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!