I think it's quite interesting that it's taken so long for a lackluster tasting food to decline in popularity.
When I moved to the US from Western Europe, the relative difference in food quality was quite apparent and I distinctly remember noticing this first with the apples:
At first I thought I might have chosen a bad batch, but after a couple of more buys I realised that these apples looked 'perfect' but always tasted foamy. I assumed what the article confirms: the apples were chosen for their looks and not their taste.
What I think is weird about that mentality is that surely after the initial buy "oh these look declicious!", the consumer will try them and think "oh these don't taste good. I won't buy them again". Maybe it's just habit and it's taken a while for people to change that habit, especially if you never try anything different to compare it with.
I know a lot of Americans that do not like apples because all they've ever had were the foamy ones.
I read an article about the creator of the Honey Crisp and Cosmic Crisp. He chose a different licensing model that gives him more control for the Cosmic Crisp because according to him farmers tended to prefer the better looking, red apples which over time negatively impact what trees they'd use and how apples tasted even within the same variety. I'm not sure I understand the argument on a biological level fully, since I thought all apple trees of the same variety are clones, but I trust the leading expert got it right.
If this is true we have some kind of tragedy of the commons within the growers of a specific variety. If the variety is still popular and known for good taste and your apples look the best, you win. Consumers won't pay enough attention to recognize that a given variety from a particular grower now tastes less good.
A few hours ago, in a German supermarket I saw Honey Crisp from Chile. Have been tempted, but resisted. Honey Crisps from France are more acceptable IMO. Strangely I haven't seen the 'Cosmics' so far, though I always look for them everywhere.
The cosmic is a nice apple. However, I find the Envy apple to be a better combination of crispiness and flavor. I find the Cosmic Crisp to be crispy, but fairly one dimensional in flavor compared to Envy. Another great apple to try is Opal. Less crispy, but interesting flavor profile that almost has a hint of banana.
Its not just the perfect look that Red Delicious was bred for but shelf life. Those things take forever to rot compared to other apples and hide bruising, but they end up with dry mealy texture and very thick waxy skin. They were optimized for apple sellers not apple eaters.
I think they're bred mostly to sit in a bowl in someone's kitchen. The fact that they taste terrible is a bonus because you don't want kids eating your table centerpiece.
What's ironic about that is that when I bought my first such apple, I thought it must have been old as it was so mealy.
What you're saying makes a lot of sense though. I equally remember having a loaf of square bread that comes in plastic (called 'toast bread' in a lot of Europe) lying around for over a month and I could not spot any mould and it was also still soft. It did not taste like 'real' bread even when fresh of course...
US agriculture is seasonal and overproduces, a lot of the excess is stored for months in cold houses and sold over the course of the year. Your apple you just bought could very well be nearly a year old. This is why I've been moving to farmers markets. That's where the flavor is.
Those are probably treated for remain 'indefinitely fresh'. Is a little dirt secret from apple markets. Is not genetics, is vegetable hormones sprayed on the skin. Just avoid them.
> They were optimized for apple sellers not apple eaters.
The American food industry is optimised for sellers, not eaters [1].
It is that way because the scalar nature of capital in America favours national businesses, not local businesses (or nutritional well being).
Consumers fit in with this model out of necessity because they are workers who cannot allocate enough time to food shopping, preparation, and cooking. Instead, they minimise the time spent on food procurement by going to the supermarket, which is the ultimate expression of scalar capitalism.
[1] Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us
ISBN1400069807 (ISBN13: 9781400069804), Michael Moss, Random House, 2013
oh absolutely and it is all most economically optimal and rational thing to do for everyone involved. It is just soulless and dismal. each step of the way is rational in isolation, its when it all together that it becomes an awful abomination .
>I know a lot of Americans that do not like apples because all they've ever had were the foamy ones.
We have started getting apples in the UK (Tesco) that are often "foamy", almost powdery in their consistency. I assumed that it was some growing method that produces it as the same variety sold under the same label will sometimes have it and sometime not. I wondered if they're really old apples that the appearance of has been preserved; like we get softer potatoes that are actually last seasons and often have green patches where roots have been cut off. We changed to buying from Lidl and their fruit doesn't seem to have the same issue, so far, YMMV. The kids will squeeze the apples to make sure they're the nice ones, and one claims he can smell the good ones; visually they're identical (to me).
When I moved to the US from Western Europe, the relative difference in food quality was quite apparent and I distinctly remember noticing this first with the apples:
At first I thought I might have chosen a bad batch, but after a couple of more buys I realised that these apples looked 'perfect' but always tasted foamy. I assumed what the article confirms: the apples were chosen for their looks and not their taste.
What I think is weird about that mentality is that surely after the initial buy "oh these look declicious!", the consumer will try them and think "oh these don't taste good. I won't buy them again". Maybe it's just habit and it's taken a while for people to change that habit, especially if you never try anything different to compare it with.
I know a lot of Americans that do not like apples because all they've ever had were the foamy ones.