Another New Zealand variety of apple, the Koru Apple is a rich red and yellow flushed fruit. According to its website (yes, apples have websites), koru is a Maori word “for the new unfurling fern frond as it unfolds to create a new leaf”. I suppose that explains the little curl insides its apple logo. Yes! The Koru Apple has a logo which you can see in the below picture on the apple sticker:

The Koru Apple, like the Sweetango apple, has its own brand of sorts which includes a cute apple logo on its sticker and packaging (if any).

Cute branding aside, the Koru Apple is a pretty solid variety of apple. The first few apples I had were juicy but not that flavorful,but then I tried a few more and they had this nice, semi-water-y sweetness to it. It reminded me of the other New Zealand apples like the Envy apple, but it wasn’t as powerful. The sweetness was nice, but it came and went quickly. That I had to try more than a few apples to find some that actually were flavorful speaks to the range of flavor quality present for this breed of apple. Like the Gala, it can range from being sweet and acceptable to rather bland and it’s really hard to determine which side it will fall on.

Regardless of the flavor, all of the Koru Apples I tried were crispy, crunchy, and juicy. That was very consistent. I enjoyed the succulent crunch it had. Sometimes, that was the only thing to like in it as the flavor just wasn’t there.

Maybe I had a bad batch of Koru Apples so that’s why so many were duds, but part of what makes an apple good is its range of flavor being tight. Like I’ve never had a bland Granny Smith. It’s always tart and powerful. It’s so consistent. So I can be confident when buying say a Granny Smith that I’m going to get a certain flavor profile and experience. I don’t think that’s the case with the Koru. The flavor is weak sometimes but at least it has its crunch to redeem it.

UPDATE: The last Koru I had had a great flavor and punch. It seems that with every apple the quality improved. I’m still skeptical of the Koru Apple because of my initial like four-five dud apples, but the quality does get noticeably better.