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Comment by mark-r | Hacker News Reader

The Red Delicious stands out to me as the textbook example of the power of naming and marketing. The origin story is unbeatable. The power of a name on our perceptions is undeniable. Realizing all of this has been one of the most empowering discoveries of my adult life.

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True, but it also sucks because so many people say 'i dont like apples', including me until my mid 20s. Red Delicious are awful in every metric. Once a friend opened my eyes to pink ladies and honeycrisps, I was blown away and felt..cheated somehow.

It's crazy. I always subconsciously assumed that Red Delicious apples were how apples have always been (because they taste/look so much less appetizing than the other ones, therefore they must be the most "natural"), and that those other apples were genetically modified. And, being an immigrant, I thought it might even be a cultural difference, and that Americans just prefer the taste of Red Delicious. This is blowing my mind.

IIRC, most apples aren't genetically modified as we use the term today, just 'hybridized'/crossbred or whatever the word is. I think they're also all sterile.

I've been throwing the cores out into the wild parts of the lawn for 20 years. None have germinated.

birds love apple seeds and pepper seeds, though.

> (because they taste/look so much less appetizing than the other ones, therefore they must be the most "natural")

This is just a problem of lack of familiarity with the space. Crab apples are indeed much less palatable than Red Delicious apples.

Funny story. Johnny Appleseed was famous for planting apple seeds across much of the U.S. But because his apples were grown from seed, they weren't hybrids and were probably all crabapples. And the only use for crabapples was making cider, so he was basically ensuring all these communities would have hard cider available when he came back to visit.

Now think of all the other areas of your life where the same thing has occurred, but you're not aware of it yet.

https://images.heb.com/is/image/HEBGrocery/article/apple-gui...

This flavor axis omits Red Delicious' biggest weakness: the texture.

I'm not sure I agree with this chart, but I guess everyone is different. To me, a red delicious is not tart at all. It's...tasteless. I also find 'good' cripps/pink ladies far more tart than any apple listed.

I buy honeycrisp only for its texture, so I can't comment on the sweetness ratings as it's not my thing.

Have you tried a Cosmic Crisp? A truly superior apple.

Although its ability never to oxidize and turn brown feels downright unnatural. You can leave a cut cosmic crisp on the counter for days and it just stays yellowy white. Weird.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_Crisp

I have. I don't know why, I just don't like them as much as I thought I would.

However, I find cripp's pink to be wildly variable. Some are beautifully crisp and very tart, these are my favorite. One store by me sells them and they just taste like red delicious, despite having the color and whatnot.

I think Cosmic Crisp vs Honeycrisp mainly comes down to taste. I vastly prefer Honeycrisp, but I also don't like sour much.

The sourness of Cosmic Crisp is probably why it doesn't oxidize readily.

> The Red Delicious stands out to me as the textbook example of the power of naming and marketing. The origin story is unbeatable. The power of a name on our perceptions is undeniable.

Eh.... the Red Delicious's twin in naming is the Golden Delicious. Golden is a more prestigious description than red by any standard, and they're both "delicious". If you want to credit naming and marketing with the success of the Red Delicious, you need to explain why the Golden Delicious didn't succeed even more.

Good point. I think looks have to follow. Golden Delicious always look...dull. Red Delicious look absolutely stunning. I guess I'd lump that in with 'marketing.'

The golden delicious, an awful, irredeemable apple, is very common in the UK and Ireland, much more so that the red delicious.

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