Thank you to whoever mentioned these apples on this board. I only like firm, tart apples and seems like every time I try a new variety I am disappointed. I bought 2 of these while driving through Ohio last week and they are really great. Now I wish I'd bought more. Will be checking if they're available in my part of North Carolina!

Enjoy them while they last! They disappear every year and I wait and wait for them to come back. Mmmm..honeycrisp.

Hubby and I went to our usual bulk-food store, and they had honeycrisp for $1 a pound. Grown locally, in a small orchard (they weren't polished or waxed or anything - so while not technically certified organic, probably closer to it than some of the commercial "organic" farms).

The clerk persuaded us to try a new variety "Sweet 16" - which they happend to just have only one bag left, so we bought that instead (about 8 lbs of apples for $2.50).

What a waste! An "ok" apple, but darned sure not a honeycrisp. They were WAY too soft at room temperature - in the refrigerator they firmed up enough to be edible. They're sweet - too sweet for my taste, especially as there's no tart to balance the sweetness.

I don't know if Honeycrisp have such a short season because of demand, or whether they don't last as long in cold storage. From my last batch (the supply seems to be coming to an end, locally) I planned on keeping one in the fridge for several weeks to try and see how long they last - but I couldn't wait any longer and gave in and ate it. Right now I have about 5 lbs of Fuji (a really good batch), which were better than the least perfect of the Honeycrisp I had (which was still pretty good), and about 4 lbs of the Sweet 16 (it turned out that nearly half of the apples were bad - I hate that. It was a clear bag too, but whoever arranged the bag, put the bruised apples in the middle so all the ones that were visible looked good. Since we never have quality problems with the bulk-store, I wonder if it came from the orchard that way (Next time I'm in, I'll comment on the quality so they're tipped off - if they deal with unscrupulous vendors, they'll lose business and they know it).

I also tried the Honeycrisp because of what I read on here and I was very impressed... Now I wont want to eat another apple lol

I love the Honey Crisp, but they've not gone below $2.99/lb here. Sigh.

What part of NC do you live? I've bought them in western NC at Earthfare and Greenlife. I think most areas can get them. But get them while you can because they won't be here much longer! I only see them from Sept to Oct or Nov.

North of Raleigh. My small town markets didn't have them, will be trying the state farmer's market in Raleigh on Saturday. And will mark my calendar for next year.

A coworker of mine went to the mountains of NC and brought back HoneyCrisps as a treat to the office. It was so nice to have instead of the cake or candy people usually bring. I was excited to see them after hearing about them here. They were great!

I found some at Sam's for $6 for a bag of 6 but didn't get them because the apples were so bruised. I am still enjoying my normal Galas.

The honeycrisp are amazing, but there are a lot of varieties (many less pricey) that are just (or nearly) as good. Sometimes you'll see apple charts in your grocery store (or online) that group apples in similar taste/texture categories. Or even better, if you have orchards nearby (or within reasonable road trip distance) that are open to the public, they often have apple tastings (those are a lot of fun).

Here they were as cheap as 69 cents per pound (at a fruit/veg market) and at the mainstream market they were $1.68 per pound.

Love honeycrisp. An apparently according to their wiki they last about forever. They are really really good paired with a laughing cow light cheese wedge smeared on them. Yummy.

Honeycrisps are great! I love Pink Ladies too, probably more!!

They are the yummiest!!!! One of our markets here has organic ones that are crazy good. My favorite apple for sure!

I tried two new hybrids today.

The JonaMac (jonathon/macintosh cross).

Very yummy taste, but I was not fond of the texture. I don't like the texture of the macintosh - so I was expecting this might be an issue. I prefere really firm, crunchy and crisp almost "hard" apples. I don't like theat "applesauce" texture of a soft apple, but at least this was moist rather than dry so it wasn't as "mealy" as macintosh tend to be (in my opinion).

I do like jonagold (jonathon/yellow delicious cross), IF they're nice and firm - which is funny, because I'm not fond of either parent. The jonagolds though can be a gamble. They sometimes are softer than I like - and I find that refrigeration tends to help them retain whatever crispness they DO have.

The second apple I tried was called Ambrosia. It was juicy and not super-crisp, but still on the crisp side, well within my texture limits. I looked it up online - and apparently it's an apple that will soften fairly quickly, so you do want to keep them cold, and eat them closest to harvest (which is in September, though they're said to be good until about February at the latest).

WOW, the taste of the Ambrosia is awesome. I will defintely buy them again. The taste was so good, that I think I would have even been ok with a softer apple. It's hard to describe what was so delicious and different - it was sweet. Very sweet - with very little "tang" (I later found out it's a low-acid apple, so that makes sense). Usually, I'm not a big fan of the sweet-only apples - I prefer a sweet & tangy apple. Even without a sour note, the flavor and aroma was complex - almost as if it had a "hint" of non-apple fruit - but I couldn't identify which one. At first I thought it was almost honey-dew melon - but that wasn't quite right either. Definitely an apple to look for again.

Oh, and I found this neat website, which lists dozens of apple varieties and describes them:


http://www.allaboutapples.com/varieties/

Sorry to bump a really mega old thread, but I found this on accident while searching the boards to see if anyone mentioned the Sweet 16 ice cream bars that are 16 calories, and I found this.

I found some at Raley's today and THEY ARE SO FREAKING GOOD. I never knew how to describe the apples I hate, but you guys are right, they're soft and gritty, GROSS. I love a firm apple and these were perfect.

Thank you for changing my life lol.