Apple Varieties
At Cobble Knoll Orchards of Benson, Vermont we grow over 80 varieties of apples, including heirloom varieties. Below you will find a list of those apples, along with a flavor profile. Please check out our Harvest Schedule to learn when each apple is available for picking.
Ambrosia
Crisp and juicy with a sweet, honeyed flavor.
Ashmead’s Kernal
The sweet-tart flavor of this superb heirloom apple has made it a connoisseur’s favorite.
Autumn Crisp
A cross between a Golden Delicious and a Monroe apple. Extra crisp and juicy. These make for excellent apple slice snacks. Amy’s favorite!
Baldwin
A bright red winter apple, very good in quality. It is a genuine dual-purpose apple. Offering a sweet, but crisp and pleasant flavor. It retains its shape when cooked, and lends a moderately rich sweet flavor to apple pies.
Blondee
A superior early yellow apple. It is sweet and crunchy with smooth skin and bruise-resistant flesh.
Blue Pearmain
A historic American apple known for its distinctive bluish bloom and rich, complex flavor. Its firm, slightly coarse flesh makes it excellent for baking, while its sweet-tart balance is enjoyable when eaten fresh.
Bramley’s Seedling
The perfect apple for tart, pie, or dumpling. It contains high acidity and low sugar, creating a tart, sour, and tangy flavor.
Calville Blanc
One of the world’s great cooking apples, noted for its distinctive sharp spicy flavor. It is medium to large, slightly misshapen with large ridges.
Candy Crisp
A large ribbed dessert apple with golden skin. It is one of the sweetest apples you can get.
Chestnut Crab
Sweet, nutty taste. It’s a popular choice for cider making and fresh eating.
Cortland
Medium to large in size with a light red skin. Slightly tart, flesh discolors slowly. Great for eating, baking, and salads.
Claygate Pearmain
Offers a strong nutty taste, rich and aromatic.
Court Pendu Plat
Aromatic and offer a fruity, somewhat nutty flavor with balanced sweetness and acidity. The flavor mellows with storage and is reminiscent of pears.
Cox Orange Pippin
A mid/late season variety that is probably at its best if picked when fully ripe, or picked slightly under-ripe and left in storage. The flavor is sprightly subacid, with hints of cherry and anise, becoming softer and milder with age.
Crimson Crisp
Offers a sweet, yet spicy taste. The creamy-white flesh of this apple has an extremely crisp bite. Sweet taste with a hint of tartness.
Crimson Topaz
Crisp and juicy this apple is great for fresh eating as well as cooking. Pressing your own cider? Add a few of these to round out your flavor. This variety lasts up to 4 months in the refrigerator so you can stock up for winter.
Dabinett
Not suitable for eating fresh, it is used for producing apple juice and cider.
Ellis Bitter
A cider apple that produces good quality mild bittersweet juice.
Elstar
Offers a balanced, sweet-tart flavor with pear and honey undertones mixed with mild acidity. Used for cooking and especially good for applesauce.
Empire
A sweet apple with a crisp, crunchy taste, and a bright white flesh.
Enterprise
Offering a spicy flavor that pairs well with cinnamon and other warm flavors.
Esopus Spitzenburg
Offers a bright and balanced sweet-tart flavor with subtle, spice-filled undertones.
Great for fresh eating, it was developed in France in the 1970s. A dark ruby red with some russeting around the stem, they’re crisp and juicy with a sweet taste. Kept in the refrigerator they should last around 3 months.
Franklin Cider
Offers a sweet, refreshing, and mild taste. Discovered here in Vermont in the town of Franklin. A favorite of high-end cidermakers.
Freyberg
Offers a sweet flavor and can have a distinct pear-like note to it.
Frostbite
Offers an almost tangy, very sweet flavor. It is a great cider making apple.
Fuji
Crisp and very juicy with a sugary-sweet flavor that resembles freshly-pressed apple juice.
Gala
A cross between Golden Delicious and Kidd’s orange red apples, it boasts a sweet flavor with hints of vanilla and has a floral aroma.
Galarina
A cross between Gala and Florina. Offers a sweet flavor similar to Gala.
Ginger Gold
It is aromatic and has a gingery-sweet to mildly tart flavor. Great for snacks and especially baking in pies. Also a great salad apple, as its white flesh browns slowly when sliced.
Mild, sweet flavor with juicy, crisp, light yellow flesh. Excellent for eating, salads, and sauces as well as pies and baking.
A tart, old-fashioned variety prized for cider making. Its green-yellow skin with red stripes hides a juicy, tangy interior.
A crisp, juicy, and tart apple with a sweet undertone. Known for its delicate flavor, it’s perfect for baking and fresh eating.
A crisp, tangy apple with a sweet undertone.
Its skin is bright yellow, and the flesh is juicy and tender.
A firm, crisp, and juicy Mac-like apple. It has a thin, sturdy skin and bears a mild sweet, sub-acid flavor that becomes more aromatic as it ripens.
Harrison Cider
One of our favorite hard cider varieties, this apple is amazing in a single varietal fermented cider.
Harry Master’s Jersey
A bittersweet cider apple that is used in hard cider production.
Honeycrisp
Honeycrisp apples are larger in size with a red and green skin. Juicy, sweet and Crisp. A good dessert apple. Great for eating!
Hudson’s Golden Gem
A medium-to-large russeted, long-stemmed fruit with a yellow, pear-like flesh that is sweet, crisp, and juicy. A great dessert apple that stores for several months.
Jonagold
Tangy sweet with honey-like flavor notes, great for fresh eating and baking. Our Orchardist’s favorite!
Jonamac
A McIntosh/Jonathan cross, this is an excellent eating apple with cinnamon and nutmeg undertones
A heritage variety with a crisp, juicy texture and a complex flavor profile combining banana, floral, and spicy notes.
King of Tompkins County
The tender yellow flesh has an excellent balanced flavor. Great for eating and for cider making.
The Kingston Black is a revered hard cider apple with a bittersharp taste. The sweet acid flavor leaves you with an astringent feeling after you bite into it.
Liberty
Offers a nice sweet-tart flavor and crisp texture if picked at the peak of ripeness. It tends to be not so flavorful and crisp if picked a little early or a little late in the season.
Little Jewel
Offering a sweet, fruity flavor and a thin peel makes this a great lunchbox snack.
Macoun
A dark red with a purplish flush skin with firm flesh which is juicy and snow white, tasting sweet with a hint of berry.
Mutsu
It is aromatic, sweet, and sharp, with juicy flesh. Good for eating on its own, juicing, drying, or cooking, as it maintains its shape well when cooked.
Newtown Pippin
A late season heirloom apple which is great in fresh and hard cider. A good keeper that sweetens with age in cold storage.
Northern Spy
Very juicy, crispy crunchy, tart and mildly sweet, with a rich flavor and thin, tender green and red skin. It is commonly used for desserts and pies, as well as juice and cider.
Nova Spy
Crisp and juicy with a tart flavor.
It’s a great choice for eating fresh, baking into pies, or making cider.
Opalescent
A large, somewhat ribbed apple with a brilliant deep red skin. Crisp, sweet, tart, and juicy. Good for fresh eating, baking, and drying.
Pink Pearl
This apple has a lovely pink shade of flesh when sliced. Great for open-topped tarts where you can show off its color. A sweet-tart taste which is also great for fresh eating.
Red Delicious
A deep red apple with a very sweet but mild flavor.
Redfield
A unique variety known for its striking dark red skin and flesh. It excels in cooking, baking, and cider making.
Rhode Island Greening
This firm, rich, juicy apple offers a peculiar, tart, but pleasant acid flavor. Great for fresh eating when ripe and excellent for pie.
Roxbury Russet
Excellent heirloom cider apple with a high sugar content. Good for fresh eating and keeps well in cool conditions.
RubyMac
It is a great eating apple with a tart-sweet flavor. Perfect for applesauce.
Sansa
Crunchy with a balanced, sweet-tart flavor with notes of grapefruit, cane sugar, and acidity. It is best for fresh eating or for making apple sauce.
Scarlet O’Hara
Offering a sweet/sharp flavor with a moderately crisp texture.
Shizuka
Offers an intense sweetness with a distinctive light, crisp flesh. Great apple for fresh eating, and is a great choice for salads as it is slow to brown.
Smokehouse
Smoky colored with a muted blend of yellows, greens and a reddish-brown blush. Subtle flavor that is great for pies.
SnowSweet
Sweet with a slight tart balance and rich overtones
St. Edmund’s Russet
Its flesh is juicy and crisp and it has a sweet, slightly tart flavor that is reminiscent of pear.
Offers a subacid, slightly sweet flavor. A great apple for early season eating out of hand and also perfect for sauce.
Suncrisp
Offers a delicious tart flavor, and long storage capabilities. Great for baking pies and desserts, apple juice, apple butter, and apple sauce.
Sweet Coppin
A pale yellow, often lumpy beauty, prized for its sweet, juicy flesh. Best enjoyed in cider or juice form, this English heirloom is a true taste of tradition.
Sweet Maia®
A new early season eating apple that is a Honeycrisp/Winecrisp cross. Great for eating, this apple is known for its candy-like sweetness.
Sweet Sixteen
Very sweet, with an unusual flavor of sugar cane, or spicy cherry candy. Stores well.
Wickson Crab
A cross of Spitzenburg Crab and Newtown, it is good for dessert, juice, and as a “sharp” acid source in fermented cider.
Wolf River
A large, heirloom apple known for its exceptional baking qualities. Sweet and tender with a pale yellow skin blushed with red. Perfect for pies and apple butter.
Yarlington Mill
A classic English cider apple known for its bittersweet flavor and rich aroma.
Zestar
Offers a sprightly sweet-tart taste with a hint of brown sugar. It is crunchy, juicy and best used for eating or cooking. It stores well in refrigeration, lasting a few weeks.
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