They've got a great apple taste. More tart than sweet but not over-puckering. The knocks on this apple I would say are the skin and the texture. It doesn't bug me a whole lot but the skin is a rough almost russett thick type. My girls knock it heavily for this - almost inedible because of it for them. Then the texture is hard, tough and dense, dense, dense and heavy but not exactly juicy. It does cleave off as you bite into it but its chewy chewy. This is a review of them right off the tree - I'll bet in a month or two they soften up. Peeled and sliced they are a crunchy zingy good apple treat...maybe a pie apple? So, I like them, not my goto grab but cool and different. Oh - and the apples growing on the tree - all mahogany purplee black-red...a picturesque sight. So, some plusses, some knocks - I like 'em.