How To Pick The Absolute Best Apples Every Time You Shop

Grocery shopping for apples isn't rocket science, but there is a little bit of food math that goes into picking the best ones for your needs. Unlike concrete ripe watermelon picking tips or even the screamingly obvious signs of a perfect banana, apples are a little more subtle when it comes to determining ripeness. To ensure you pick out a stellar apple every time, keep these three things in mind: the feel, the sheen, and the color. First off, you want to feel for firmness. A good apple will be solid to the touch with zero soft spots or wrinkly skin in sight. Firmer apples are especially great for eating on their own, but they also indicate freshness. On the topic of skin, you also want your apple to have a waxy, shiny exterior. 

Most apples develop a wax coating as a sort of natural preservative to lock moisture in. However, at more commercial farms, this wax coating is often washed off (along with the pesticides). So, depending on where you get your apple from, it'll either still have its natural wax coating or one that's added after the sterilization process. Either way, they both help with moisture retention, which will give your apples a nice, juicy bite while extending their shelf life. Finally, you want to take the color of your apple into account. Apple varieties come in all sorts of colors, but you want the shading to be consistent throughout and you'll always want to avoid apples that have any sort of blemishes.

When we say, "how to pick the absolute best apples every time you shop," "best" is obviously a subjective term, here. An apple that might be excellent for pie might fall short in a salad. This is why it helps to have a good idea of what you're planning on using the apples for before going to the grocery store to pick them out. Luckily, the above tips still apply, but you'll just want to consider the specific apple variety when applying your new apple-choosing know-how.

We have a lengthy list of the best apples to choose for baking, including Rome, Jonathan, and Gala apples. Ultimately, you want an apple that will keep its shape even when cooked in its sugar and dough sauna. Northern Spy apples are also on the list, and are a good example of how color can mean something different depending on the apple variety. Northern Spy apples, as well as Galas, tend to be dual-toned — but you should still look for consistent shading, even if that shading includes multiple colors.

When it comes to salad or snacking apples, you want a firm yet still juicy flesh that stands on its own flavorwise. We recommend Gala, Honeycrisp, and Ginger Gold — the latter of which are particularly good for snacking because they keep their light gold coloring without going brown as quickly as some other varieties. Surprisingly, you don't want your apples to smell too strongly of apple because that means they might be ripening too fast. And again, you want these apples to be firm to the touch. If you take one tip away from this piece, it's that firmness is always a winner in the book of fresh apples.