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Comment by pjc50 | Hacker News Reader

I used to think that Granny Smith were British, because they're available in British shops all year round as the "default" green apple, but that turns out not to be the case. They're Australian.

Hybridisation has allowed similar apples to be grown in the UK: https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/jan/11/research.sciencen...

Conversely, there are lots of varieties that are suited to growing in the UK that have been neglected in favor of imported green uniformity: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/oct/21/british...

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I thought they only customers for green apples here were office catering managers who didn't actually have to eat the horrid things and just wanted an aesthetically pleasing display. But according to your first article:

> But he warned that the popularity of green apples has plunged in recent years. Their market share has fallen to 10% as the sweeter varieties Braeburn and Gala have taken off.

> "Granny Smith eaters tend to be in a category of their own," Mr Barlow said. "They are more likely to live in the north. And in terms of demographics they're slightly lower than average. They're slightly more into the B2s and the Cs."

They're better as a cooking apple rather than directly eating them. Try making an apple crumble with granny smith apples next time and you'll notice that the sourness of the apple naturally offsets the sugar in the dessert.

They're a (quite sour) eating apple. Bramleys are better cookers.

++Bramleys. One of the things I miss about the UK.

Braeburn is probably the closest to Bramley that's easy to find in the US. Jazz is not a bad cooking apple either, but it's quite a bit sweeter than a Bramley. Neither one gets that distinctive Bramley texture when cooked though.

For a cooking apple, the texture is everything! McIntosh and Northern Spy are heritage breeds sold in the US that have good texture, though not so good as a Bramley. They can be hard to find, though, and usually expensive, whereas Bramleys in the UK are standard supermarket apples, available everywhere. I don't think I've ever seen a Bramley in the US; if I had room, I'd plant a tree.

The texture makes them terrible cooking apples; they basically turn into applesauce when cooked. I like Rome the best, but there are other good ones.

sounds like much healthier option then, putting 'healthy' into fruits again

That may be true, but for apples provided in offices, "baking a cake" is not the most frequent use case...

Obviously, you need to work in a different office!

I love granny smith, especially when paired with roquefort. Not sure what a B2/C is, though.

(Pink ladies are still my favorite.)

I think the B2/C thing is referring to UK Social Grade

https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwor...

Good point about having it with cheese. The anonymous melonomist of the Orange Pippin website [1] also points out that it's good in salads.

[1] https://www.orangepippin.com/varieties/apples/granny-smith

That's usually where I'm pairing it with roquefort, although I'm not opposed to one bite of cheese, one bite of apple when I'm hungry and lazy.

After posting that comment, i went to our office kitchen, and got a green apple and a mini babybel, and did much the same.

Red Delicious and probably Golden Delicious, which have been around forever but have generally declined in popularity, are likely sweeter than any of Gala/Fuji/etc. varieties.

As another comment notes, Granny Smiths tend to be cooking apples for which they're very good.

Red Delicious are my least favorite. The skin is chewy and the fruit is mushy/mealy. I've never liked them.

Some older people like them as it’s easier to chew. It’s really great we have various types available in bite hardness and flavor (sweet to sour).

There’s a ton of types of corn, potatoes, chile but you mostly just see 1 type of corn and just 3 or 5 of the others in the US.

Yeah, supermarkets have a disproportionate number of apple varieties compared to pretty much everything else. Might be a couple varieties of local corn but more likely at a farm stand than the supermarket. 3 major categories of potatoes plus small ones. Yeah, maybe 5 kinds of chilis. My farm stand does have more varieties of things like eggplant and squash.

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