Which apples are good for juicing?
The taste and quality of the juice depends primarily on the quality and ripeness of the apples.
For the best juice, you should use fresh, ripe, and crispy apples. Any apple variety is suitable.
For a rich flavor, it is good to mix all available apples of different varieties.
The size of the fruit is not important, although small apples are likely to contain less juice than large juicy apples.
Ripe apples are juicy, have an intense flavor and aroma, so you should only press ripe fruits for juice. They are also easy to crush and press, which means you get the most juice.
How do you know if apples are ripe? The best way to tell is to taste the apple and look at the seeds, which should be brown.
Overripe apples are soft and crackle when you bite into them. They are not good for juice.
Apples that are soft, mealy, or shriveled contain too little juice and cannot be juiced, but are good for applesauce.
Even spotted apples or windfalls with minor damage are perfectly fine to juice, but wash away any dirt before crushing!
However, please note that windfalls from pastures where animals have grazed should not be used for juice as they may contain coliform bacteria.
Moldy and rotten apples should be sorted out!
When should you juice apples?
It is best to make juice from ripe fall and winter apples that are juicy and crispy, when they are fully ripe with lots of aroma and sweetness. So you get the best apple juice in September and October.
Summer apples that ripen early, from July to August, are too mealy and can be juiced before they are fully ripe, when the seeds are still green; however, the juice from summer apples will be sour and with a weaker apple flavor, compared to the juice from fall and winter apples. Swedish summer apples tend to become overripe quickly and are good for juice then.
It is well known that summer apples, such as Transparente Blanche, give very little juice because they are soft and mealy.
