What is your favorite apple?

[Old Glory]

Macoun and Cortland

[STEbbq]

In a pastry turnover!

[HawkerXP]

What is crazy is ComfortablyNumb hasn't responded. If you have followed him and the info he has shared with us about how apple growers get beat up every time a "new" apple comes on the market.
Its a wonder we have apples at all.

[Clark]

Red Delicious. They have been around since Adam and Eve.

[IowaGirl]

The last Honeycrisp apples I got from the grocery store were tasteless. Very juicy, yes. Moderately sweet, yes. But apple flavor -- dull as dishwater.

I will probably get a few Honeycrisp from our local orchards this fall, but I don't expect to buy them from a grocery store anymore -- there are other varieties that are more reliably flavorful and almost as juicy. I hate paying a premium for an apple with substandard flavor.

I have read that the immense popularity of Honeycrisp is driving producers to do to it what has been done to Red Delicious. Breed 'em for shelf life, pick 'em early, make 'em look great, and don't worry about flavor.

A home grown or locally grown Red Delicious is wonderful -- my grandfather grew them as well as Golden Delicious. Red Delicious apples from the grocery store are about as tasteless and unappealing IMO as grocery store tomatoes.

I realize Granny Smith is usually recommended in recipe books, but I can't quite fathom why I'd want to buy apples that can't be grown locally (north central USA).

Drying apple: Cortland stays intact after drying and doesn't darken as much as other varieties.
Fresh eating: Fireside, Braeburn, Ambrosia, Gala, Fuji, Pink Lady, Jonadel, Golden Delicious, among others.
Applesauce and apple butter: Any mix of flavorful apples that tend to break down when heated. Liberty is a late summer apple that makes nice sauce. Cortland is fine here too.
Pies, pastries: Any mix of flavorful apples. Even apples that break down into applesauce still make nice pies. If I had to pick one pie apple, however, I'd choose Jonadel, although it's hard to find.

[jfmorris]

I cannot even remember seeing red or golden delicious for sale in the stores around here in recent years. So many of those orchards have gone under or switched to other varieties I've read.

[IowaGirl]

jfmorris -- I agree apple orchards are under a lot of pressure to meet the current demand for Honeycrisp and its cousins. Red Delicious has become a rarity around here too, but we can still get Yellow Delicious from the local orchards here in northeast Iowa and southwest Wisconsin during apple season.

[Murdy]

When I was a kid, we always looked forward to Spartans in the fall, I believe they were a cross between a Cortland and a McIntosh.

[bbqLuv]

Tree Top Apple Sauce with Cinnamon. Grannies Apple Pie Ala Mode.

[jhapka]

Being a good Minnesotan, I have a honeycrisp tree in my yard and it makes my favorite apples.

[jghorton]

Yorks or Summer Rambo; they are Delicious with a capital D. This fella has some apple info that will really make you want to dig deeper. https://applesearch.org

[jfmorris]

I came across this article or one like it a few years ago. At one point, there were literally THOUSANDS of varieties of apples. Commercialization has driven 80% of them to extinction.

Where Have All the Apples Gone? An Investigation into the Disappearance of Apple Varieties and the Detectives Who Are Out to Find Them | The People, Ideas, and Things (PIT) Journal (unc.edu)

[barelfly]

Growing up, it was a champagne variety from a local apple farm - Dixon’s Apples. It was a family event to go and get a couple of bags from the orchard. Haven’t done that in years, and unfortunately the orchard was in the path of a fire years ago.

But, now a days, it’s a Honey crisp apple.

[Dewesq55]

I'm old fashioned. I love a McIntosh. I know they're less crisp, but that's how I like 'em.

Edit: Addendum: I have NEVER liked red delicious. I always thought that name was false advertising. I do enjoy the occasional golden delicious, however.

[Strat50]

I use different apples depending on what I'm doing. Having said that, the best all around apples we commonly get here in Alaska are Honeycrisp. Very versatile for both fresh eating and most cooked items.

[Santamarina]

Fuji seems to be the one that comes home most often, but as long as it’s not a mealy Red Delicious I’ll happily eat any apple!