hate) I love gala, granny smith, and fuji apples. I favor granny smith for cooking though, but I'll eat some other apples alone as long as they're peeled and sliced.

Answer 6

I don't really think ANYONE likes those! I think they've been bred, or hybridized, or whatever, to grow the biggest and be the easiest to ship without damage and to last the longest (before they rot) at the cheapest price. But buy a bag for your kids or your students or yourself - no one will eat these! You're right - they're crap! What IS going on? If we just boycotted these, paid a little more for the Galas, or Ida Reds, etc. maybe they'd get the message. It's high time we put an end to this madness! We're mad as hell about these apples, and we're NOT going to take it anymore!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Answer 7

I've often wondered the same thing. I work in produce and see all of these other wonderfully delicious...er....tasty apples such as the ones you've mentioned and a few new ones too like Honey Crisp, Ambrosia, Lady Alice and Jazz.

Answer 8

I agree - I could never understand why red delicious were always the ' top banana.'

I, myself love Braeburns, Pink Lady, Fuji and Golden delicious.

Answer 9

Well, oddly enough, they are my son's favourite. I too am not crazy about them but not because I find them tasteless, its their taste I don't like - too much like a pear.

I like sour apples - granny smiths or macintoshes - which are probably the best selling and cheapest apples here in Canada and they are also very tasty.

Answer 10

when growing up in Michigan red delicious apples were only used for feeding the pigs, decent people did not eat them, they are hard,dry, tasteless, and extremely well marketed by the state of Washington.