Can't find your beloved McIntosh apples? What apples taste most like McIntosh? Here are some other apple choices that you might want to consider.
📋 What's New In This Post (9/18/25) - Added some new apples to the list, including different strains.
✍🏻 Featured Comment - Ken says when describing McIntosh "It's that intense, complex apple flavour that makes Mac a hallmark apple. As a child and boy scout, every fall we would raise funds selling apples door to door. When the shipment came in the entire basement of our church was filled with the most intense, intoxicating apple fragrance. These were the top quality macs and boy were they good - after 60 yrs., I can still smell that wonderful perfume."
Here's Help When You Can't Find Your Favorite Apple
Whenever you have to move from one area to a completely different area, there are always pros and cons. Some you don't realize until later down the road well after the move.
Take for example, your favorite apple. If you have lived in the Northeast or Midwest, you certainly have seen and probably had a McIntosh apple. The majority of pick your own orchards offer them. You can even get them still at most grocery stores in the region.
But now you have moved down south. See, your winters are warmer now, but your fall is missing one of your favorite apples.
Sure you might find them at some store, maybe a couple months after the harvest when they aren't as crisp. What other apples could you turn to instead? Are these apples going to be easier to find or just as hard?
There have been a lot of new apple varieties hitting the market over the last 10 years. None of them really are like a McIntosh. Most of these varieties are known for being sweet and crisp without the more tart flavor a McIntosh fan is likely carving.
I want to share with you today some other varieties that I think if you find you may like, maybe not as much as McIntosh but maybe I will help you discover a new favorite.
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💔 Why I Can't Find McIntosh
McIntosh is an apple that isn't carried anymore by the big name grocery store chains. It has fallen out of favor and instead you have more modern varieties that crisp and last longer. With the rise of Honeycrisp in the 1990s, people's tastes shifted towards a crisp apple being one of the most important traits. McIntosh can be firm right off the tree, but not anything like Honeycrisp and they go soft way faster.
Besides a few select stores here and there, McIntosh is an apple you are going to need to head to an orchard or farmers market to find.
🍎 Most Similar Apples
McIntosh apples have a certain apple flavor to them, they I just call the "McIntosh" flavor. It's a tart flavor. The interior of the apple is a bright white color.
I am not saying these apple are exactly the same. They possess enough similarities that I think McIntosh fans might like any of these.
- Jersey Mac (not a true McIntosh)
- Empire
- Cortland
- Snow
- Liberty
- Spartan
- Gravenstein
- Macoun
- Melrose
- Paula Red
- Hampshire
- Snow Sweet
- Dandee Red
What most of these apples have in common is they have tartness and are more bright white inside.
🏆 Macoun and Melrose are both varieties that I think are better than McIntosh. They are crisp with a better flavor. Snow Sweet is a sweeter apple but has enough tartness too. The look of the apple reminds me of McIntosh.
🛒 Common Grocery Store Apples
A lot of the apples on the list above are not ones that are commonly available in all grocery stores. It's hard to match that exact flavor among the apples in most supermarkets.
The closet one that I think a McIntosh lover might like are Rave. Although it's really hard to find any modern apple with a flavor quite like McIntosh.
If you have a recipe that calls for McIntosh and can't find them, consider Granny Smith or Pink Lady as a replacement. You would need something with tartness and these apples would provide that, but with a different flavor. Could even use Honeycrisp. If it is a baking recipe the texture is going to be quite different as McIntosh bake up really soft.
Do you have an applesauce recipe that calls for McIntosh? Read our post all about the best apples for applesauce to find a suitable replacement.
📅 Other Varieties of McIntosh
McIntosh apples have been around for a long time, so it's not surprising there are other strains of the apple you can find. One strain I have come across is called RubyMac. It's a McIntosh that is pretty much completely red in color and has a sweeter flavor but still tastes like a McIntosh. Here is a picture I took of them side by side at a farmers market:
Another one I have heard of but haven't tried is called SnappyMac. It's a newer one that was developed in 2007 and is more red in color like RubyMac.
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Ann-Marie Hosey
I love Macintosh
Ken D.
It's that intense, complex apple flavour that makes Mac a hallmark apple.
As a child and boy scout, every fall we would raise funds selling apples door to door. When the shipment came in the entire basement of our church was filled with the most intense, intoxicating apple fragrance. These were the top quality macs and boy were they good - after 60 yrs., I can still smell that wonderful perfume...
Eric Samuelson
I love hearing this. Apples have one of the most wonderful smells on Earth.