Takeout editor in chief Marnie Shure was browsing through her local Whole Foods in Chicago this week when she felt herself drawn to an especially inviting-looking pile of apples. They were bright red and large and round, like Snow White apples. It was only when she picked one up that she realized she had come across a stash of Cosmic Crisps, the new and much-hyped super apple from Washington State.
The Cosmic Crisp gets its name from the yellow specks that are dotted across its skin, like stars. (They are called lenticles, and they help the apple breathe.) It was bred to be as flavorful as a Honeycrisp, as disease resistant as an Enterprise, and as storage-friendly as a Red Delicious.
Aesthetically, it’s an immensely pleasing apple. It feels light in the hand. Its texture is crisp but not hard. It’s easy to bite into. The flesh is juicy, but not overwhelmingly so, like Honeycrisps sometimes are. Its flavor is sweet, like candy, but not excessively sugary. It doesn’t turn brown after you start eating it and then put it down for a few minutes. It’s the Platonic ideal of the eating apple.
We haven’t had a chance to test it as a baking apple, and frankly, we don’t really want to. The Cosmic Crisp was made to be eaten out of hand—and it totally lives up to the hype.