I’m from Western New York and lots of apples are grown there (and upstate). Grew up eating more than the usual share of apples, of all varieties.
Never been a fan of Red Delicious (I “liked” the dig on them above), but I concede that when freshly picked, they’re quite excellent (if one-dimensional). Since most people don’t have the chance to go freshly pick them every day, they get stuck with nasty grocery store ones. You can taste the delicious part way down in there, but it’s overwhelmed by bitterness.
I tend to like the random varieties that show up in the grocery store sometimes, the ones colored similar to Fujis (which are my baseline standard), green with pink blush. A great one is Pink Lady, which is subtly tart over a lightly sweet, pear-like base.
Pears are by far my favorite fruit, actually, and anything pear-like is my preference for apples. It may just be because I’m so used to them from my childhood but apples aren’t something I really eat much, usually.
