Ontario Apple Tasting

A few days ago I got together with my mom and four food-curious friends to compare as many different kinds of Ontario apples as we could. The folks at Ontario Apple Growers kindly sent us an exciting big red box (above), and we augmented that with a few other types we were able to find around town, as well as some Ontario cheddar (and both cheesy and caramel-flavoured popcorn.)

To go with that, I popped a bottle of hard apple cider and one of apple-apricot wine from Archibald's Estate Winery, where I drop in whenever I happen to be in Bowmanville.

This image by Alexa Clark of Cheap Eats Toronto (@alexaclark on Twitter) gives an impression of the challenge we set for ourselves.

The other brave apple tasters were Beverly (@Bev_W), who took the smaller images below, Diana (@pronosher) and Danielle (@finalfashion), who together confronted a formidable 12 varieties, both raw and cooked. Here are our impressions of 11 of the most commonly-grown Ontario apples, plus the newly-arrived Red Prince. (The ones we didn't manage to sample were Cortland, Gala, Jonagold and Russet.) Incidentally, I find it interesting how few Ontario apples are featured in grocery stores at this time of year; most are from the U.S.

• Ambrosia (a B.C. apple, pictured): Very sweet and winey, crunchy but not crisp. When cooked, firm like a root vegetable, caramelly.
• Crispin (also known as Mutsu): Like a bigger, softer, gentler Granny Smith. Le Petit Dejeuner on King East uses these for their lovely toasted cheese-and-apple sandwiches. Very subtle and juicy raw; when cooked, stays firm and tastes of pears.
• Empire: Crisp, crunchy, clean-tasting when raw. Looks pretty when cooked because skin bleeds dark pinkness into the flesh, but the skin is very tough.
• Fuji: Tastes like a pear, or almost like a tropical fruit. Holds its shape well when cooked, but the skin tastes a little bitter.
• Golden Delicious (pictured): Mild, sweet, and a little bit crisp. Slightly mushy and mucilaginous when cooked, but keeps its shape well.
• Honeycrisp: Fruity, melonlike, clean and fresh-tasting with a remarkably crunchy texture. Rubbery and blander when cooked.
• Idared: Somewhat tart and very similar to McIntosh, but more "masculine" tasting: less floral, more woody in flavour. Sweet but bland and a little bit gluey when cooked.
• McIntosh: An Ontario discovery, and the most tart, with an almost squeaky texture raw. After cooking: smooth texture, tart and pectiny.
• Northern Spy: Mildly tart, slightly sour, soft, dry and a touch mealy when eaten raw. Cooked, the flavour blooms to a sweet-tart balance with a smooth, creamy texture.
• Red Delicious: Very sweet; mealy in texture. When cooked, bland and monotonous.
• Red Prince (pictured): This is Ontario's newest commercial apple, a German discovery. It has a complex sweet-tartness and pairs very well with cheese. The raw texture is a soft, pleasing crunch. Cooked, it retains its citrusy tang and its shape, but offers a pleasingly soft texture.
• Spartan: Another B.C. apple. Starts sweet, develops some tanginess in the mouth, but quickly loses flavour. Firm flesh when raw with a thick skin. Pretty and plumlike when cooked, with a stronger flavour and a classic apple-crumble taste.

To find out which ones we liked best overall, you'll have to pick up the spring issue of City Bites, which appears around town on March 1, and will be included in the Globe and Mail of March 3. Meanwhile, to find out more about apple history and diversity in North America, I highly recommend the apple section of Michael Pollan's The Botany of Desire.

Note: We noticed a slightly stale taste and texture in some of these apples, which is probably because they have been stored since September. It would be very interesting to repeat the experiment in the fall when they're all at the peak of freshness and flavour.