Flavor: Spicy, rich tartness that improves with age
Approxmate Ripening: Late October
Uses: Eating, cooking, juicing, hard cider
Trivia: Released by PRI (Purdue-Rutgers-Illinois) in 1994
Notes: If you’ve tried GoldRush, then the challenge isn’t convincing you to overlook its ugliness, nor to convince you of its supreme tart awesomeness. No, the challenge is convincing you not to dive right in the moment you bring them home. Yes, GoldRush is great even if you can’t wait, but your patience will be rewarded. GoldRush stores like almost no other apple, and it undergoes a twin transformation as it ages. Its skin goes from chartreuse to dull saffron and can shrivel a bit, turning an already plain apple into a true ugly duckling. But the taste … oh, the taste! Even as it grows uglier, the taste sharpens to a point where each bite is an explosion of zingy, bright tartness. There are few greater apple pleasures than an aged GoldRush.