What Are The Sweetest Apples You Can Buy?

Apples are the most popular fruit in the United States, according to the USDA, and yet they still manage to be controversial. When it comes to apples, there's a spectrum of sweet to tart, and everyone's going to have their own opinions about which is best. For sour apple lovers, the answer is very straightforward. Granny Smith is the quintessential tart apple, unless you want to count the brutally sour crab apple, which you can technically eat, but probably shouldn't. For those who love a balance of sweet and tart, the recently engineered Cosmic Crisp is the clear way to go. But what about sweet apple lovers? When it comes to the sweet end of the apple spectrum, there is a considerable variety of choices.

There's not a firm consensus on what the sweetest apple is, as there can be variations from fruit to fruit. However, Kiku apples are widely considered to be the most notably and consistently sweet variety. This kind of apple was first grown in 1990, and to this day, they are only grown in a small handful of orchards. For that reason, Kiku apples have long been rare, but they are gradually becoming more common, and can now be found at many nationwide grocery chains, including Kroger and Sam's Club. If you still can't find them, don't worry, because the Kiku is related to a much more common apple variety that some say is just as sweet.

You might not be able to find Kiku apples at your local grocery store, but you should have no problem finding the ever-popular Fuji apple. Fuji apples are the product of apple breeding efforts in the 1930s by a team of scientists in Fujisaki, Japan, from which the variety gets its name. Today, they are grown around the world. In the U.S., they are widely grown throughout Washington state, which happens to be the state that grows the most apples. Fuji apples are noted for their sweetness, which gets increasingly intense with the amount of sun exposure the apple gets. Some Fuji's are grown away from light, but the sweetest ones are sun-fuji apples.

Kiku apples are actually closely related to Fuji apples. The very first Kiku apple was an example of a sport apple. Sport fruits are mutations that occur naturally and at random in fruit varieties, and apples are especially prone to mutation. The first Kiku actually grew from a Fuji apple tree, and to this day, some argue that it is not a unique variety, but rather just a Fuji apple going by another name. Whichever way you go, both varieties are sure to satisfy your sweet tooth.