The History of Red Delicious Apples

During the 19th and early 20th centuries, Ben Davis apples were extremely popular among growers because of their pleasing appearance, but they didn’t taste very good. Then in the late 1880s, an Iowa farmer named Jesse Haitt came across an unknown apple seedling in his orchard. He originally tried to stop it from taking root, but eventually gave up and named the resulting new apple Hawkeye after his home state. In 1893, Haitt submitted his Hawkeye apple to a contest being held by the Missouri-based Stark Brothers Nurseries & Orchards. Their hope was to find an apple that was as beautiful as the Ben Davis variety but with a much better flavor. After trying Hiatt’s Hawkeye apple, the president of Stark Brothers reportedly yelled, “My! This apple is delicious!” and then decided that would be its new name. The Stark Brothers then purchased the rights to the apple from Haitt and named the variety Stark Delicious. In 1914, the name was changed to Red Delicious. The apple exploded in popularity around that time, and by the 1940s, it was the best-selling apple in the United States. However, selective breeding that favored a thick, uniformly red skin over the yellow-streaked skin of the original specimens led to a sharp decline in both texture and flavor. Consequently, Red Delicious apples have lost popularity over the last few decades, and while they are still around, they are often considered mealy and lacking in flavor. Today, varieties like Gala, Fuji, and Honeycrisp have replaced Red Delicious as some of the most popular apples in the United States.