I bought a bag of the most horrible Honeycrisp apples from Trader Joes this week. They were very green (unripe), bland, tasteless, with not even a hint of sweetness. I had hoped that they were just shaded during the season and didn’t get much color, but were still sweet and juicy inside. Nope, they were just picked way too early and marketed anywaywith this lousy quality.
This just adds justification to breeders who want to protect their brand with strictly-controlled co-ops, who can dictate quality standards for any of their brand that reaches market. If I had not known much better, I would have determined from this bag that Honeycrisp is a horrible apple, and that I prefer sweeter apples like Pink Lady instead. Now Pink Lady is the trademark name for Cripp’s Pink apples that are grown to the standards set by the Pink Lady marketing association, and usually consumers will get a good taste experience, something not guaranteed by the expired-patent, non-trademarked Honeycrisp.
For that matter, it really lowers the bar on how good my homegrown apples have to be to beat the taste of supermarket apples. But no worries there, the Honeycrisp we grow here in the heat are outstanding and are on par with even the best of what I’ve tasted in the store or even local mountain U-pick orchards, and we’re testing them in Africa also.
I feel the pain. Single Honey Crisp here are running just a bit under $2.50 a pound. It would be had to swallow a bad one at that price.
Just think, in about five months the Anna’s will be come in. To me, very comparable to a Pink Lady.
Started pruning both peach and apple this week in South GA. Worried about early bloom with the warm weather we are having.