If you’ve stepped foot in Tasmania and tasted a local apple, you’ll quickly learn that they are truly spectacular! There is something very distinctive about the consistently satisfying crunch and the subsequent juice that seems to have vanished from so many apples found elsewhere. Currently, the apple season is well and truly in full swing, so you’ll find a plentiful array of different varieties available at Salamanca Fresh, delivered straight from the orchards of our beautiful state. If you’ve headed into our stores and seen the display, but have not yet tasted the different types, here is a quick guide to the differences in our local apples.

Royal Gala

Gala apples are beautifully honey-sweet, with a dense firm flesh and plenty of juice. They are an excellent eating apple and are also perfect for slicing and adding to salads. With a medium size, they have skin colour ranging from bright red to light red/pink with yellow blush or stripes. When cooking with Galas, they are best suited to sauces and stews and the flesh tends to fall apart with heat. They are known to be a hybrid between the Kidds Orange Red and Golden D elicious varieties.

Golden Delicious

A distinctive apple that is easy to spot on the shelves, the Golden Delicious is exactly that – golden and delicious. It has a light green, crispy flesh that is covered in a golden yellow to green skin. These apples make wonderful cooking apples, as they hold their shape nicely. They have a sweet flavour, but as honey-sweet as the Royal Gala and are quite aromatic.

Fuji

Fuji apples often have an orange/red colour with fewer yellow ‘stripes’ than the Royal Gala. With a honey-sweet taste and smell, thick skin and dense flesh, these apples hold extremely well when cooked, so they can be roasted, baked and sauteed with success. These apples have the highest sugar content of all apples on the market today.

Jonagold

The Jonagold is a hybrid between the Jonathon and the Golden Delicious. They have a red coloured skin with a widespread blush that varies from green to yellow to oranging, depending on where it is grown. These apples are typically a dessert apple, as opposed to an eating apple, as the sweet-tart flavour creates wonderful flavour in many cooked desserts, sauces and preserves. They are crispy and juicy with a yellow-gold coloured flesh.

Granny Smith

Granny Smith apples have a distinctive bright green skin and very crisp white flesh, which is tart and tangy. This apple variety is suitable for eating fresh or cooking in pies and desserts where it holds its shape well.

Gravenstein

This aromatic, green and red apple is lovely eaten fresh, as well as being baked and used for cider and has a sweet-tart flavour. The shelf life of the Gravenstein apple is a little shorter, so it is better to eat them soon after purchasing. These apples are excellent for pairing with chicken and pork.

Pink Lady

Pink Lady apples have a fresh, light sweet taste and a firm dense flesh. They have a distinctive pink blush over a yellow/green skin and hold a high sugar content, which makes them lovely to for cooking in sweet, desserts and muffins.

Red Delicious

A crimson red skin easily identifies the Red Delicious apple variety. They are a very popular eating apples with sweet, smooth and juicy flesh and a lovely aroma. These apples also make a wonderful addition to many dessert dishes.