The Cosmic Crisp apples at Costco were a great purchase I made the last time I was in the warehouse. I had not tried a Cosmic Crisp apple before and was curious how they compared to something standard (and boring) like a Red Delicious.
I tend to spend most of my time writing reviews on Costco’s prepared meals, frozen foods and assorted meats. I figure it is time to swap things up a bit and take a look at some of the apples!
Taste Test
Cosmic Crisp apples strike a great balance between sweet and tart that makes them delicious. It is not that the sweet and tart flavors are muted, rather, both flavors are amplified but have learned to work together in a way that makes them special.
The texture of the apples is crisp, firm and crunchy. It truly is a joy to take a big crunchy bite out of the apples. The apples were juicy but not so much that I had apple juice running down my chin.
From a flavor, texture and juiciness standpoint the Cosmic Crisps blow the old standard Red Delicious apple out of the water.
What is Special About Cosmic Crisp Apples?
The box the apples came in indicates that this variety is perfect for snaking, baking and entertaining.
I was confused as heck about that “entertaining” part and did a little research to figure out what was going on. That little bit of researching led me down a giant rabbit hole about the history of this apple variety and all of the things that set it apart from its peers.
The “entertaining” part of this apple comes from the Cosmic Crisp website that has a variety of apple based cocktails.
The rabbit hole part of things came once I started asking why this apple variety has its own website!
It turns out that the Cosmic Crisp is a variety of apple that was specifically created/bred in Washington State to be the “perfect apple”. The Cosmic Crisp is a cross between a Honeycrisp and Enterprise variety and was designed to be as tasty as a Honeycrisp with the better storage longevity of an Enterprise.
I have read reports that Cosmic Crisp apples will last for several months when stored in the refrigerator.
Another great aspect about the apple is a secondary result of the flavor profile. These apples are simultaneously sweet and tart. The tartness comes from acidic compounds that also reducing browning of the apple once sliced, similar to the effects of squirting apple slices with acidic lemon juice.
This same “sweeet and tart” flavor profile would make these apples great for baking your own pies if you don’t want to buy a massive Costco apple pie for dessert 🙂
Nutrition
The Cosmic Crisp website says that a single apple has the following nutritional information:
- Calories: 100
- Fat: 0.5g
- Cholesterol: 0mg
- Sodium: 0mg
- Carbohydrates: 24g
- Protein <1g
These values are for a single 140g apple.
The apples sold at Costco are much larger than 140g and are closer to 300g so figure on about 215 calories per apple.
Price
I was able to buy four pounds of Cosmic Crisp apples for $9.79 which works out to a cost of $2.45 per pound.
You get six apples per four pound case which comes out to a cost of $1.63 per apple.
These apples are not cheap but the prices are not crazy either. This is another case of paying a fair price for a high quality item at Costco.
