Adam's Apples

What a show stopper! You can see why some apple breeders become obsessed with creating red-fleshed apples that also have good eating qualities. Did they succeed with Ruby Red?

Genius idea. That was my first thought when I saw apples labeled "Spymac." Cross two classics, Northern Spy and McIntosh . I'll bet it's a great pie apple, too. Spymac looks squarely in the Mac family, with a streaky-to-saturated red blush over green yellow, moderate ribbing, and large light lenticels.

How much can I learn from a single flawed sample? A good deal, with some educated guessing. Physically this Suntan is imperfect. Medium-sized, the apple smells promising but is lopsided and cracked, with spoiled parts. There won't be much to taste. Probably this is a tapered apple with moderate ribbing, but it's hard to tell. Superficially the apple is divided into three parts, as follows.

The appearance of this apple varies so much that I need two to show what they might look like. Unrusseted, D'Arcy has a thin orange blush over green yellow, with some saturated red spots and splotches. There are faint stellations of tan lenticels. The peel is a little waxy. The russet is a suede leather kissed with green, though over the blush it is thinner, patchier, more golden, and delicately patterned like the rind of a cantaloupe. Click on either image for a closer look.

I had one job. Take a decent photo of Katharine. And look. Sorry. This is the photo I have to share with no chance of another sample any time soon. Perhaps it will prove sufficient when married to my written description.

This medium-sized apple, a discovery from my California adventure , may be a bit of a local wonder, as I cannot find any reference to this variety online. Is there more than one canyon named Eureka? The most likely candidate lies in Watsonville, California, the apple-rich country just south of Santa Cruz. The apple has a blush that runs from streaky to a dark red over yellow. It has moderate ribbing and is oblate and slightly tapered.

A parfait is a layered confection, and true to its name Pink Parfait has a pink layer within its off-white flesh (below). From the outside, Pink P is a medium-sized green-tinted yellow orb nearly entirely covered by a translucent blush. The blush is flecked with many dark red spots and streaks. The apple is round with moderate ribbing. All apples have lenticels, the pores of the fruit, but they are essentially invisible on the Parfait. The peel is glossy.

Waltana is a product of one of California’s most talented apple breeders, Albert Etter. Partially named for Etter’s brother Walter, the apple has a reputation as one of the master’s best works. Waltana challenged me to identify its unusual flavors.

Hyperbole aside, the Everlasting enjoys a reputation as a keeper. And, it’s really good to eat. My sample is small, oblate, and lopsided, but I saw larger examples. Most were broader than they were tall. There's almost no ribbing on mine, but those ridges and bumps were more pronounced on some others. Allen's Everlasting has a patchy orange blush with distinct red streaks over a yellow-green peel. It’s really quite striking; click on the photo for a better look. A good third of the apple has a mustard-colored russet, and there are some spotty black discolorations that look like loose rows of ground pepper. Where not rusetted the peel is glossy. Tan lenticel spots are hard to spot against that patchwork riot, but are most obvious in the blushed regions. Another view The apple feels promisingly firm and has a rich fruity aro...

What a wonderful name for a fragrant apple. My lovely Cornish Aromatic is quite big, ribbed and broad and a little tapered. It's got a very pretty translucent orange blush with darker red streaks in it. It seems clear that the unblushed color would be yellow if we could see it, which we nearly can where the blush is thinnest. All that is spangled with many large distinct tan lenticels. Look at it, like a huge round strawberry. I find it very handsome.

Belying its name, the Snapdragon is neither (a) snappy and sharp nor (b) especially floral. Instead it's a pleasant and mellow new variety courtesy of one of the oldest apple-breeding programs in America.

Yes. Yes, you can taste some vanilla in this pippin. Vanilla is not an unusual flavor in apples , where it abuts vanilla caramel, cream soda, and banana. You can taste a lot of interesting things if you leave behind the narrow bright circle of crunchy hard supermarket apples. But first, take a look at this one.

Here's a word I've never used before to describe an apple: Adorable. Just look at this squat little apple with its loose vertical stripes floating in a magenta-tinged blush. I dunno, maybe it's the size, or the way those tiny light lenticels accent the curvature of the fruit. But you are probably more interested in how it eats.

What's great about Koru, a new variety from that apple-breeding powerhouse called New Zealand, is flavor. Texture and crunch are first rate (though perhaps not quite the thing for those who dislike hard apples). But at this point crisp, hard, and sweet are standard for the new breeds—a kind of Platonic ideal for the industry and increasingly for the public. So how to distinguish yourself in a marketplace crowded with nearly identical Platonic ideals? With taste.

The National Fruit Collection (U.K.) says that the "preferred name" of this variety is simply "Epicure," but it was given to me as Laxton's Epicure. Either way it is an old-fashioned apple with a period name, full of interesting flavors.

The modern breeds tend to be alike: sturdy, crisp, and sweet. Today's new variety from New Zealand is all that but breaks away from the pack by virtue of its great crunch, distinctive appearance (these guys are little), and unusual flavors. These classically shaped apples, a bit blocky, are only about 2 inches in diameter. A cheerful red blush mostly covers yellow.

This cheerful yellow apple holds a surprise. Crisp and juicy, Blondee offers uncontroversial flavors in the early harvest. The surprise? The blond one is a sport of Gala, not the result of breeding. Gala is Blondee's sole parent. Sports usually entail only minor differences form the parent variety, but I think Blondee goes beyond that. It is truly its own variety, if not its own breed.

Saturated with color, Almata is a novelty. It's interesting, it's unusual , and it's edible. But Almata is not a compelling pick eating out of hand.

Williams is too understated to thrive in today's sugar-crunch market, but it was prized in the first half of the 19th Century. One might also say that Williams (not to be confused with Williams' Pride ) delivers some of the qualities promised, but rarely fulfilled, by Red Delicious , which it in some ways resembles. My sample is on the small end of large with pronounced ribbing. The cheerful red blush over green is not so much streaky as spotted, like ripples spreading on a pond. In this background the small light lenticels are not obvious.

Tart and crisp, Red Astrachan might give Paula Red a run for best early-season Mac-type apple.