Jonagold takes Pink Lady to the Gala

I haven't had much time in the past few days to write a post, so here's a review of the 3 different varieties I've tried since I last posted. Unfortunately, I didn't write down notes when I ate them, and my impression of them is starting to become more faint in my memory.

On Thursday, I tried the Pink Lady, whose official name is Cripps Pink. Pink Lady is actually a trademark under which the variety Cripps Pink is marketed. According to OrangePippin (on the "Tasting" tab for Pink Lady), this trademark is used for quality control purposes. Only the Cripps Pink apples that meet certain color and sugar/acid balance standards can be labeled as Pink Lady. The 65% of Cripps Pink apples produced that don't meet the standards are simply labeled by the variety name. Since the sticker on my apple said "Cripps Pink", I guess technically it wasn't a Pink Lady, even though the sign at the supermarket called it Pink Lady. These two names are used interchangeably anyway, since they are the same variety.

The Pink Lady/Cripps Pink has a pinkish to bright red color. When I bit into the apple, the first thing I noticed was the texture. Its insides had a little more resistance than other apples I've tried, until a chunk of it snaps cleanly off the rest of the apple. It's like when you break a piece of styrofoam, there's a little resistance in the beginning, then a sudden clean break. The apple even made a loud snapping sound every time I took a bite. The taste was sweet, but not too tart. I thought the apple was pretty nice tasting, but a little too loud for consumption in the office.

This variety was developed in Australia using the Golden Delicious and Lady Williams. Another variety with the same parentage (a full sibling of Cripps Pink) is the Cripps Red, marketed as Sundowner.

I brought my Gala apple to the office on Friday. In fact, that's the apple that you see pictured above
between the adorable Nemo and Dory salt and pepper shakers. It's got stripes of pink and red with splashes of gold. Unfortunately, part of the apple had some gross moldy stuff growing on it, so I only took a few bites (on the non-moldy side of course) before I decided to throw the apple away. From those few bites, I thought I detected a hint of spice on the surface of the apple. I happened to stop by the grocery store on my way home, so I bought another Gala (along with some other apples I've tried so far that I liked) and ate it that night with my dinner, which consisted of a small steak, Gouda cheese, grilled onions with seasoning, Miso soup, and a few strips of bacon. Yes, I know, I've had bacon with a lot of the apples so far. I recently got the Bacon Wave, and I've been having too much fun with it. Anyways, this time the Gala did not have that hint of spice that I tasted in the first one (or maybe my savory meal was masking it), but it had a nice, crisp skin. The insides were a little mushy, though, and its taste was plain. It had an interesting orange stripe down one side of the apple, as you can see in the picture. Both of the Gala apples I had looked more interesting than they tasted.

The parents of Gala are Golden Delicious and Kidd's Orange Red, making it a half-sibling to Pink Lady. Gala also has many offspring varieties, and you can look at the full list at OrangePippin.

Today, I lunched with Jonagold. The taste was easy and pleasant, but I mostly liked this apple for its crispness. It was a refreshing juicy apple with a mildly sweet flavor. Its size was also slightly larger than the other apples I've had so far, so it was a good portion. I think this variety makes a nice, everyday breakfast apple.

Interestingly, Jonagold is another offspring of Golden Delicious, making it a half-sibling to both Pink Lady and Gala. (Yikes, maybe the title of this post is not so appropriate, then!) So I guess this entry is a nice little family reunion for them. The other parent of Jonagold is, not surprisingly, the Jonathan variety. It's also kind of funny that my Jonagold is literally half red half golden, like someone fused half a Jonathan apple together with half a Golden Delicious. Jonagold has two sports (varieties that are genetic mutations): Excel Jonagold and Jonagored. You can click into these varieties to learn more about them on OrangePippin.


Again, if you go to Stemlit, you can see the ideal wine and cheese pairings for each of these varieties.

Cheese to go with Pink Lady: Gorgonzola, Monterey Jack, Swiss/Emmental, Kasseri, and Port Salut
Wine to go with Pink Lady: Cabernet Franc, Pinot Noir, Gewürztraminer, and Riesling

Cheese to go with Gala: Cheddar, Chevre/Goat Cheese, and Swiss/Emmental
Wine to go with Gala: Malbec, Gewürztraminer, and Pinot Gris/Pinot Grigio

Cheese to go with Jonagold: Mascarpone, Fontina, and Cream Cheese (interesting!)
Wine to go with Jonagold: Syrah/Shiraz, Madeira, Late Harvest Wines, and Sauternes


I have now finished 9 of the 10 original apples, and so far I've kept up with having one apple a day (although two of those days were actually devoted to Crazy Apples, not in the original 10). Just one more apple to go!