Binary stars of 2023

photo: ubaidhulla adam ¶ 

Midwinter is the time each year when I rate the previous year's apples, on a qualitative scale from one to three stars. ¶ 

I've already published my one-star ratings for 2023, and today I award two stars, "worth a journey." ¶ 

One star is "very good, worth choosing." Most apples are, and I am generous with this rating.

But two stars is a step up, and I am judicious about handing those out. Of the thirty-nine varieties I sampled for the first time in 2023, eight earn the double star.

Excellent Nuvar Golden Hills

They are "excellent, worth seeking."

** The stars come out

The Golden Pippin is crisp and wonderfully flavorful. Artful Delbar also stood out.

Howgate Wonder bowled me over with its quality as much as its size. (Eat one with a friend.)

I would surely seek, if I could, some Nuvar Golden Hills in season. This and another yellow apple, spicy Freyberg, were highlights of my trip to Kent last year.

Two stars as well to malty, floral Rubinola, a modern variety, and to a heritage apple, Saint Lawrence.

Smerelda, cunningly named and with lively flavors, rounds out this year's two-star picks.

Lively, pretty Smerelda

These awards bring the total number of apples rated "excellent, worth a journey" to 78.

There were no new three-star apples in 2023.

What's less than one?

Awarding one, two, and (sometimes) three stars creates a fourth category, apples that did not impress me enough to win any stars at all.

There were twelve of these this year. This number includes some highly regarded varieties. I strongly suspect my tasting samples for these were simply not good.

I always note such suspicions in my reviews. And I always base my descriptions on my direct experience, even if that experience is flawed.

More importantly, these ratings reflect my tastes. These are not better than yours, at least to you. 

Every apple I tasted this year was worth eating.

Dimensions of taste

One of these no-stars was Bramley's Seedling. That is a famous culinary apple in Britain, certainly an apple of note and one I specifically sought out on my October trip there.

Bramley is not an eating apple at all, though it is not bad out of hand. But on that basis it got no stars.

My failure to recognize Bramley's cooking qualities is a shortcoming of my rating system and not a reflection on this significant apple.

Another no-star is Margil. I sought it because it is a parent of Cox's Orange Pippin, not because I thought it would be a very good desert apple.

And, it isn't. But it was fascinating to hunt for traces of greatness in each bite.

...and the mission of this blog

I created these ratings ten years ago to build some on-ramps to a growing body of work.

I'd regret if these thoughts instead discouraged my readers from trying unfamiliar apples, and from sharing my own wonder and delight at the range and scope of this fruit.

Previously

• one star apples of 2023