I want to mention something I’ve noticed, but never seen anyone else mention.
Red Delicious is my favorite apple. When it’s perfect, it’s amazing. Sweet, crisp, juicy, and with an abundance of deep red apple flavor. Unfortunately, there are dozens of cultivars that go under the name “Red Delicious,” and some of them are mealy and flavorless.
The very best tend to be very hard to the touch (so you know they’ll be crisp), and dark crimson in color, so dark that they’re almost black. Interestingly, those particular apples often have red veins in the flesh, and sometimes have actual patches of pink in the flesh.
Steven Edholm (a fantastic apple breeder) has mentioned that he thinks very dark red skin may be correlated with pink flesh. If he’s right about that, this particular Red Delicious cultivar may be a carrier of a recessive gene that codes for pink flesh.
I don’t know which specific cultivar I’m describing. Do you know? Seems like a cultivar to buy scions of and use for breeding.
Not to mention eating . . . those fruits are the best.