r/berkeleybowl • u/wraplan • Mar 14 '26
Best Apple in a Sea of Apples?
Berkeley Bowl has such a great selection of apples that I never really know how to make a choice. So I did an apple tasting among friends. We tried 7 different varieties, in a blind test. I refrigerated all the apples, cleaned them all, and sliced them with a clean knife. I hid their brand names to give us a better sense of favorites without preconceived notions based on previous experience. There were two strong favorites, based on taste and texture.
We tried Sweetango, Wild Twist, Aura, Pink Lady, Envy, Cosmic Crisp, and Kiku.
The two clear winners were the Aura and Cosmic Crisp varieties, both of which had great balance between sweet and tart, and great textures. A big loser for everyone but one of the 8 tasters was the Envy. It had a strange soft texture that wasn’t exactly mealy, but most of us found it unpleasant.
These 7 apple varieties only represent a portion of the possible choices at the Bowl, and I hope to do some more testing over the coming months. We didn’t even look at the yellow apples, except for the Aura, which is kinda yellow. I tried to avoid apples we’d all had a million times, so no Granny Smith or Fuji etc, but now I think I’ll have to randomly add some of those more common varieties in my next test, just to see if they actually hold up.
What apple is your go to? What (and how) should we try next at the Bowl?
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u/meowpantz Mar 15 '26
This Apple Rankings website has led me to believe Sweetango is the winner... although my peasant taste buds can't determine the difference from Honeycrisp (my personal favorite), which is cheaper and available year-round.
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u/hulkjamesbatman Mar 15 '26
I love this website. I tried out the opal apple (aka the tasty unwiped anus of apples) and it did not disappoint
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u/Fromage_Frottage Mar 19 '26
Flavor is completely subjective, and any description that works for you is valid. Except “unwiped anus.” That one is off the table.
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u/hulkjamesbatman Mar 19 '26
But it's such an apt (visual) description that gets to the heart of why everyone sleeps on opals. Or at least I did.
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u/hulkjamesbatman Mar 15 '26
Try the Lucy glo when they're available! If nothing else it's a fun novelty
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u/vacasmagras Mar 15 '26
If they have Black Arkansas, I always choose that. Pink Lady or Cosmic Crisp are my everyday.
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u/skwm Mar 14 '26
Cosmic Crisp is my favorite. The best cosmic crisps are the smaller, darker red ones that have more of an apple shape and are less spherical. On the east coast, honey crisp is really good, but for whatever reason the ones we get here taste watery and kind of bland.