This kind of apple is not from Cupertino, though it might as well be…

I’m a big fan of Fuji apples — together with Royal Galas they are, in my opinion, the sweetest apples for eating that you can get. But there’s another apple that’s in season right now, called the Honeycrisp. I did a bit of Googling and found that their taste compared favourably with my preferred eating apples of choice, so I ordered some from my online grocer.

That was before I found this:

Horticulturalists developed the honeycrisp at University of Minnesota. It is illegal to propagate or sell the honeycrisp trees without the permission of the Minnesota Department of Horticultural Science.

So for the next week this Mac refugee will be eating proprietary apples. Sigh.

Because of the licensing the Honeycrisps I bought are more expensive than Fuji apples, though with Fujis I often find myself getting the organic ones which are imported from New Zealand and therefore more expensive anyway. And aside from the fact that Honeycrisps are ridiculously huge and extremely messy juicy, they actually don’t taste too bad.

Except for the bitter aftertaste of proprietary licensing, of course…

UPDATE: At least a couple of users on reddit.com have informed me that the patent on Honeycrisps has, in fact, expired. If you’re so inclined you can follow this link; there are lots of interesting comments being posted — just like the ones here. 😎