Pink Lady, Kanzi, Granny Smith, Jazz.. the list goes on. There are way too many options and I’d guess that most people would probably stick to buying one type of apple because “it seems alright” or because it’s what they’ve always bought.
I had recently tried the Yellow apple variety which surprised me with it’s pear like crunch and texture yet refreshing, slightly tart and fragrant taste – I’m craving one just describg it! This got me thinking – which apple is definitively the best? Of course, this is based on personal preference so feel free to take my thoughts with as little weight as you please.
To discover the best apple, I’ve come up with my own criteria for what I think should be rated to determine the best apple:
| Attribute | Weighting | Description |
| Crunch | 25% | 1/10 would be a banana, 10/10 would be an extremely satisfying crunch – note that the apple should also not be too hard to bite! |
| Sweetness | 25% | 1/10 would be sour candy, 10/10 would be, as my mum would describe the perfect dessert, “not too sweet” – meaning sweet enough to enjoy, not too sweet that it turns you off enjoying the apple |
| Taste | 25% | Taste here refers to how pleasant or delicious the taste & fragrance of the apple is. This one is obviously quite biased to my own personal preferences. A 1/10 I’d personally find revolting, a 10/10 would taste heavenly |
| Texture | 25% | How does the apple feel in my mouth with every bite I take? Some apples can be mushy (1/10), others quite satisfying and crisp to chew (10/10) |
To keep thing simple, I decided to buy every type of apple available at my local Woolworths supermarket, and added two apples I had lying around – the Yellow apple and the China Fuji apple.
Although the price of each type of apple varies significantly (50c to $1.50 each), generally when they go on sale each apple would be fairly affordable so there’s no price comparison here.
Results
All the scores I gave are summarised in the table below.
| Variety | Crunch | Sweetness | Taste | Texture | Average |
| Envy | 9 | 9 | 7 | 8 | 8.3 |
| Royal Gala | 8 | 7 | 8 | 7.5 | 7.6 |
| Yellow | 7.5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 7.1 |
| Ambrosia | 7 | 7 | 5 | 9 | 7.0 |
| Bravo | 8 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 6.8 |
| Jazz | 7.5 | 6.5 | 5 | 7.5 | 6.6 |
| China Fuji | 8 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 5.5 |
| Granny Smith | 8 | 3.5 | 4 | 6 | 5.4 |
| Kanzi | 7 | 2 | 6 | 6 | 5.3 |
| Pink Lady | 5 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 4.3 |
I also made individual comments on each type of apple but this post would probably get a bit long if I shared every detail.
Some callouts:
- The Envy apple was both the crunchiest and sweetest apple of the bunch
- There was the greatest variation in sweetness (more than triple the variance of crunch!) which is likely due to seasonality, age of stock or the selection by the Woolworths staff member
- The middle of the pack apples were Bravo and Jazz, although Bravo was the best looking apple by far
Conclusion
The Envy apple is in 1st place with a score of 8.3 out of 10. It features a remarkably crispy exterior and the texture is delicious. It’s got the right amount of sweetness, and the flavour is pretty good too! This is an apple that I would never have tried because it fell into the mental abyss of being “another type of apple” but I would highly recommend this.
Looking up this apple as well, it looks like it’s much loved by others having topped a test for flavour, crunch and appearance and coming through as rank 6 on the Apple Rankings website! These apples are produced right here in Australia and the producer Montague’s website says they say ‘one bite and you’ll believe’ how good these apples are and I couldn’t agree more.
Coming in 2nd and 3rd are the Royal Gala and Yellow with scores of 7.6 and 7.1 respectively. These apples were solid across each of the four attributes of crunch, sweetness, taste and texture, with the Yellow apple leaning more towards the tart side but being quite enjoyable.
