Apples come in thousands of varieties, sizes, textures, and tastes.
The colour of the outside of an apple
may be green, yellow, or various shades of red. Some 
yellow
apples have weird brown spots all over them, while some red apples, like
the Jonathan, have even weirder white spots! Apple colours also differ
on the inside, where the flesh may be yellow, white, or cream-coloured.
It's also interesting that apples
will turn brown if you cut them open
and leave them out for a couple of hours.
Each variety of apple has a slightly different flavour, from sweet, to tart, to bitter, to—ummmm--just right!
Textures also vary amongst apple varieties, from soft and mushy, to firm and crunchy.
Because there are so many different varieties of apple, each with slightly different qualities than the next, producers grow different types of apples for different purposes. Some apples, like the Empire, are sweet and wonderful when eaten fresh (in fact, of all the cultivated apples grown, over half are eaten fresh). Other apple varieties are better suited for cooking or further processing. The Rome Beauty, for example, is often used for baking and not eaten fresh because it has a firm, acidic flesh, and tough, smooth skin.
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| Variety | Fresh | Salads | Pies | Baked | Sauce |
| Red Delicious | x | x | |||
| Jonathan | x | x | x | x | x |
| Cortland/Redcort | x | x | x | x | x |
| Golden Delicious | x | x | x | x | x |
| McIntosh | x | x | x | x | x |
| Ida Red | x | x | x | x | x |
| Rome | x | x | x | x | |
| Northern Spy | x | x | x | x | |
| Empire | x | x | x | x | x |
| Paula Red | x | x | x | x | x |
| Stayman/Winesap | x | x | x | x | x |
| Gala | x | x | x | x | x |
| Jonagold | x | x | x | x | x |
| Fuji | x | x | x | x | x |
| Braeburn | x | x | x | x | x |
| Ginger Gold | x | x | x | x | x |
| Spartan | x | x | x | x | x |
| Honeycrisp | x | x | x | x | x |
| Jonamac | x | x | x | x | x |
| Crispin/Mutsu | x | x | x | x | x |
Many species of apple grown today are
actually the result of breeding different species together. The Fugi,
for example, Japan’s most popular apple, was produced by breeding the American
Delicious with the Ralls Janet of Virginia.
Some apple species have exciting stories
about their birth. The following has been borrowed from the Michigan
Apple Committee...
Ginger Gold apparently owes its life to Hurricane Camille, which roared through Virginia in 1969. It destroyed much of the orchard of Clyde and Ginger Harvey near Arrington, south of Charlottesville in the Virginia Piedmont. Several years later they found a tree that had grown from a seed that had apparently been washed into the orchard from elsewhere, perhaps during the hurricane, and was nothing like what had been planted there before. A nursery budded the first trees in the early 1980s, and horticulturists concluded the Harvey’s had a unique variety on their hands. They sold some of the apples locally and called the variety by Mrs. Harvey's first name. Its yellow appearance derives from its probable Golden Delicious parentage. Pippin is thought to be one of the other varieties in its genetics. |
In Canada, the McIntosh
is our most popular apple, followed by Red Delicious and Spartan.
These three varieties account for almost 65% of our apple production, followed
by Cortland, 
Empire,
and Idared.
The favourites in the United
States are Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, and Granny Smith, accounting
for almost 65% of the apples grown there. Things may be about to
change though, because a flood of Gala and Fuji apples will soon be entering
the marketplace. American farmers--encouraged by the high prices
both Gala and Fuji apples were receiving during the early-to-mid 1990's--invested
in extensive plantings of those two varieties. It is therefore expected
that the Fuji will soon replace the Granny Smith as the third most popular
apple variety in the United States.