Apple Season, Best Apple?

So.... I'm going up country to meet up with my folks and pick some apples.   I'm kind of excited because I've never done this and I always hear other people talking about apple festival this and apple festival that and I see the totally staged awesome fake candid pictures and all.  But mostly?  I just want fresh apples to make lots and lots of Mom's Famous Apple Bread.

So I've been asking people what kind of apples they'd like me to bring back and my daughter told me to check my blog and see which kind she likes the best.   In 2009, my daughter conducted an apple taste test.  In honor of apple season, I will re-post that one here.  What follows is, to her embarrassment, the lovely results of the Great Apple Taste-Off of '09.  A few new varieties of apple have hit the scene since '09 and I'mma be sure to look for them this weekend in the mountains:  Pink Lady and Honey Crisp.

Marj got on an apple eating kick, quite by accident, while training for softball. I don't give much thought to apples, I usually grab any old one from the store, but Marj decided she has a more discerning palate. She decided she likes Fuji the best and that I must buy Fuji. I was OK with it 'cause I like to say Fuji.

But when I spotted the bright array of apples at the market......
I was overcome. I wanted to try them all. I wanted Marj to try them all. I wanted to open her eyes to a whole big world of appledom. I wanted her to be the gourmet apple connoisseur of her rural high school. I had big plans.

-

So I texted her. Gear yourself up, sister, you're gonna have a taste-test to find out your favorite apple, to determine which apple you prefer for different occasions and different moods.
-

I numbered the apples to prevent her from knowing what variety she was tasting. A real sophisticated spy-like coding system so only I knew the true identity of the apple.
-
In the top photo, she is saying, "Mmm hmm, I think I like this one best." (Dadgum! That was the Fuji. Boy, she's good)
-

-
In the second photo, she is swirling the apple bite to "savah the flavah." (Notice her goblet of water for cleansing the palate. This is serious business.) Yep, I see it, she's tempted by that second apple, a sweet little innocent Macintosh. She had an apple temptation goin' on, just like Eve.
-

This brings you down to the third photo, the third apple. Tom took a bite and recognized it immediately. Marj took a bite and said "Boooring." Tom said, "This variety, I always called an 'apple'. This one means 'apple' like none other." You got that right. It's a Red Delicious. Should be called Red Bland Not So Delicious or "Generic Apple."
--

Now 4, here, see she's contemplating. It was up for grabs. That sucker was a Gala. She determined it to be almost as good as a Fuji. Good for those mellow afternoons.
-
I was so wishing I had a Pink Lady. Pink Ladies are difficult to find anytime, impossible at this time of year in the middle of podunk. The Pink Lady, now, she would've stolen the show.

-

-

-
-
This brings us to her last choice, her final bite, the Big Loser apple..... Granny Smith. (age discrimination??) Wow. She bit that thing and seriously puckered up. Granny Smith might be a good apple to wake her up in the morning, but otherwise, that sucker's for baking purposes only. (until I sneak one in her lunch box)
-

Well, now you know. If you have any other food items you'd like taste-tested, leave a comment.