Wild Twist Apples Are More Complicated Than I Expected
The love child of Honeycrisp and Pink Lady...or is it?
Alright, let's move on from the Honeycrisp legacy. The Wild Twist Apple is a cross between Cripps Pink and...ah crap. I'm beginning to realize the Honeycrisp has been around the block a few times.
At first I wasn't excited to try another Honeycrisp variant, but then I discovered the more familiar name for Cripps Pink Apples: Pink Lady. Now that's interesting. This is two behemoths coming together to create something new.
Meet the Real Parents
Lineage aside, I was happy to taste some tartness when I bit into the Wild Twist Apple. The Honeycrisp and SweeTango were great, but they didn't offer me much in the way of tang. This is exactly what I was hoping for from the love child of Honeycrisp and Pink Lady.
The Wild Twist starts with a nice juicy, sweetness and transitions pretty quickly to sour. But is it too much? The more I ate, the more I noticed the scratchy acidic feeling in my throat. The bigger problem, though, has to do with that familiar name.
Here's the twist. While some claim Cripps Pink and Pink Lady are the same apples, they're not. In order for a Cripps Pink Apple to earn the Pink Lady branding, it must meet certain quality specifications. So, Wild Twist is actually a cross between Honeycrisp and Junior Varsity Pink Lady.
Therein lies the trouble with the Wild Twist. Pink Lady Apples are dense with skin on the thicker side. Now imagine those qualities in a Cripps Pink Apple not good enough to be called a Pink Lady. That's the bucket Wild Twist is pulling from. It's a tart Honeycrisp Apple with worse skin and worse texture.
The Peanut Butter Test
As always, I'm testing how well apples pair with peanut butter as I'm rating them.
Hello, Wild Twist! Now we're talkin'. The last couple of apples were too sweet for peanut butter, but the Wild Twist is tart enough to cut through the richness. The dense flesh is also nice and sturdy for dipping. This is a good one.
The Final Bite
I was optimistic about the Wild Twist Apple. All the traits of a Honeycrisp with the tang of a Pink Lady? Sign me up. But then I was reminded of the not-so-good parts of a Pink Lady, and the whole Cripps Pink situation made it even clearer.
The whole is not always greater than the sum of its parts. The Wild Twist is ultimately a nicely sour and juicy apple with some textural issues. It's certainly not better than a Honeycrisp, and I'm not even sure it's better than a Pink Lady, but it's a solid apple in its own right. Especially if you like peanut butter.
