Honeycrisp is a high quality eating apple with a predominantly sweet flavour. It lives up to its name - it has a light crisp flesh.
Unusually for a modern American apple, Honeycrisp has some balancing acidity to its flavour that will appeal to European tastes. If you like a crisp, light-textured apple with a sweet but tangy flavour, Honeycrisp is worth a try.
The apples are medium-to-large in size, with a light green/yellow background largely covered with red-orange flush occasionally with a hint of pink. They keep well in storage, and retain their crispness.
Honeycrisp is also highly disease-resistant, making it a good choice for organic growers.
Honeycrisp has a good track record for disease-resistance, although it has some susceptibility to mildrew. Honeycrisp leaves may show some yellowing over the summer, particularly if the crop is light, but this is mainly cosmetic.
Honeycrisp was also developed to withstand the cold winters of North America - Canadian researchers have found it can survive temperatures as low as -35C - so it is quite at home throughout northern Europe.
It is a good idea to let Honeycrisp trees reach their full size before allowing cropping to begin, so remove any fruitlets that might form in the early years.
Honeycrisp was introduced in the 1990s by the University of Minnesota. It is related to Keepsake and more distantly to Northern Spy, a traditional American cold-hardy apple variety. The apples are sometimes available in European supermarkets as Honeycrunch.