What Are the Best Apples to Juice?

There are lots of different apples out there on the market. Some apples are better for baking, while others are better for juicing. The apples that you might eat as slices are not necessarily the best ones to juice.

 

 

What makes a good juicing apple?

 

A good apple for juicing is going to give you a lot of liquid. Not all apples are ideal. Some apples like Empire, Gala, and Golden Delicious are great eating apples, but I would not juice them. You will get a lot of wet pulp.

 

What I have found is that the best apples to use when making a juice are Granny Smith. I like them for a few reasons. First, they have a lot of juice. I have juiced similar sized apples and the amount of juice I get from a nice ripe Granny Smith apple is significantly more than what I get from other apples.

 

I also like how sour the flavor is. It is a really nice sour apple flavor. It works great because I don’t want my green drinks to be too sweet. Apples are a fruit, and they are sweet, but the sour flavor that you get from a Granny Smith apple is a perfect compliment to a leafy green drink like spinach or kale.

 

Granny Smith apples also last a long time. They have a solid texture and they will hold up longer than other apples. It might be odd to think about it, but the reason they last longer is because they are not as “soft”. This is the same reason that they work so well when making pie. People who make apple pie will often tell you that the best apples for making pie are Granny Smith apples.

 

The Granny Smith doesn’t make your drink too sweet. When you are making leafy green juices such as kale drinks you don’t want to make them sweet. It doesn’t mix well. The sourness of the Granny Smith compliments the flavor of celery, kale, and other greens.

 

 Tell Me More About the Granny Smith

 

Ok. Because you asked.

 

It is an interesting apple and has one of the unusual histories.

The apple originated in New South Whales Australia. A woman who had left England and moved to Australia brought an orchard with her husband.

Her name was Marie Ann Smith.

She took a variety of French Crab Apples from local Tasmania and put them off to the side of her orchard in a plot that included fern plants.

Crab Apples were used by people for cooking, but they were very very sour and so you would not eat them raw most of the time. Marie Ann Smith was dumping the cuttings and remnants of the various French Crab apples on the edge of her property.

Later she saw that a small tree was growing and the new apples were different than her French Crab apples. They were later known as Granny Smith apples.

They were really popular because they have a fantastic shelf life. Probably the best of all apples. This made them really important back in the 1940’s when people were shipping fruit overseas.

The apples became so popular that they eventually became the most dominant apple grown in Australia.

 

 Other Apple Varieties to use in your Juice

 

I personally almost always use Granny Smith when making any type of juice. I like the sour flavor. It is a bit sweet, but not too sweet.

 

Sometimes I will get other apples. When Granny Smith apples are not on sale, or when they look bruised or in bad shape, then I get other varieties. Here are the ones I found work best.

• Baldwin
• Gala
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• Jonagold