Wild Twist Apple Review
"A Famous Person's Child"
This salacious newcomer straight from the balls of apple scientists in sex-crazed Lancaster, Pennsylvania is a serviceable addition to what is becoming a crowded field of genetic freak, cross-bred apples. The “twist” is between the God-like Honeycrisp and bottom of the top list Pink Lady – an audacious combination that is the apple equivalent of a celebrity power couple.
But like most celebrity power couples, their less-hot offspring (while putting out a decent solo album) just can’t live up to their famous parents. Inheriting the hardness of the Pink Lady, and its unfortunate skin that lingers in your mouth like a wet paper bag, the Honeycrisp does the real heavy lifting, elevating this apple onto the bottom of the top list.
BONUS POINTS: +1 Branding
- FLAVOR PROFILE -
SWEETNESS
3/5
TARTNESS
3/5
INTENSITY
3/5
WILD TWIST BIO
PARENTAGE
ORIGIN
Lancaster, Pennsylvania
YEAR
2020
AVAILABILITY
Winter
BEST USES
Just picked up two bags because of this review and am very happy I did. It’s very, very good – great flavor and that lovely snap you get with the HoneyCrisp and SweeTango. Bit of a smaller apple, but a nice snack size so you don’t feel like a pig eating three HoneyCrisps in like 10 minutes.
Ha! Excellent breakdown
Just tried one and this gal will be a return customer. Cannot stand a mealy apple … and this apple is a complete opposite. Crisp and sweet and AWESOME.
my only regret is telling other ladies about it! Absolutely the best apple.
Who is the genius writer behind all these apples reviews? I’ve always told myself that if I had a chance to go back and do it all again; I would find some way to write, either as a profession or a hobby! It is a great pleasure, to have discovered one of my favorite writers on an “apple ranking” website. The way you positively eviscerated the Modi Apple with your words was brutal,and I am sure you would hate that I gave it the respect to even capitalize its name! “Horse Food”. Nothing else was needed but so much more was given! Even in this review “Straight from the ball’s of apple scientists”. What a picture your words paint! Your words may not be read daily by millions, but they are powerful just the same! Quality of content over quantity of readers! Thank you for entertainingly expanding my knowledge of apples! I cannot wait to taste the product of those apple scientists’ ball’s!!!
Thank you so much! You made my day!
I’m a comedian – Brian Frange – you can follow me on Instagram if you’d like. @BrianFrange
I would rate Wild Twist much higher than 81 – more like 94. It reminds me of Evercrisp another Honeycrisp cross that I like better than the original.
I second that. I just bought a bag for the first time at Sam’s, darn good.
These JUST hit the shelves here in Michigan at the “first place to taste new produce” farmer’s market, Horrocks. Had to snatch them before I even knew if you’d written a review.
I suspect very much that this apple mellows with time in storage throughout its shelf life on the way to stores. It hit as very “sapphire grapes and envy apples, juiced and poured over snow cones” thing going in here in the middle of March. Not the lease bit sour, light and sweet grapey aftertaste, mostly watery….but in a refreshing way, as honeycrisp gets some years. If they could last into summer they’d be a big hit, but I probably wouldnt opt for these most winter mornings when I could have any number of specialty apples on the shelves, right now.
Dont notice an offensively thick skin, but red delicious is the only apple I’ve ever thought of as tough-skinned and I tend to not agree with people who say any sort of produce has a tough skin. Except for pears. I love pears and even have a couple trees ((amidst the orchard)) but I’m chucking the skins all over the yard when I eat them.
If you appreciate that I recommend trying both Envy and Cosmic Crisp throughout the season. Envy are indeed rock hard early on (though still with great flavor), but toward Jan/Feb they soften a bit and mellow out for an excellent balance. Going into spring they pass their peak but Cosmic Crisp continue to hold out well, at least in my region.
I picked up a box of these today at Costco on impulse and I’m really impressed! Not as tart as a Pink Lady and not as sugar sweet as a Honeycrisp. It’s basically the perfect balance between the two, and while the flesh is a bit dense, it was super juicy and crunchy. Definitely will buy these again!
I’m a diehard Honeycrisp fan, and consider Honeycrisp a “reference” of sorts. My local store was out them, but they had some Wild Twist. I decided to give them a try. Let me tell ya something, these things are good! I know this is blasphemy, but it *might* even be better than Honeycrisp.
I discovered these at Sam’s Club and decided to give them a try. Best decision. Wild Twist became another of my favorites. I didn’t see them again for a while but they’re showing up more at other stores here now.
Just had my first wildtwist apple. Bought them through my Amazon fresh order. They were so inexpensive less than .75c for all three. Wish I’d have bought 2 doz. Crisp, juicy and sweet. Prefect size. Going to order more to make applesauce. Check out the very early variety of the Elstar, it makes a nice tart applesauce and a great tasting apple pie. But you must make and bake it immediately. It doesn’t freeze well. I tried and it ended up a juicy mess but still delicious. Thank you for your Apple review.
Your writing is pants-piss funny! What a joy for an amateur apple-snob to ingest your prose along with cultivars new and old. Cheers!
The flavor isn’t amazing, but it has the right amount of tartness that I normally look for in apples and the crunch is very satisfying.
Crisp, juicy flesh with a nice balance of sweet and tart makes it a thumbs up in my book!
Finally a new apple variety we all agree on [insert relieved sigh]! Happy I picked one up at my grocery and found they’re being marketed nation wide. Our local orchard is growing a similarly exciting variety, Rosalee (MAIA1; Honeycrisp x Fuji). Wild Twist is probably the closest thing I’ve come to the crisp texture and refreshing flavor. *NOTE: According to the official website, WildTwist is (Honeycrisp x Cripps Pink).
Cripps Pink is the varietal name for Pink Lady, which is the marketing name for the same apple. They have to meet minimum quality standards to be sold as Pink Ladies; any that don’t will be labeled Cripps. I wish they’d make that kind of thing more commonplace.
Very solid apple. This is what Cosmic Crisps wanted to be. Not quite as sweet or tart as a Honeycrisp, but still very pleasant and a great firm texture. I didn’t find the skin mealy like in the review, but it didn’t have much flavor – pretty neutral. Slices held up well in the fridge without discoloring.
Im from lancaster and recently had this apple for the first time, and its very dependent on the ripeness of the apple. Ive had some that blew honecrisp out of the wayer and some that left something to be desired. The smaller fruits seem to be sweeter and just delectable.
Just bought a bag of these, small, lunchbox sized. I thought the seem like a cross between a Mac in texture and a Golden Delicious in taste. Firm, snappy flesh and I don’t find the skin gross at all. Not too sweet, like Ruby Frost can become and definitely not sour.
Today I was looking for decent writing workshops in my area. No luck. A few hours later I went to Costco where I found bags and bags of the Wild Twist Apple. I pulled up your review and read it aloud to my husband. We laughed to each other and asked, “Does this guy offer writing workshops?!” Please consider writing an apple book! You are so talented. (Would also welcome a workshop on The Art of Apple Writing…)
I’m 52 years old, and until 2009, the only apple variety I had knowingly eaten was Red Delicious. That changed when a supermarket employee noticed me picking up a bag of Red Delicious apples. She stopped me, pulled out a knife, cut open a Honeycrisp apple, and offered me a slice to try. Since that day, I haven’t eaten another Red Delicious. Fortunately, I live in Lancaster, where I’ve discovered my favorite apple variety: Wild Twist. But feed me an Evercrisp, Envy, or Honeycrisp any day of the week!
Just ate my first and this review is solid. Liked it- flavor good but not complex. Skin a bit thick. I must have gotten a bad batch of PInk Lady’s because tried them once and they did nuthin for me. given their role in some good apples and your review, I think I’ll give them another try. I’m in Michigan apple country and wi9ll wait until next October to be sure get fresh ones.
Just tried a couple of these from Whole Paycheck and my first impression was that it’s… Lemony. Weird but good. The lemon impression went away after the first couple of bites but it’s definitely more interesting to me than Honeycrisp.
My work hosted these apples during the testing phase when they were still called “Sweet Cheeks”, really glad they rebranded.
I LOVE dehydrating these apples as they make some of the best crispy chips.
Highly recommended
Had one of these bad boys (girls?) tonight for the first time and I fell to my knees in my kitchen, it was that good. Thankfully I have very strong and resilient knees from the many years of knee excersizes and vitamins, but I digress. These apples are truly something else. Juicy as juice itself with such a flavor combination that gives you the profile of honeycrisp with added tartness that just melds together to create a literal non-denominational heaven in your mouth. Worth every penny!!
I just tried this apple with a group of gals in LA!!!! We are having the time of our lives!!
About that sex crazed Lancaster County comment, just because you can’t go from Blue Ball to Paradise without going through Intercourse doesn’t mean we’re sex crazed! Good review and a great apple (though pretty big to me).
Used this Apple along with Granny Smith apples (3 to 2 ratio) in Milk Street’s recipe for French Apple Cake. Oh my! I don’t know if it was the Wild Twist apples or the recipe, but the dessert was absolutely wonderful.
Why 2 very different reviews for the same apple?
What do you mean?
Does your branding/consistency score include holding ability? I think that should be a separate category, because I’ve really come to appreciate varieties that can still taste good for months instead of turning to mushy garbage after a two week window. This is one of the former. I’ve just had my first one and we’re well into spring here. It doesn’t blow me away at this point but it’s still entirely edible – solid snap, flesh a little soft but not mealy yet, and while the flavor is rather bland it doesn’t have that godawful overripe taste either. I tried some apples recently that were very much NOT stored correctly – they were just this side of rotting and I tossed them after the first bite. Based on my experience with other good holding varieties I expect this one starts out quite hard and fairly tart, peaks mid to late winter, and starts declining into spring. Envy follows that same trend. I’ll try to find one of these to try earlier next year but this is the first time I’ve seen it. I’d probably score the apple I just ate in the mid 70s, but assuming that bell curve for quality I’d expect the peak to be at least as good as you gave it; possibly better. A little surprising given how fast Honeycrisps lose it. I haven’t had a Pink Lady in a while but I seem to recall they hold decently – I think sour varieties tend to do a little better, at least in terms of taste because they retain more acidity.
I also don’t find the skin too bad. I have more tolerance for that than you do, but there are certainly some that even I find objectionable. And I believe I’ve mentioned before that I suspect thin skins contribute to some varieties spoiling so fast, so I considerate a moderately thicker skin an acceptable tradeoff for holding ability.