Apple 7: Pink Lady

Today I've brought the Pink Lady, which Brian claims is only successful due to marketing. Let's find out if the PL is worth defending!

Taste: mmmmmmmmmmmm. The Lady is mild without sacrificing flavor. I can't put my finger on whether it leans toward tart or sweet. Dare I say both? My tastebuds are all a-kerfuffle and can't tell the Pink from the Lady. But if I had to choose, I'd say it leans tart. 

Texture: Smooth sailing. 

Price: $1.28/lb. - par for the course. 

Attractiveness: What a perfect spring apple, with hues of lime green and a deep coral! It's like nibbling on a painting. 

Rating: While the flavor was as delicious (although unique) from the Braeburn, the Pink Lady is going to take the lead due to its perfect size (coming in smaller than even the Golden Delicious). I wouldn't change a thing. The PL earns every one of its whopping 9.5 seeds! Count it!

Apple 6: Fuji

This post is a day late due to yesterday's jam-packed schedule, but I promised one very special birthday girl the honor of selecting today's apple, so Jackie, let's go to Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuji!

Taste: Most of the other apples I've tried so far have had distinct sweet and sour flavors, but the Fuj has a deeper layer of flavor. Unfortunately I can't say I enjoy the lingering taste...it's too reminiscent of a strong cheese. Maybe it would pair well with a gruyere fondue though? Hey look at me, trying to pretend like I know what I'm talking about.

Texture: Slightly soft, fibrous, and strangely dry in the late chewing stages (ex: at first it seems normal and juicy but by the time you swallow, you almost need to wash it down). 

Price: $1.39/lb.

Attractiveness: Hottie with a body. 

Rating: All things considered, the Fuji was pretty disappointing. I have mindlessly snacked on this before, but I think it'll be hard to go back now after really thinking about all the flavors. Sorry Jackie, but your Golden Birthday apple only gets 5 seeds!

fast fun fact friday!

Because I've been learning so much about apples, I will now inflict this knowledge upon you.

Shall we play 2 truths and a lie, a-la-first-day-of-college-class style?

1. The U.S. produces more than a third of the world's apples.

2. The apple industry received a federal bailout in 2000.

3. Apple cultivars (varieties) are patented. 

Submit your answers without the help of Google, Wikipedia, your cat, etc.

Apple 5: Rome

Doesn't this apple look delicious???

Well guess what. It's not.

Taste: How do you put "nothing" into words....ah yes, there it is...NOTHING. 

Texture: Sick. Soft, gushy, mealy and I mean mealy. The apple was fresh and firm on the outside though, so don't go blaming "rotting" or "you broke it" or any of that. Blame the apple. Blame Rome!

Price: $.98/lb., shocker. 

Attractiveness: That's the problem here. This thing is cute as a button, and it's the perfect snacking size! It even has a cute little stem, which just kind of made me happy (dear Lord) because stems are majorly lacking in the apple world these days. 

Rating: This is a Trojan Horse. I hate it for deceiving me, oh and for leaving me hungry (I couldn't get past 4 bites). You get 1 seed, you stupid apple. Who names an apple after a city ANYWAY. 

Apples 3 & 4: the Deliciouses

It's time for a Delicious face-off! These are best known to me from my childhood (red) and baking pies (golden) so I never buy either for snacking. Am I missing out? Let's find out. 

Red Delicious

Subtitled: Really? This is the best we could do with a name?

Taste: Basically, this tastes like elementary school. If that doesn't ring any bells, then—sweet, without a lingering aftertaste. Just as juicy as I remember.

Texture: Firm and fibrous! Apparently this skin has more fiber than any other apple variety.

Price: $.98/lb. (cheapest on the market)

Attractiveness: Tall dark and handsome! 

Rating: I'd like to say that the nostalgia factor garners some positive weight here, but unfortunately I think I maxxed out on these around age 7. Red Delicious gets a not-so-delish rating of 4 seeds.

Golden Delicious

Taste: Tart, but not offensively so.

Texture: Less mealy than the red with a tough skin. 

Price: $1.39 / lb.

Attractiveness: John Lennon, all the way.

Rating: The GD brings a lot to the table with its multiple applications in the kitchen and in the snack bag. Also, I really appreciate its size (1/2 lb., as opposed to the Red's 3/4 lb.). That being said, I don't like to mix business with pleasure so I'm going to keep the GD on reserve for "pies only" and give it 5 seeds for snacking purposes.

Operation Eve notes

Well people, I have already made my first mis-identification. 

I thought I was eating a Jonagold yesterday and it was really a Braeburn (gasp!). I even remember reading the sticker as I pulled it off, but somehow the J-word stuck in my head anyway, so I miscatalogued the apple. I assume this is a grave sin in the taste testing world, but I guess this isn't called Operation Eve for nothing! 

In other news, I went shopping last night to pick up a few more contenders and got a liiiiiittle carried away....like 8 more apples carried away. (And I've still yet to find a Honeycrisp!). The girl at the checkout really, really appreciated me buying one of each kind. Later I realized that all these apples are going to eventually rot if I continue at my snail's pace of one per day, so I'm going to start trying two halves a day, in the name of freshness. 

I also got some advice from my favorite professional taste test administrator Amy, who occasionally flies to Arizona to feed people sour cream. She pointed out that the grand finale hooplah side-by-side test should probably only include my top 3 favorite apples, rather than a chunk from the whole lot. This is a big relief, because trying to preserve fractions of 12 apples was not really on my to-do list. Plus, I ran out of snack baggies this morning. So now my plan is do a 3-day test at the end, where I rotate the order of apples eaten to make sure there's no bias. 

Are you starting to understand how important this is??????

Apple 2: Braeburn

Today I'm tasting the ever-beautiful Braeburn! May I start out by commenting that the Braeburn is ginormous. This is like two snacks for the price of one! Or since it's per pound, for the price of two. Wah wah.

Taste: This apple is definitely on the tart side of life. I like it. Nowhere near the tartness of a Granny Smith, but it still leaves a nice aftertaste in your mouth...like you might have popped a Jolly Rancher in your Zima.

Texture: A little bit mealy. Not gross-mealy, more like it's got a little character.

Price: $1.48/lb. (same as Cameo)

Attractiveness: Hunka hunka burnin' UH. Reminds me of making out with Ryan Gosling in a rowboat surrounded by swans.

Rating: I'm gonna go big here, just like the 'Burn itself - I'm going 8.5. Still leaving a little wiggle room for someone else to surprise me, but this one's a party in my mouth.