I learned that red delicious (aka "Coffee Grinds in a Leather Glove") won an apple contest in 1894, so apparently they used to be good...? Can we get that strain back from history somehow?

https://applerankings.com/red-delicious-apple-review/

[–] h0rnman@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 1 week ago

In my life, I've had approximately 3 bags of really good red delicious apples. This tells me that it is completely possible for them to be good, but for some reason they aren't. My best guess is that because their look is so synonymous with people's concept of an apple, too much emphasis is placed on their appearance. They don't get picked and bagged at the right time, so they're almost always mealy and bland. I will say that the few times I've managed to find legit red delicious make me understand how they could win an apple contest and why they became the "default" for apple. I don't think they'd be modern contenders for first place, but they're easily a top 5.