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Comment by wilsonnb3 | Hacker News Reader

I am actually now interested in trying one of these "Arkansas Black", "Cortland", or "Newtown Pippin" apples just to see if an apple can really be worse than a Red Delicious.

I hadn't thought such a thing was possible till now.

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Cortlands get mushy and flavorless quickly, even if refrigerated, and so are bad supermarket apples. But I'd rather have one straight off the tree than any of their top rated apples.

I’ll come to the defense of Arkansas Blacks. They are definitely better than Red Delicious. They’re just really hard and quite tart with a faint green flesh. Red Delicious are mealy and tasteless.

I love the Arkansas Blacks, but they wouldn’t be everyone’s cup of tea.

I love Arkansas Blacks! They have a hint of cardamom aftertaste, which makes them unique!

I took up the Arkansas Black cause from my grandmother who was born in the 1800's. They are unarguably hard. That contributes to them being amazing baking apples. Unfortunately whoever created this list of apples seems to have never considered eating apples that were baked in foods. Not even a mention of baking apples vs. eating apples appears on the site. Some varieties are good for baking and eating. Then there are those worthless for either (ie. red delicious.)

Pippins are in season here and they seem to be exceptionally high in tannins and not too prone to turning mealy. They're not great for snacking but I bet they'd go really well in a pie.

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