Category Archives: Apples in Review

Apples in Review: Vol 2 – Granny Smith

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It’s time once again for more Apples in Review. For the past few months, I’ve been tasting a new apple each week. I’m trying to get ahead for when I run out of apple varieties at The Fresh Market and am forced to visit actual farms or farmer’s markets. We’re now on to our second variety of Apple — the Green Granny Smith apple.

Green Granny Smith Apple just before taste test.

While the Red Delicious is the most famous apple, the Granny Smith Apple (aka Green Apple) is also a top-tier apple. Known for its sour taste, this variety is heavily featured in both the candy and adult beverage world. 

We’ve even seen Green Apple replace Lime Skittles. In the “original” bag of Skittles — if Green Apple replaced Lime just a few short years ago, does that make it still the “original” flavors? I don’t think so! Lime was always my favorite Skittles flavor. Did their license agreement with Limes end abruptly? #BringBackLimeSkittles! Come on, Marshawn!

“Original” Skittles flavors (although we all know that green used to be, and was better as, Lime)

Granny Smith apples are best known for their sour flavor. Although the sour flavor isn’t my favorite — eating too much gives you sticky Skittles/Starburst spit — I appreciate that they exist. If you eat a Red Delicious apple and a Granny Smith back to back, it’s kind of crazy to taste the difference between those two varieties alone. But who’s going to eat two different apples back to back? A Psychopath.

I was told (in a book, on a podcast and probably somewhere else) that Green Apples are great for heavy voice work (on-stage acting, voice over, singing). There’s some chemical in them, and only them, that clears your voice and throat. Or in gross terms — the Malic Acid within the Green Apple will clear mucus and the throat. Adding honey to ginger & lemon tea usually works for the throat, but just one bite of a green apple can do wonders.

Due to the sourness of the Green Apple it goes great with some smooth peanut butter (because crunchy Peanut Butter is for Ding Dongs). If you have a peanut allergy, which is common today, please don’t try this combo at home (or anywhere for that matter). 

Sour Apple face.

I find the Green Apple to be too sour at times and the skin to be tougher than most apples. I’m not a fan of a thick/strong skin on my apples. Now that I’m trying the whole apple and not just the inside parts, I much prefer a skin that blends in with the flavor, taste and texture of the rest of the apple.

My current Apple Ranking:
1. Red Delicious
2. Granny Smith

-based on flavors tried and written about so far

A Short History of Green Apples (according the the internet)

The Granny Smith Apple comes from Australia and was introduced to the market back in 1868. I had no idea that apples came from Australia, but I guess it makes sense for this backwards ass sour apple to come from upside-down Australia. It’s not sweet like other apples, instead it’s sour.

The name Granny Smith comes from it’s cultivator, Maria Ann Smith. Maria created this apple and was someone’s granny. The sour/tart flavors and crunch make this variety of apple good for everything from salads to pies and everything in between (candy and alcoholic drinks).

Once again I got this image from bestapples.com

While the Green Apple is not my favorite apple, it’s still a nice sour treat. I would enjoy it much more with some outside help — Nutella, dulce de leech, peanut butter. Let’s face it, I think every apple can be enhanced with “outside help.”

Apples in Review: Vol 1 – Red Delicious

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A few weeks ago I made a post about all of the different kinds of apples that exist. While writing that post I decided that I would attempt to try all of the different varieties of apples that I could find. I was going to start posting my short reviews of each apple on the @ferdislearnings Twitter profile, but after trying a few different types of apples I’ve decided to instead make a weekly (or bi-weekly) post featuring a different apple each post.

It’s been a few weeks and I have now tried a few different apples. I wanted to get a bit ahead of myself.

Of course, I’m starting off with the original apple — The Red Delicious. The forbidden fruit that Adam & Eve ate back in the garden. I’m guessing it was a Red Delicious apple because I bet they didn’t have all of these varieties of apples yet. If Adam and Eve were the first man and woman then there was no one around yet to create these new kinds of apples and the Red Delicious had to be the only one around, right???

Let me start off by saying that I don’t normally eat the skin of an apple. My normal apple eating ritual consists of cutting an apple into slices and just eating the inside parts and tossing the skin in the trash (where it belongs). There is also usually some Nutella, dulce de leche or peanut butter involved.

For the purpose of this apple eating experiment I decided to bite straight into these apples, skin and all. I’m not using any flavor enhancers either (nutella, dulce de leche, peanut butter…). I’m reviewing not only the taste of the inside of the apple, but also the skin.

Red Delicious Apples ($1.79/lb) at the Fresh Market

Now it’s time for Apples in Review: Vol 1 – Red Delicious

The Red Delicious Apple just tastes like an apple to me. It tastes like a regular, plain ass apple. If a candy or beverage said “Apple-flavored” on the label, this is what I’d expect to taste.

If you pick a nice one you’ll notice a beautiful, shiny red coat of skin. I’m guessing that’s why they call it the Red Delicious — it’s shiny, red coat makes it look like a delicious treat for you to eat.

I started my journey with the most basic version of an apple so that I can hopefully notice the differences when I venture out into other varieties.

The red delicious apple is refreshing. After biting into this one the inside quickly started to turn brown and loose moisture. Apples tend to do this, but this felt much faster than I’d expect. Since eating this apple I have noticed that some apples have a extremely high moisture content and this wasn’t one of those.

When biting into the Red Delicious I thought, “Yeah, that tastes like an apple to me.” This is why I look forward to trying other varieties and seeing what differences I can taste.

I don’t expect to taste wild notes of chocolate with hints of mild cherry like in coffee, but I do plan to notice subtle differences in sweetness and sour levels, moisture and other apple identifiers. I’d say the Red Delicious is our middle of the road apple. It’s got a mild flavor for those who crave a simple, plain ass apple.

image from the Washington Apple Commission (bestapples.com)