Everything You Need to Know About Cosmic Crisp Apples

The apple, called #AppleofBigDreams with Infinite Possibilities, has taken the produce world by storm unlike any other apple since Honeycrisp. Learn about this new Washington grown Honeycrisp cross and why it may be coming to knock Honeycrisp off its perch.

This blog post has been updated in 2024 to show how things have changed since I first wrote it back in 2019.

Hype can be a powerful tool.

It gets people excited and wanting to have badly whatever is being hyped.

Out of all the new apple varieties that have been released in the last 10 years, and there has been a lot of them, none have had the hype behind them as great as Cosmic Crisp. A real life astronaut has been involved with promoting them!

Does the Cosmic Crisp live up to the hype or will it soon be afterthought?

Jump to:

• 🍎 Why You'll Love This Apple
• 🚜 Where Did Cosmic Crisp Come From?
• 👅 What are Cosmic Crisp Apples Like?
• ⭐ Why Is It Called Cosmic Crisp?
• 💲 How Much Do They Cost?
• 🛒 Where to Buy Cosmic Crisp
• 📅 How Long Do They Last?
• 🥗 Are They Good for Salads?
• 🎧 Podcast Episode - The Children of the Honeycrisp
• 🕵️ Watch for These Apples in the Store

🚜 Where Did Cosmic Crisp Come From?

Cosmic Crisp began it's life as WA38 in 1997 at Washington State University. A Honeycrisp apple was crossed with an Enterprise apple. We all know what Honeycrisp is like, but you probably haven't heard of Enterprise. I have had it a few times. It's an apple when fresh off the tree is pretty acidic but mellows out in cold storage. It also stores for a long time in cold storage, a good characteristic you would want to see passed on to future generations of apples!

New apples don't arrive in stores that fast! It's not uncommon for it to take 20 years or more after an apple is created for it to show up in your grocery store. It takes a lot of time and energy and of course money. Even if the apple tastes good, is it going to produce a consistent crop for the grower? Are the apples going to be hard or easy to harvest? So much goes into this and the grower doesn't make any money on it while this slow process is taking place.

Once an apple is deemed viable for the market place, it takes time for the trees to be planted and production to start. Once you have enough apples, how is the public going to respond? Are the stores going to buy into the variety?

Since I originally had my first Cosmic Crisp in 2019, the growth of the apple has exploded. While it was hard to find those first couple of years, we have known gotten to a place where they are available year round. Enough trees have been planted and have reached maturity to produce enough apples.

In 2023, Cosmic Crisp has entered the top 10 in most sold apples. That's an incredible achievement in the amount of time they have been out. Hats off to everyone involved!

👅 What are Cosmic Crisp Apples Like?

I celebrated my birthday in 2019 with trying my first ever Cosmic Crisp apple. The experience is what I expected, but that's not a bad thing.

The apple is certainly crisp. In a way I like better than Honeycrisp. I find I get sick of chewing the Honeycrisp which I think are crisp to a fault, but that's my opinion.

The apple is both sweet and tart with the scale ever so slightly to the tart side. It's not overly sweet like an Ambrosia apple, but sweeter than a Pink Lady apple.

The actual flavor of the apple is good. I have to say that I have grown to like them more as time goes on. As the trees mature, the quality of the fruit they produce can go up as well. I can say I have for sure seen that as time has gone on as the flavor has gotten more consistent. In the first couple years, I had some Cosmic Crisp that were kind of bland but that doesn't happen anymore really.

As far as modern apples go, this one has great flavor. My own personal preference is the flavor in a lot of the older style, heirloom apples with really rich and sharp flavors, which you don't see in grocery stores.

If I am given a choice between Honeycrisp and Cosmic Crisp, my pick will always be Cosmic Crisp. Hear about another apple that I prefer over Honeycrisp that is related to it as well.

👨‍👧‍👧 A family favorite - My two oldest daughters are my apple lovers, and tend to like completely different apples, with one preferring sweet apples and one preferring tart apples. I can buy Cosmic Crisp and they both will eat and enjoy the apple. That's a winner in my book for sure! As I was updating this post my daugther told me how much she loves "slicing up Cosmic Crisp along with some sharp cheddar cheese and reading a book in the afternoons!"

⭐ Why Is It Called Cosmic Crisp?

The little dots on the skin of the apple resemble stars in the sky. You see that on it's parent Enterprise as well. The crisp part is, well, because it's a crisp apple related to the Honeycrisp. People are really attracted to crisp apples. It was probably the number 1 question I got about any apple when I worked at Whole Foods Market.

Does the Color Matter? Do the darker colored apples have a better flavor? Does it matter at all? I wrote about a taste test I did for my What Apple to Eat Today Substack newsletter last winter.

💲 How Much Do They Cost?

Here is a picture of the first display of Cosmic Crisp I ever saw. It was at Holiday Market in Canton, Michigan in December 2019.

Let's just say I only got a few to try that day because as a food blogger, I needed to!!!

Since then, prices have come down quite a bit. $1.99 a pound is what I am personally seeing the most, but I have seen even cheaper. Here is a sale from this past winter in a Smith's (Kroger) store as their Weekly Digital Deal.

Winco Foods had them for the everyday price of 99 cents a pound while their Honeycrisp were more. ALDI has been a great place to get them as well. At this point I really don't think price is a reason to pass Cosmic Crisp by.

🛒 Where to Buy Cosmic Crisp

With the availability of Cosmic Crisp nowadays there really isn't a point in having a list anymore. They are in pretty much in every major and minor grocery store chain. I haven't been to one lately where I didn't seen them.

🏅 My favorite places to buy Cosmic Crisp are Winco, Costco, ALDI, and any Kroger brand store.

I had this list up when I first wrote this blog post so I thought I would still keep it up just in case people still want to know where to get them.

Store	Locations
AJ's Fine Foods	Arizona
Albertsons's	ID
ALDI	All locations
Big Y	MA, CT
Community Food Co-Op	WA
Costco	All locations
Delicous Orchards	NJ
Deromo's	FL
Fresh Market	Various
Fred Meyer	OR, WA, ID
Galati Market Fresh	Canada
Gelson's	CA
Good Fds Co-op	KY
Grocery Outlet	WA
Haggen	WA
Harmon's	UT
H-E-B	TX
Holiday Market	MI
Hollywood Markets	MI
Hy-Vee	IL, IA, KS, MN, MO, NE, SD, WI
Jewel Osco	IL
Kroger	All locations
King Soopers	CO
Kings Supermarkets	NY, NJ, CT
Kowalski's	MN
Market District	OH
Metropolitan Market	WA
New Seasons Market	OR
Nugget Markets	CA
Payless Food Store	WA
Plum Market	MI
Publix	FL, TN
QFC	OR, WA
Ream's	UT
Rosauers	WA
Safeway	All locations
Sam's Club	All locations
Schnuck Markets	MO
Shoprite	Select lcations
Sprouts	All locations
Trader Joe's	All locations
The Market at Edgewood	CA
Whole Foods	All locations
Yoke's Fresh Market	WA
Zupan's Markets	OR

📅 How Long Do They Last?

This is the beauty of the Cosmic Crisp apple. It lasts and lasts and lasts. That is why it has become a year round variety because it does so well in cold storage.

Storing them in the fridge is the best option. But if you are short on space and eat through them in a reasonable amount of time, you can get by with storing them outside the fridge.

In our camper we have a drawer underneath our cabinet that we store fruit in. I have put Cosmic Crisp in that drawer many times and have never had an issue with any of them going bad or even getting soft.

I do have to say that I prefer the flavor of an apple at room temperature, so it's not a bad idea to pull them out and let them come up to temperature before eating, but certainly not necessary. Some people like a cold apple with that crisp, cold juice entering their mouths at each bite.

Honeycrisp apples are available year round as well. But I have had a lot of people complain about the quality of them as we get into the winter and into early spring. Flavor wise they just don't hold that flavor well in cold storage.

Honeycrisp also tend to get black spots on them, which is called bitter pit. Some apples that go into storage to be sold later end up bad before they make it to the store. I think this is one of the reasons why all these new apples are coming out because Honeycrisp is really a pain in the butt in so many ways!

Learn more on why I think Cosmic Crisp has a good chance to surpass Honeycrisp as the most popular apple variety.

🥗 Are They Good for Salads?

Cosmic Crisp is an absolutely great apple to use in a salad. It resists browning so it won't look off when you slice it up to put on top of a salad. While browning doesn't mean the apple is bad and you can't eat it, it's unattractive and throws people off.

🎧 Podcast Episode - The Children of the Honeycrisp

Listen to me talk about the different types of apples that have been made by crossing another apple with a Honeycrisp by clicking the play button below.

Listen to more episodes of the Eat Shop Waste Not podcast

🕵️ Watch for These Apples in the Store

Here are some of my favorite apples to watch for in your local grocery store:

• Lady Alice
• Lucy Glo
• Lucy Rose
• Sugar Bee
• SnapDragon
• EverCrisp

Have you tried this apple? What did you think? Leave a comment below telling us. Be a helper and share where you found it. You may make someone's day with your insider info on where to get them! If you are a true apple lover, you'll want to check out all of our apple reviews.