Mutsu (Crispin) Apple Review
"The Rich Man's Jalopy"
55
Barely Worth It
Like a poorly designed car that is suped up with all the latest features but breaks down after three years, the Japanese Mutsu Apple (also known as Crispin in the US/UK) fails under the weight of its own overreaching reputation. Known as “The Million Dollar Apple” this rich man’s jalopy comes in three sexy colors based on sunlight exposure: the yellow-green Sun Mutsu, the bright red Red Mutsu, and the rare pale Silver Mutsu. Unfortunately, with a mild splash of flavor, waxy skin, and grainy flesh, this apple simply can’t be trusted to get you to work on time.
Taste
Crispness
Skin
Flesh
Juiciness
Density
Beauty
Branding
Cost/Availability
- FLAVOR PROFILE -
SWEETNESS
2/5
★★★★★ 2/5
TARTNESS
1.5/5
★★★★★ 1.5/5
INTENSITY
1.5/5
★★★★★ 1.5/5
MUTSU APPLE BIO
PARENTAGE
Golden Delicious x Indo
ORIGIN
Japan
YEAR
1949
AVAILABILITY
Late Fall – Spring
BEST USES
Dessert Baking, Munching
OTHER NAMES
Crispin, Red Mutsu,
Silver Mutsu, Sun Mutsu
Eat These Apples Instead
- Pink Lady Apples
- Aurora Golden Gala Apples
- Candy Crisp Apples
I tried a Mutzu for the first time this week and LOVED them!!! They a big and juicy and have a mild sweet flavor of hat I enjoyed. Not a jalopy.
Ate a Mutsu for the first time this week,to be honest the best apple I have ever tasted. Looking forward to baking with this delicious apple. Making apple sauce with them this week, also apple butter.
Best apple I have ever tasted. Looking forward to baking with this delicious apple. Also making apple sauce with them. It will be in my fridge for our grandkids to eat. So happy a orchard near my home grow these Mutsu apples.
Im sorry I understand having different tastes but you are factually wrong this is a good apple worth at least a 75. My favorite apple personally though i do understand why others arnt as big a fan
I have to take all apples into account when ranking – I’ll try again next year but I stand by this score
Also here just to share my apparently uncommon but still passionate love of this apple. I’d say it’s worth the curious attempting once to see if it’s their jam (or… sauce I suppose). My biggest complaint is that its less common to see in my grocers than other, more celebrity status apples.But whenever I do see them I always snag a few.
I appreciate the amount of effort needed to rank all these apples, and also get that means some are going to have to fall into the middling range. Thanks for the fun website!
Thank you for reading and thank you for your understanding. It’s a tough world out there for apples these days!
Another Mutsu fan here. I don’t buy or see them in supermarkets, though, only buy them from local orchards when in season. They are also notably larger than other apples. I’m in Western MA, not too far from U. Mass. where they were growing and studying them for a number of years as well–it was a favorite of my son’s when he went on school field trips to some of their orchards. It’s not our top favorite at the orchard, but we always include a few. I wonder if there is more of a regional difference with Mutsu than some other apples, or if it doesn’t ship well.
One thing that occurs to me is that the size of Mutsu apples when ripe is far more variable than most varieties. If you tried to pick uniform sizes in order to box and ship them, you’d have to pick them before they were full grown, I think, or use a subvariety that might be quite different than the mutsus I’m talking about.
Another Mutsu apple lover! As a poor college student, I saved up money to buy fancy apples each week and used their stickers to create a visual apple ranking on my cabinet. I tried a Mutsu apple for the first time (just out of college) when I moved to NYC. This apple was slightly tart and perfectly sweet. It quickly became my favorite apple! I would occasionally slice them and top with cinnamon to bring the tartness out. Delicious!
I was shocked to see them ranked so low. Only downside to the Mutsu apples—I haven’t been able to find them in the Mountain West.