Adam's Apples

I begin 2026 with a refrigerator full of apples, and a number of half-finished blog posts and ideas from 2025. Several things, including some delightful travel, kept me away from this blog this fall.  ¶  Photo:  A Bramley's Seedling takes in the view from the walls of Edinburgh Castle.

Arkansas Black and Blushing Golden flank each other in the January snow.  ¶  In January, with the harvest long ended, I typically turn to groceries and supermarkets for apples to eat.

Not a bad year for an apple blog that was supposed to end in 2009! (That was the original idea .) I got to review 17 apples in 2022 , in large part thanks to the generosity of readers.

If winter comes, can spring be far behind?

There was an apple I wanted to know more about. So, last September, I asked about it at the orchard's store. That's when it happened. "There's this website," the woman behind the counter told me, apple fan to apple fan.  "Adam's Apples." That had never happened to me before. It was kind of cool.

Honeycrisp  fresh off the tree is popular and prized. How does it fare four months later?

With this, my tenth new year's message, I send my very best wishes for the year to come. I cannot, however, help but share a troubling statistic with you. This year I only found three apples to add to my opinionated catalog . Apple Reviews by Year 2008–18 Year published refers to the year of the canonical review, which in a few cases is later than an earlier review of the same variety; such earlier reviews are not included. I find it hard to imagine what this blog would be without new apples to sample and share.

They're available now. But are they any good? Lady Alice made her New England debut in the spring of 2010, leaving a very favorable impression. I awarded her two stars ("worth seeking") for great texture and rich and unusual flavors. That this variety needed to sit until March or April to reach her peak was a feature, not a bug; having something this good to bite at that time of year was a welcome treat amid the tired supermarket standards. Starting in 2011, reports began to trickle in here of this variety for sale in February. Or, I should perhaps say, complaints: blandness, bitterness, a "chemical taste," and general dissatisfaction.

A trio of Arkansas Blacks gleam darkly in the January sun earlier today.

Today's head-to-head compares two modern varieties available in North America only briefly around the turning of the year. Both Opal (L) and Junami were developed in Europe, and both embody balance and  flavor in a way that the previous generation of commercial apples (lookin' at you Gala , Braeburn , Fuji ) do not. Other than that, these are utterly different.

Notwithstanding my cheerful posts about the many apples you can still buy in January : In any given year there will be some varieties that are not available. Alas. This year, for instance, Macoun is scarce and often disappointing if available. These grow in the Northeast, which had an uneven harvest this fall. Last year this great apple was good to eat (and available) through late March.

Back in January of 2010 I found 16 different kinds of apples for sale in markets within 2 miles of my house. Piñata (L) and Ambrosia These included Piñata , then making its New England debut, and Ambrosia , which had done so the winter before. Since then, growing sophistication about food in general and apples in particular has lured more choices into January markets. Some are new and others very old.

A bag of tiny organic Crimson Golds from my supermarket. 'Tis the season, apparently, for apples sold in bags. In addition to the above Crimson Golds, my local supermarket is also selling bags of Junami apples.

Just a few years ago you knew what to expect in the fruit section in winter and spring. There would be Red Delicious , Golden Delicious , and (incongruously) Granny Smith . In the Northeast and maybe elsewhere there would be McIntosh and his kin  Empire  and Cortland . "Newer" stalwarts might include non-native  Gala , Fuji , and Braeburn . In the Northeast you'd also get, fleetingly, the end of the Macouns , if you were lucky. It was the same every year. Things have changed. The stalwarts are still there, but this week the shelves at my local supermarket were dominated by the likes of  Jazz , Pinata , and Cripps Pink . Honeycrisp , like McIntosh, has established itself nearly year round, though like the Mac its best qualities thin over time. Pacific Rose, Pinata, and Sweetango

Happy new year and thanks to my readers for 2013! King David here came courtesy of a reader. Last year was another dicey apple harvest , with crop damage falling unevenly across and within North America's major apple-growing regions. I continue to be rewarded by the human harvest of personal contact with apple farmers and fanatics of all stripes. A highlight of my year in apples was a walk in Tower Hill's heritage orchard with Richard Borrie of the inestimable Orange Pippin web site. Your comments keep me focused and thinking and are often the source of story ideas .

For the past week, I have been munching my way through a bag of about 12 tiny Piñata apples that I got at Trader Joes, a national supermarket chain. (By "tiny" I mean small medium, with diameters of about 2¼ inches.) Piñata is a great new variety with some wild flavors, and these little guys are especially hard and crisp. TJ's touts them as "baby" apples, which is brilliant (if inaccurate) marketing for apples that other retailers likely reject as too small. At this size they are easy to snack on! And very welcome this time of year.

Strange to say, it was in January when the poverty of the 2010 harvest really hit home.

Of course the answer to this depends on where you live. Here in New England the farmers' markets are done and the question is, what's at the store? We are blessed, if that is the word, with the presence of several major supermarket chains near my neighborhood. Instead of making any particular recommendations about what to eat, this month I'll just survey what is available. Macoun is still available this month After all, you probably know these apples. Still, if you see something you haven't tried before, bite it!