Golden Delicious Apple Review
"The West Virginia Has-Been"
🏅 #8 RANKED CIDER APPLE | 🏅 #6 RANKED BAKING APPLE
The official state fruit of West Virginia, this green-yellow beauty saw its heyday in the Progressive Era when marketed by the Stark Bros as a companion apple to the, then blockbuster smash hit, Red Delicious. One hundred years later, with our collective distaste for the Red Delicious fully realized, this ill-fated adopted brother may as well be called the “Golden Bin Laden.” Fortunately, for consumers who have rightfully shied away from this fading memory of an apple, the mushy, bland, juiceless, Golden Delicious doesn’t bring much to the table aside from fathering better apples and having a nice looking exterior fit for a 2013 U.S. Postal Stamp.
BONUS POINTS: +1 Baking, +1 Historical Significance, +1 Cider
- FLAVOR PROFILE -
SWEETNESS
1/5
TARTNESS
0.5/5
INTENSITY
0.5/5
Eat These Apples Instead
- Aurora Golden Gala Apples
- GoldRush Apples
- Opal Apples
You are a fool and a fiend. Whatever golden delicious apples you’ve been eating must be tasteless imposters. If you get them from an orchard they are juicy, sweet and as the name implies, delicious. Eating one right off the tree was a transcendent experience for me. Also if you make applesauce with them it tastes like caramel 10/10 would recommend. Source your apples better.
I can imagine Golden Delicious applesauce is pretty good. I plan on adding a new section of apple categories with top 5 per category such as “tart apples” “applesauce” etc… perhaps then Golden Delicious will receive an accolade
I, too, am drawn to these so-called “mushy, bland, juiceless” apple, and find myself shuddering to think what imposters the writer of this article must have sampled! I suppose everyone prefers their own sort of cheese.
I believe you would love the “Yellow Quonzar Apple” I had once on the “Big Island” of Samoa. It was late summer, 2021 and I was staying with my aunt in her run down shack she called a home. It was painfully hot, I was laying on the searing sand, attempting to forget the life choices that had brought me to this place. A neighbor, known as “Bip” for the way he walked with a long limp settled down next to me. He held out his hand without a word. I had expected it to contain a local alcoholic drink known as Kava but instead it was a shinnying yellow apple. I searched his eyes for meaning. I didnt need to say a word, I understood what he wanted from me. I took the apple and immediately noticed it’s similarities to a Golden Delicious. However, there was one stark distinction, the apple had a very thin skin that seemed almost bursting with juice. I took a bite and my face was splashed with clear, sweet, and sticky fluid. My mouth was filled with rich soft pulp that reminded me of honey, of caramel, and with a hint of lavender. It took me less than a minute to consume the whole thing.
After, Bip told me the apple is only grown in a private orchard located within the jungle on the eastern part of the island. The apples are only grown for the family that owns the plantation, except the workers tend to steal some for home (like Bip). I have never had the opportunity to taste once and will probably never get a chance again.
I had a couple of these bad boys off the tree, once, from a local-ish fruit farm. Dinky in size, but worlds better than what gets sold in the produce isle. Saddens me that most people cant experience a golden delicious in its ideal state, but if you ever get the chance I reccomend trying one fresh picked, if you haven’t already.
aughhhhh. but i love golden delicious apple………………
I agree with some commenters that fresh off a tree, these are much better than you’re led to believe. But now that I’m much further from apple trees and stuck with supermarket quality, they’re a strong pass.
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Wretched lump of sand, I hate these things.
I believe in golden delicious apples supremacy!!! They are charismatic, inoffensive, and a flat out delight <3 extra delicious when dusted with cinnamon sugar. If you want to talk abt lack of taste and juiciness, I think we can all agree that the real enemy is the Granny Smith!
Like the golden delicious, the granny smith apple can be so much better than the average grocery store examples you’ll find. Granny smiths are my favorite apple, but you have to know how to pick the delicious ones that don’t taste like cardboard. I’ve had a lot more success with organic grannies than conventionally-grown ones, so the slight upcharge is well worth it to me. Of course, if you can get one right off the tree, that’s even better.
This “apple” is an insult to life itself.
Simply untrue!!! Idk where you’re getting your Golden Delicious from but my local Giant Eagle sells some and they’re straight out of heaven. In all honesty, I like them better than honeycrisps (I’m not sure why, but the ones I buy always taste like cleaner.) Maybe I’m buying bizarro apples.
A lot of people commenting to “get it off the tree”, seem to forget that, for many people, that’s just not an option. If anything, it detracts further from the apple’s availability and accessibility by having to go directly to the source just to get a better taste of the apple. Very few are that committed. I have fond memories of the Golden Delicious, but I haven’t had one in a long time. Maybe one day, I’ll give it another go and see how it’s changed.
I remember Golden Delicious from when I was a kid begging my mom to get them instead of Red Delicious. I seem to remember saying that the Red Delicious apples tasted like wax. The trauma caused by having to choose between these had me swear off apples for years.
I absolutely love the golden delicious apple it’s on the top of my list. And I see people saying Honeycrisp apple is the best but to me that tastes like garbage. I don’t know what it wrong with these people the golden delicious is all out best.
Here in Massachusetts, many of the local orchards grow Golden Delicious and they are just fabulous. Sweet, with a great crunchy texture and an edible skin. They are picked very late in the season, so we wait and take a drive out to the orchard when they become available. I don’t disagree with your assessment of the Goldens that show up in supermarkets, which apparently come from the Northwest. They are awful, per your review, but the locally grown ones, at least in NE, are a treasure and my favorite. Please be fair to the Golden (and the orchards that grow them) and consider a separate review for the non-industrial version.
I’m in the NW and often buy the ripe ones in stores or eat them fresh off trees. Both are great and the apple has always gives me good feelings when I see them.
Yes they’re soft but that combos with their sweetness and lack of tart to make a pleasant apple to snack on. Like the local replacement for ripe bananas.
Good golden delicious apples are my ideal apple. Unfortunately, bad ones are terrible, mealy, nasty things that are only better than red delicious by virtue of a less bitter peel, and I haven’t found a consistent way of telling which kind I’m getting until I bite into it.
My parents would take us to an apple orchard in either eastern Nebraska or western Iowa in the late 60s to early 70s. That was my first intro to Golden Delicious and I thought these were the best apples I’d ever had. If offered, I’d always take a Golden Delicious over a Red. Over the years, ever, they seem to have become mealy, bland, lacking in punch and I don’t think it’s my taste buds getting older. I like Fuji, Pink Lady and Honey Crisp apples but they all have their minuses. Enter the Snapdragon. Wow! Had my first one yesterday and went back and got a dozen more from the grocers today. This is very reminiscent of what the Golden Delicious apples my siblings and I had between 1968 and 1974 in Omaha. I hope these aren’t a fluke. I’ve tried all kinds of apples and will continue to eat the ones I’ve mentioned (save for Red Delicious – it isn’t) but I absolutely am sold on the Snapdragon replacing the Golden Delicious as the apple I remember from my childhood.
An apple of mild taste, and a firm, rather hard exterior. Really crisp but perhaps overly so?
Not something I would seek out again, unless I wanted to plonk someone on the head from a distance.
Golden Delicious are damn good.
What about Ginger Gold apples? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginger_Gold
(Store-bought) golden delicious is definitely by far the worst apple I’ve ever tried and it definitely deserves horse food status
i like these just for the nostalgia factor, had so many as a kid
Golden Delicious were my favorite for years. I’d have them for breakfast with some sharp white cheddar. Sometimes I’d get lucky and get some that had a pear-like taste that were the best! The yellower they are, the better they seem to be. Lately they have been very flat tasting and disappointing. I started trying others after all the disappointments. Cosmic Crisp is great!
Absolutely incredulous ranking, Golden Delicious can be delicious and sweet, as the name suggests. Frankly, they’ve been quite bland in the UK (where I opt for a pink lady), but in Poland? Even the supermarket ones are usually amazing. So honestly, to do them justice, a better sourced version should be included in the review.
IM INSULTED….. GOLDEN DELICIOUS LIVES UP TO ITS NAME BEAUTIFULLY.
IT IS CRISPY, IT IS SWEET, AND IT IS DELICIOUS. They may be small, but that is part of what makes them perfect. They are a beautiful little snack.
I have a feeling that people who think this apple is bad must live in food deserts– which is not their fault at all– but it means that they have to get their fresh fruits and vegetables shipped from miles and miles away. This means that they have mediocre experiences with a crappy Golden Delicious shipped for days or weeks before it hits their shelves.
A fresh Golden Delicious may be a bit inaccessible, which may detract from the overall ranking, but it is still tasty as all heck. It destroys me that Golden Delicious is ranked so low when it is ONE OF MY FAVORITE APPLES. Justice for Golden Delicious, and Justice to the people: May they get a ripe and fresh Golden Delicious on their shelves some day.
GD apples from santa cruz county ca are incredible. nothing like the garbage available in the big grocery chains.
I am an apple enthusiast and eat a lot of apples of different kinds, but my favorite is the golden delicious. I eat one every morning like medicine. There’s something about the pH. I credit golden delicious apples for helping me get off acid reflux drugs.
A good golden delicious has a delicate taste and texture, more subtle than some of the crispy sweet newer varieties.. Unfortunately it has become more and more difficult to find good golden delicious apples in the stores. Fortunately I live near Michigan and can buy large quantities in the fall. When stored properly in my basement these apples will keep for a while.
A good golden delicious can’t be beat for juice and sauce. Because of their scarcity nowadays, however, I just eat them whole.
I think the issue with golden delicious apples is that they don’t keep as well as some other varieties and show bruises easily, so they end up getting picked before they’re ripe. Usually in the store you see them as a green-yellow color, but the ones I’ve had that were great were very pale yellow, going towards white.
Golden Delicious apples are disgusting if bought from a store, but if you get the legit, heirloom ones from a farmers market or an orchard yourself, they are devine. Bad website
grainy. one note in flavor. gritty skin. cute color though!
A Golden Delicious is peak taste. Speaking from personal experience, this wonderful apple will turn your frown upside down! Recommend to anyone who isn’t retarded, like the people who run this website clearly are. Not angry, just disappointed in the blatant disrespect for this masterpiece of a fruit.
Raising another fist in support of the golden delicious, empirically one of the best apples out there, but one — as others have noted — that doesn’t ship or store well and thus does not arrive in grocery stores in its actual form. A proper golden delicious should have no hint of green to it whatsoever. Properly tree ripened, they’re warm gold with coral-pink blushes, and boast a texture that’s crisp-but-not-too-crisp and light-but-not-boring, and simply the loveliest flavor — delicate and balanced, subtly floral and honeyed, the kind of acidity that keeps things bright and cheerful without starting to grate on the palate. I’m fortunate to live in an apple-producing region and have tried more dozens of apple varieties than I could tally up, and golden delicious is the queen.