Apples

No, seriously, this post is about apples. I went to the store today to get food, and this is what I saw. I saw the McIntosh apple for $1.29/lb and the Honey Crisp for $2.99/lb. Naturally, my curiosity got the best of me.

So this first picture is a picture of two apples, a McIntosh on the right of the picture (the redder of the two), and a Honey Crisp on the left. To me, they both look good. I like apples -- red, green, yellow, I like them all. So why is it that the redder of the two is less than half the price of the other?

Seriously, I'm all about buying the expensive stuff if it really does taste better. I've moved from whole milk to "organic" whole milk (which we all know isn't the real stuff, but it's as close to it as you can get these days without owning a cow, goat, or sheep). It's about $1-$1.50 more per gallon, but it tastes a lot better. I even made the mistake of buying "organic" skim milk (can it even be organic when it's skim?) and it's sooooooooooo much better than regular skim milk, but I wouldn't buy it again, because it's skim and skim is blasphemy.

Back to the apples: Perhaps if I cut into it, there'll be something awesome, like honeycomb inside the Honey Crisp! But I did, and there's no honeycomb. It's a friggin' apple. I will say that the Honey Crisp felt a little firmer than the McIntosh, so that's bonus points for the Honey Crisp. I love a crisp apple. But that's not nearly enough bonus points to warrant +$1.70/lb.

All sliced up, the Honey Crisp looks better. It's all purdy 'n' stuff. But who cares about looks when you're going to put it in your mouth, chew it up, swallow it, and let the inner workings of your digestive system work on it? Was that a little too much? It probably was. Anyway. So I added an naval orange and a banana to the mix and this is breakfast.

Upon eating the McIntosh, it's what I would expect a red apple to be. It's softer than a green apple (one of my favorites) but sweeter -- still tart, but not over the top. Quite good. I ate a slice of the Honey Crisp. It was not as sweet as the McIntosh, but it was still good. On the crispness level, it was up there with the green apples, but it wasn't as sweet as the McIntosh, definitely tart. In a sense, there was actually less taste in it than in the McIntosh, but it was good.

So, in a game of comparing apples to apples, your tastes will be different than mine. But in my opinion, McIntosh wins in the price category and the edibility category. It's not as good looking as the Honey Crisp apple, so if you're making a dish that's designed to be a feast for the eyes as well, then the Honey Crisp is the better of the two. But this bachelor thinks that the less expensive apple is just dandy.