In the strange life of a freelance writer, one bright spot is the rando things people will mail you. Once you worm your way onto the lists of publicists and marketers, they just send you things they’d like you to write about, in the hope that the power of their product (and their hype-laden marketing materials) will convince you to give them a try. In my career, I get a lot of books, a lot of invitations to restaurants and bars. One thing I’ve never gotten in the mail before is apples, but all that changed recently. That’s right: I got six apples in the mail. Not just in the mail, but in fancy packaging. These apples were shipped to me like someone was shipping me Fabergé Eggs.

Red and Delicious

The apples are called Rave, and they are in fact a brand new variety of apple produced without any sort of genetic monkey business—in other words, developed over the course of decades via old-school grafting. Specifically, the Rave is a combination of the Honeycrisp and MonArk apple. It ripens a bit earlier than the Honeycrisp, it’s juicy and delicate and ideal for eating raw but not well-suited for baking. They’re kind of delicious. I like a good apple. I’m a fan of the Gala and the Granny Smith, and I think the Red Delicious should be banned as an atrocity. So make of that what you will, I was pleasantly surprised by the Rave. While I have no doubt the six sent to me were carefully selected to be healthy and crisp and perfectly ripe, they look amazing. These are apples you just want to eat when you see them. And they are, indeed, juicy and crisp and just the right amount of sweet. I’m no apple expert, but these might just be my new favorites. The good news is, they’re available now at Kings Food Markets in town, so you can pick up a bushel and check them out for yourself. A warning, though; because this is the first year these babies are available they might not be around for long. They should have a bigger crop next year, but for the moment you might want to go sooner rather than later or you might end up having to wait twelve months to find out if Raves are worth the trouble. Personally, I’m down to my last one, so I’ll be heading to Kings soon as well. If you do try the new Raves, let us know what you think of them—do they make you forget other apple varieties exist, or are you going back to your old faves?

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