Red Apple: The 5 Best Varieties

Royal Gala®, the most well-known red apple of all

The Royal Gala® is the second most consumed red apple variety in France, after the Golden Delicious. It’s hard to miss, given its characteristic red skin. This medium-sized apple indeed has a bright red skin that can turn orange, striated with vertical stripes.

As for its flesh, it is rather yellow, fine and very fragrant, sweeter than tart, very firm, juicy, and crunchy. This red apple variety is delicious to eat raw, but it can also be used to make pies, compotes, or sautéed dishes, not to mention its pairings with savoury recipes.

The Royal Gala®, a well-known red apple name

Planting, Cultivation, and Harvesting

• The Royal Gala variety is vigorous and very productive. Its fruiting is quick. It forms a semi-upright tree that can reach 4 m in height and nearly the same in spread.
• White flowering occurs in April, and harvesting takes place from early September to October.
• Royal Gala is not a self-fertile variety, so it is essential to pair it with pollinising apple varieties such as Reine des Reinettes, Elstar, or Granny Smith.

Starking Delicious, the quintessential red and crunchy apple

Among the varieties of red apples, the Starking Delicious proudly asserts its presence. This apple variety produces medium-sized, slightly elongated and ribbed fruits, featuring a shiny dark red skin, carmine to garnet, punctuated with white lenticels.

This red apple variety was developed in the United States (where it is still widely consumed) through a mutation of the Delicious variety in the 1920s.

Its white flesh is very crisp and firm, and exceptionally juicy, recognised for its very characteristic sweet flavour. This red apple is sweeter than it is tart. It is primarily a dessert apple.

The red apples of the Starking Delicious apple tree

Planting, Cultivation, and Harvesting

• The Starking Delicious variety is a vigorous, productive red apple variety with a quick fruiting habit. It can be susceptible to apple scab and attacks from woolly apple aphids. It also tends to exhibit alternate bearing.
• Flowering occurs in late April, and harvesting takes place from late September to October. The Starking Delicious can be stored for 3 months, but becomes mealy towards the end of storage.
• Starking Delicious is not self-fertile, so it is necessary to plant it near Reine des Reinettes and Golden Delicious for good fruiting.

The Reinette Etoilée, an old variety of red apple that is highly fragrant.

The Reinette Étoilée is an old variety of red apple that is widely cultivated in the North of France and in Wallonia. It is also known there as Sterrenette or Sterappel. This variety has a late pinkish-white flowering, is vigorous, and becomes productive after a few years.

It produces round fruits with smooth, shiny skin, carmine red and speckled with white to grey dots, resembling small stars.

The flesh of this apple is white to pinkish, firm, and crunchy, but it becomes mealy over time. It is juicy and very sweet. This is an excellent red apple for eating fresh, but it can also be cooked and used in pies, compotes, and stir-fries, or even in savoury dishes.

Planting, Cultivation, and Harvesting

• Reinette Étoilée is a variety of apple with a slow fruiting rate, somewhat sensitive to scab but resistant to canker
• This variety of red apples has a very upright habit with sparse branches, giving it a lanky appearance. It can reach 5 m in height and 4 m in width
• Flowering occurs from late April to early May, and harvesting takes place from September to November. These red apples can be stored until January
• It is a self-sterile variety, so it should be planted with late-flowering apple varieties such as Elstar or Cox’s Orange Pippin

Melrose, a variety of rosy red apple with a white-yellow flesh.

The Melrose variety produces rounded, slightly flattened fruits with a shiny pink-red skin against a yellow background. It boasts excellent taste quality, as its fine, crunchy cream-coloured flesh is very juicy and sweet, without being overly tart.

It first appeared in the United States in 1937, resulting from a cross-breeding between two varieties of red apples: Red Delicious, a very red apple, and Jonathan, an old variety that could be included in our selection as it produces abundantly striated red apples on the sunny side.

This red apple variety is primarily a dessert apple. However, it remains delicious when cooked.

The pink-red apples of Melrose

Planting, Cultivation, and Harvesting

• Melrose is a vigorous, productive red apple variety with a quick fruiting habit. It is resistant to scab.
• This variety has a tall, upright habit, with the tree reaching up to 6 m in height and 3 m in width.
• Melrose blooms in white late in April, with harvest occurring in October, but the fruits can be easily stored until April.
• Not self-fertile, this variety requires the presence of a pollinator such as Golden Delicious, which blooms a few days later.

Pekacervenca, the blood-red apple

Pekacervenca is a variety of red apple known as “blood apple” that produces very large fruits with a dark red skin and a deep red, crisp flesh, moderately juicy and not very sweet. It is very tart at harvest, but the acidity diminishes over time.

This is a very good red apple for eating for those who prefer tartness over sweetness. It is also excellent when cooked, especially as it adds a unique colour to compotes, sautés, and pies.

The remarkable Pekacervenca, a variety of blood red apple  

Planting, Cultivation, and Harvesting

• Pekacervenca is a relatively new, vigorous, productive, and scab-resistant variety of blood red apple. It bears fruit quickly.
• This apple tree has a rather spreading habit, ideal for low-stem or trained cultivation. It rarely exceeds 4 m in height and 3.5 m in width.
• Its pink flowering occurs at the end of April, is very decorative, and melliferous. The fruit harvest takes place in October-November.
• Self-sterile, this variety of red apples requires the presence of a pollinator such as Cox’s Orange Pippin, Elstar, or Golden Delicious.

Good to know: Maggy® is another variety of blood red apple. This variety offers fruits with flesh that is red veined with white, both sweet and tart, fine and crisp.