When people hold a Honeycrisp apple in their hands, they know it tastes good. But they may not know that the Honeycrisp revolutionized the way apples are perceived and changed consumer demand around the world. And it all started at the Horticultural Research Center (HRC) at the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum.
“The 1991 introduction of the Honeycrisp changed the trajectory of the apple world,” said David Bedford, a University of Minnesota apple breeder based at the Arboretum’s HRC. “It raised the bar for apple texture. For consumers, once you’ve had a Honeycrisp, it’s hard to go back.”
Today, Honeycrisp apples are one of the top apple income generators in the U.S., with the third most bushels produced, according to the USApple “2025 Industry Outlook.” Bedford notes that many of the recent varieties coming to market are Honeycrisp children, such as SweeTangoⓇ and First KissⓇ, as breeders create new apples that best suit consumer preferences.
Honeycrisp apples ripen on a tree at the Horticultural Research Center. Photo courtesy of the University of Minnesota
Honeycrisp nearly discarded
As well-known as the Honeycrisp is today, in the late 1970s, it was in danger of heading to the compost heap. Apples have to survive years of evaluations by UMN researchers at the HRC for disease resistance, cold hardiness, flavor and more before they are selected as commercially worthy. Only one in 10,000 seedling trees is judged to be good enough to become a commercial variety, and Honeycrisp had a problem; it exhibited winter injury one year.
But Bedford didn’t think the Honeycrisp tree had received a fair shot — that winter was legendarily bad, and the tree was planted in a poor site. In 1982, he rescued the tree known as research number MN 1711 from its “discarded” status and decided to give it another chance.
“I made the decision to save the tree on a whim, since there was no fruit to evaluate yet,” Bedford said. “When it started producing apples, I still remember the first time I tasted one. I was intrigued by the experience: ‘What is this texture?’ It was unusual. When you encounter something so far out of the range of normal, it can be mystifying.”
In 1991, the University released the apple, now called Honeycrisp, and the rest is history. The apple became Minnesota’s official state fruit in 2006.
Demanding ‘explosive crispness’
Ironically, for someone who would become a renowned apple researcher, Bedford recalls loving fruit as a kid, but not apples. The main apples that were available in most grocery stores at the time were flavorless Red Delicious, which had mealy flesh and tough skin because they were selected for looks, shipping and shelf life.
“That's what happens when you let appearance and durability take precedence,” Bedford said. The Honeycrisp inverted those priorities by emphasizing taste, texture and a tart/sweet balance rather than glowing deep red skin.
Growers were on board, but grocers lagged behind — they had a red apple (Red Delicious), a yellow (Golden Delicious) and a green apple (if you were lucky enough to find a Granny Smith), and couldn’t see the need for anything else, Bedford recalls. The Honeycrisp also needed to be sold at a higher price because it was more difficult to grow.
“However, once consumers tasted it, there was no going back,” he said. Bedford and Professor Emeritus Jim Luby — who headed the UMN fruit crops breeding program — worked closely together for years to develop and release the Honeycrisp and many other apples, such as SweeTangoⓇ and First KissⓇ, focusing on this new “explosive crispness.”
Other varieties followed, and the Honeycrisp — along with a new focus on flavor and texture — is everywhere now.
David Bedford, a University of Minnesota apple breeder based at the HRC, rescued the Honeycrisp apple from being discarded in 1981. Photo courtesy of the University of Minnesota
The quest for the next Honeycrisp
Finding the next Honeycrisp is the dream of researchers at the HRC, who started breeding apples in 1908 to produce varieties that could survive the region’s cold winters. With Luby’s retirement last year, UMN Associate Professor and Arboretum Director of Research Matt Clark now heads the apple breeding program.
It used to take up to 30 years to breed and identify a winning apple.
Breeders have cut that time by a decade by, among other things, using dwarf rootstock that requires less space and fruits more quickly. Every year, researchers discard approximately 4,000 trees that aren’t quite good enough and plant new seedlings in their place.
“If we only generated 100 new seedling trees a year, it would take forever to produce the next winner,” Bedford said. However, using new technology, the HRC can generate 4,000 to 5,000 new seedling trees each year and perform DNA screening to remove the most likely failures.
“We stack the deck by choosing the best parents, but even so, we can’t control which genes will be passed on,” Bedford said. “The Honeycrisp would be equivalent to Albert Einstein, the one-in-a-million genius, where the right genes came together in the right way.”
Tasting the fruit of thousands of trees
As part of the ongoing quest to find the next great apple, researchers can measure skin toughness, sugar and other factors. But there’s no way to really know how an apple tastes and crunches without biting into it.
At the peak of the season, the apple team at the Arboretum can taste up to 500 apples in a single day. They bite an apple, chew it, taste and swallow the juice, then spit the pulp out.
“It can be hard on your sense of taste, your teeth and your stomach,” Bedford said.
Overall, they taste the fruits of thousands of trees each season. Trees live or die based on these evaluations.
“We raise the seedling trees for five to 10 years until they produce their first fruit, and then they only have two to three minutes to impress us because that’s all the time we can spare,” Bedford said. “There are so many trees to be evaluated that we can’t take the time to linger over each fruit like a fine wine. It’s like skiing in front of an avalanche. If you slow down, you’ll get overrun; you can’t afford to stop.”
Since 1908, University researchers have conservatively planted about 250,000 seedling trees at the Arboretum, releasing 29 new varieties from among those ranks. And of course, there is only one Honeycrisp.
“It’s not a quick sprint, it’s a marathon with a lot of competitors that fall by the wayside,” Bedford said. “It’s not enough for a candidate to just survive the rigorous screening process. It must distinguish itself. In the end, it’s worth it.”
Want to try the next generation of Honeycrisp?
For those wondering what the newest Honeycrisp offspring taste like, visit the Arboretum's AppleHouse. The AppleHouse sold Kudos® earlier this season, and Triumph® is still available now, said HRC Farm Manager Jim Elskamp. For a daily recorded list of available apples, call the AppleHouse apple hotline at 612-301-3487.
The AppleHouse is located 1.5 miles west of the main Arboretum entrance. There is no admission fee. Sales help fund the apple breeding program, research and the Arboretum itself.
Cover photo by Johanna DeBuhr