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Apple Project Results!!!

Good news, everyone! The results for the Great Apple Experiment / Project / Waste of Time are in, and you'll be shocked - shocked! - to see which apples came away with the highest scores and ratings. Hot Diggity!

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via i.imgur.com


First, I would like to say a huge 'thank you' to everyone who believed in the research and participated in the study. We couldn't have crowd-sourced such an important study without all of you. Revealing your personal opinions about such a private subject can be very challenging, and I just want to say, I think you're all very brave. You should be proud of yourself for that. I'm proud of you. Alright, enough gushy stuff, let's get to it!

Before we talk about any of the results, let's put some stuff into context. All of the data supplied to this project came from people like you, who care very much about apples and have opinions on one, some, or many varieties. There were no restrictions on how many apples you had to, or could, rate. Respondents were asked to rate any apple variety they had an opinion on, on a scale of 1 to 10 (1=OMG GROSS APPLE >:| 5=Apple 10=Best Ever!). If you'd like to see the raw data used in this analysis, just visit the Apple Deliciousness Index right here. Note that any given apple variety needed at least three ratings in order to make it onto the leaderboard, and into this analysis.

We ended up with 135 total ratings from 23 unique respondents, on 21 varieties of apples. I did some mathy stuff with those numbers to try to get to the bottom of the important question: Which apple variety is the very best? Now you don't have to wonder anymore!

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via i.imgur.com

Top Picks

Let's cut right to the chase: In terms of 'Best Apple Ever', Honey Crisp is the run away favorite. You might call it the people's champion of apples. It's like the The Rock of apples, if ya smell what I'm cookin'. It finished with the highest composite score, an average of 7.5 out of 10, with 11 total votes. Its score of 83 accounted for nearly 12% of the total point distribution.

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A Honey Crisp apple word cloudvia i.imgur.com


Coming in at second place was Jonagold, with a composite average score of an even 7.0, over exactly 7 votes. Its percentage of the total point distribution was the lowest amongst the top 8, which means it benefited from being rated highly by a relatively few people. For a frame of reference, only 7 people rated Jonagold, as opposed to Granny Smith, which received 19 votes.

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A word cloud about Granny Smith apples, via i.imgur.com


Controversially at third place was Granny Smith. Its third-place average score of 6.9 was dragged down by the most ratings (tied with Red Delicious at 19). Its 18.75% of point distribution was the most of any apple variety, meaning it got the most points, but its average per vote was dragged down by volume.

Good lord, people hate Red Delicious apples

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Oh boy... via i.imgur.com

Red delicious were among the most rated, and most hated apples in this study. They tied with Granny Smith for the most total ratings (19), but finished with a composite average score of only 2.7, ahead of only grapples, which you could plausibly debate aren't even real apples, as they do not occur organically in nature.

That said, sweet peaches, people were giving them some hell. Some of my favorite descriptions:

  • Red. Kind of dry. Tasted like poison.
  • Anything but delicious
  • WTF
  • Technically an apple but just barely.
  • like eating a ball of faintly apple flavored butt wax

Goodness.

Fun-teresting bits

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via i.imgur.com

  • Gala is the most mediocre apple, finishing with the third most ratings, but with an average score of just 5.9, good enough for 7th place out of 12.
  • Grapple, a bizarre flavor-infused abomination combining a normal apple with grape flavor, somehow made it onto the leaderboard with 3 ratings, but finished dead last in average score (1.7).
  • Crabapples are indeed edible. Who knew?
  • Interested in doing some apple-related baking? Our study indicates that Ida Red, Macintosh, Pink Lady, and Granny Smith are all suitable baking apples.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, apple lovers alike, is all I have to share with you. Thank you again everyone who contributed, and you, faithful reader, for indulging me in this pomaceous pursuit. I know I learned a thing or two, and I hope you did as well. Until next time!

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