Norfolk Royal Russet *

A russeted sport of Norfolk Royal, mine is medium sized, classically shaped, and slightly oblate. ¶ 

This apple features a partial red blush that is quite saturated in places over a pale yellow that is echoed by a pale olive-gold russet. It's hard to say, but I think the russet interrupts the blush and accounts for the more subdued pink areas surrounding the saturated red.

The effect is very striking. The apple is modestly but definitely ribbed. 

Good luck finding the lenticels in this riot, but in the unblushed russet they are islands of pale yellow, some with a tiny russet dot in the middle.

Note that in this case, the apple I describe is not the same as the example I photographed. 

Taste

Inside I find tender-crunch medium-grained flesh, quite juicy, snow white. Not your usual russet at all. 

Sweet and well-balanced, with what I have come to recognize as "pear-drop" flavors, a candy-like quality that is quite lush and recalls the "watermelon candy" I have found on some American varieties. 

As for true pear, there is something like, but let's consider "pear-drop" to be a thing distinct from it. A dash of vanilla and cream soda is a part of that.

I could wish for a stiffer crunch, but Norfolk Royal Russet is a very fine apple. 

Provenance

The NRR is a sport of Norfolk Royal. It does not eat like most russets I know, with flesh that is more tender and coarse-grained, and with different flavors.

Many, including Orange Pippin and Karim Habibi (who grew my example in his nursery) say that the russet version is superior to the original. 

Most of the sports I've encountered only differ from their parent cosmetically, but occasionally there will be one that varies significantly by taste. One such is Hoople's Antique Gold, another russet sport, in that case of Golden Delicious.

The unsported Norfolk Royal is a chance seedling that originated "in Wright's Nurseries, North Walsham, Norfolk, England in about 1908," according to the UK's National Fruit Collection.

The NFC also has some striking photos of the NRR's pearlescent olive-gold russet.