Find the right one for snacking, baking and more.
Browse varietiesFind the right one for snacking, baking and more.
Browse varietiesSweetest to tartest apples
Every apple on our site, ranked from candy-sweet to pucker-tart.
Apple flavor comes down to a balance of sugar and acid. Sugar makes an apple taste sweet, and malic acid, the main acid in apples, makes it taste tart. Most apples have some of both, which is what makes them interesting.
We placed every apple on our site on one scale, using the sweet and tart ratings from each variety page.
From sweetest at the top to tartest at the bottom.
Very sweet
Ambrosia, Autumn Glory, Envy, Fuji, Kiku, Pacific Rose, Rockit
Sweet
Crispin, EverCrisp, Gala, Golden Delicious, SugarBee, Empire, Ginger Gold, Jonagold, Lady Alice, Macoun, Opal, Red Delicious, Smitten, SnapDragon
Balanced sweet-tart
Cameo, Cosmic Crisp, Honeycrisp, Kanzi, Pazazz, Piñata, SweeTango, Zestar!, Arkansas Black, Cortland, Crimson Crisp, Jazz, McIntosh, Rome, Braeburn, Pink Lady, Rave, RubyFrost
Tart
Very tart
For snacking, most people reach for the sweeter end. For baking, the tarter end usually wins, because a tangy apple balances the sugar in a pie. If you like both, the balanced middle is where favorites like Honeycrisp and Cosmic Crisp live.
Keep in mind that flavor shifts with the season and with storage. Many tart apples mellow and sweeten after a few weeks in storage.
The ratings are our own 1 to 5 scores based on how each variety is commonly described by growers and breeders. Two apples of the same variety can taste different depending on where and when they were grown. See all apple varieties for the details on each one.
