EverCrisp in April

EverCrisp is the Midwest Apple Improvement Association's entry into the Honeycrisp Succession Derby. I found it in my local supermarket this month.

How well does this variety, ever crisp, weather the wholesale chain? My other samples were all direct from local growers (and earlier).

I bought three, emblazoned with PLU stickers, to find out.

These are smaller than my local samples, a mere large medium.

They had a satiny sheen, suggesting a little natural wax had developed in storage—perhaps even mere low-tech refrigeration, where such wax might grow.

Other than those difference, the apples are recognizable by their slightly oblate shape, their rich red blush, and their large tan lenticel dots.

Eat It

What we really want to know is how it eats after all this time and the ordeal of storage, transportation, and handling along the way.

True to its name, EverCrisp remains pleasantly crisp and sweet. Its flavors, never particularly distinctive or vivid, have melded away to nearly nothing.

The faint floral honey note I found in the fresher samples was very weak—so much so that it could be the product of my questing imagination.

For texture, this apple certainly lives up to its name. If you were happy with its generic nondescript flavor set fresh off the tree, you may not notice the way even that has faded.

Not by much; there was never much to lose.

April is a cruel month for apples and I am grateful to find choices in my supermarket.

Probably these have been available in some supermarkets for years. EverCrisp got its PLU number in 2017 for that purpose. But here in New England, we are usually the last to get anything.

Here's my Evercrisp-Honeycrisp comparison from two years ago, by the way.