Cordera Apples

Cordera is a modern New York apple from Cornell AgriTech at Geneva, introduced in 2020. It comes from a cross with Honeycrisp, and it eats like it — crisp, loud, juicy, with a clean sweet-tart finish.

Bright and balanced. Sweetness and tartness arrive together rather than one after the other, and there is a lot of juice behind them.

It is not a sugary apple and it is not a sharp one. It lands in the middle on purpose.

Both, in roughly equal measure. If you find Fuji too sweet and Granny Smith too sharp, this is the apple that sits between them.

Firm and properly crisp, with a coarse, open grain that snaps rather than yields. That is the Honeycrisp side showing.

It also holds its shape in the oven, which a lot of very crisp apples do not.

Red, often with light striping or a softer blush rather than a flat, uniform coat. Colour varies from apple to apple with how much sun each one caught.

Because cordera is Spanish for a young female sheep — a ewe lamb. Cornell named the apple for Robert Lamb, a pomologist whose work runs through decades of the programme's releases.

It is a pun and a thank-you at the same time, which is a better naming story than most apples get.

cor-DAIR-uh. Nobody will mind if you say cor-DER-uh.

Yes by apple standards — introduced in 2020. Most of the apples in a supermarket are older than most of the people buying them, so a variety released this decade is genuinely new.

No. It is a modern named variety with a documented origin at a research station. An heirloom is generally an old variety of uncertain or chance parentage — Baldwin or Pound Sweet.

Being a Honeycrisp-family apple that behaves in a kitchen. It keeps the crunch people want from that side of the family and adds enough structure to survive a pie.

Cornell AgriTech in Geneva, New York — the same station that produced Macoun, Cortland and Empire. Few places have put more apples on more tables.

The apples we ship are grown here in our own orchard.

2020.

A pomologist at Cornell whose work runs through decades of the programme's apple releases. Naming a variety cordera — Spanish for a ewe lamb — is the station's tribute to him.

Directly. It came from a cross with Honeycrisp, and the crunch is the family resemblance.

We have found no published record of it. The Honeycrisp side is documented; the other side is not, so this page leaves it open rather than guessing.

If Cornell publishes it, it will appear here.

No — it is a child, not a version. Apple seedlings never come true to the parent, which is why a promising one gets propagated by grafting rather than by seed.

Cordera is tarter and more structured than Honeycrisp, with a tighter bite.

Because an apple has to do several things at once — taste good, travel, keep, and grow reliably in a real orchard — and no single variety has ever done all of them perfectly.

Each release is an attempt to hold on to what people liked about the last one and fix what they did not.

Decades, usually. A cross is made, the seedlings are grown out and watched, nearly all are discarded, and the rare promising one is grafted and watched again across many seasons before it earns a name.

Apple work is measured in careers rather than quarters.

No. It came from an ordinary cross — pollen from one tree onto the blossom of another — followed by selection and grafting, which is how named apple varieties have been made for centuries.

No, but New York is where they were developed and where they are most at home. Ours are grown in our own New York orchard.

Very. It has the coarse, open-grained crunch that the Honeycrisp side of the family is known for — the kind you hear.

Yes, noticeably so. Cut one over a board with a lip.

Not quite. Honeycrisp leans sweeter and softer in its balance; Cordera keeps more tartness in play, which is what makes it the better cooking apple of the two.

A clean, fresh apple smell rather than a perfumed one. If you want an apple you can smell across a room, Macoun is the one.

Red, commonly with light striping or a blush rather than a solid uniform coat. Some apples colour up more than others depending on where they sat on the tree.

Thin enough not to be a nuisance, and worth eating — most of the fiber sits in and just under it.

No. Colour tracks sun exposure more than ripeness. A paler apple from the shaded side of the tree is the same apple.

Yes, as every apple does. Fruit picked early eats firmer and sharper; later fruit runs sweeter and softer. Crop load and weather move it too.

Cold, for this one. Chilling sharpens the crispness and the tart edge, which is where Cordera is at its best.

Not if it is kept cold. It is a firm apple and it holds, but like any apple it loses crispness faster on a counter than in a crisper drawer.

Size varies with the season and the crop, and we pack what the orchard gives us rather than sorting to a single target. The package description says what you are getting.

It is unusually good at two jobs that usually need two apples: eating out of hand, and baking.

Most very crisp apples collapse in the oven. This one holds its shape.

Yes, and it is one of the better modern apples for it. The slices keep their edges instead of going to sauce, and there is enough acidity that the filling does not taste flat.

Cut the slices thick and vent the top crust generously — this is a juicy apple.

Very. Same reason as the pie: the fruit stays in pieces under the topping rather than turning to mush.

It makes a bright, tart-leaning sauce. If you want the classic soft, aromatic sauce, blend it with McIntosh, which collapses readily and brings the perfume.

Yes. The crunch survives dressing and the tartness stands up to cheese and nuts.

A very good one. Firm enough to travel without bruising and crisp enough to still be worth eating at noon.

Less than with a sweet apple, and probably not at all. It carries its own acidity, which is what most recipes are written around.

Taste a slice before you commit either way.

For a pie or a formal tart, peel it. For a crisp or a rustic sauce, leave the skin on — it adds colour and body.

Yes. It is good in a slaw, with pork, and in a chicken or tuna salad, where its tartness does more work than a sweet apple would.

It can take a stronger cheese than a sweet apple can. Aged cheddar, blue, a firm alpine cheese — all work, because the apple pushes back.

Yes. Slice thin and even so the rings dry at the same rate. No sugar needed.

Like most apples, it will dull over time on a plate. A squeeze of lemon slows it, and thick skin-on wedges hold better than thin peeled slices.

If you specifically need slices that still look freshly cut an hour later, SnowSweet is the variety selected for it.

In the fall. For this crop, the expected ship date on the product above and the live listings are the guides worth trusting — they reflect this season rather than a general calendar.

No. Maturity moves with the weather, the orchard and the crop load. A cool stretch slows it, a warm one hurries it.

If a package shows as available above, the fruit is ready. If nothing is listed, the crop is still on the tree.

See Harvest Times for where the season stands, or Ready to Ship for what is leaving the farm today.

Because weather moves fruit, and rain can stop picking outright for days. We would rather give you a date that moves than pick before the apple is ready.

It holds well in the refrigerator for a fall apple. It is not a spring keeper — if you want fruit that lasts until April, GoldRush and EverCrisp® are the ones.

It is new and not widely planted, so it is not a supermarket apple. That is most of why people end up here looking for it.

For the same crisp, sweet-tart balance: Honeycrisp, SnapDragon® or RubyFrost®, subject to the season.

For a firmer baking apple, Northern Spy.

In the refrigerator, promptly. The crisper drawer is best because it holds humidity, and moisture loss is what turns a crisp apple limp.

A week on the counter costs more crispness than a month in the fridge.

Apples keep ripening after picking, and cold slows that more than anything else you can do at home.

No — wash just before eating. Surface moisture in storage encourages spoilage. Cool running water is all that is needed.

Keep them away from strongly flavoured foods; apples take on smells. They also give off a ripening gas that hurries vegetables nearby, so a little separation helps both.

Use it first and keep it apart from the rest — one soft apple will bring on the ones touching it. A bruise is not a spoiled apple; cut the mark out and it is fine for a crisp or sauce.

Weeks in a refrigerator, treated well. Judge by the apple rather than a date: a Cordera that still snaps is still good.

For cooking, yes. Peel, slice and freeze in a single layer before bagging; they hold for months for pies, crisps and sauce. Freezing will not preserve the fresh-eating texture.

Better than people expect — they are picked firm and packed to stay put. What they do not like is heat sitting on a truck, which is why timing matters more than distance. See Shipping Information.

Not at all. Cold is where you want them. Move them into the refrigerator.

Yes, when a suitable package is showing above. Gift boxes give each apple more individual protection and arrive presented properly; a bushel case is built for value rather than presentation.

Cordera is its child and the tarter, tighter of the two. Honeycrisp is sweeter with a looser, more explosive crunch.

Honeycrisp for eating. Cordera if you also want to bake with it.

Both are modern Cornell apples with Honeycrisp behind them. SnapDragon® leans sweeter and spicier; Cordera keeps more tartness.

RubyFrost® is the tarter, later apple and the better keeper. Cordera is the more balanced one and arrives earlier.

Different pleasures. Macoun is intensely aromatic and tender-crisp, a fresh-eating apple with a short season. Cordera is firmer, tarter and far more useful in an oven.

Cortland is milder and softer, and its party trick is staying white in a salad. Cordera is crisper and brighter.

Northern Spy is still the structural benchmark — firmer, tarter, the classic. Cordera is the one you can also eat raw out of the bowl while you make it.

Half and half is an excellent pie.

Granny Smith is considerably sharper and greener in flavour. Cordera is balanced, not sour.

They share a home — both are Cornell apples — but Empire is a McIntosh-family apple, softer and more aromatic. Cordera is the firmer, crunchier one.

Macoun, Cortland, Empire, SnapDragon® and RubyFrost® are all from Geneva. An Apple Mixer is the easy way to line a few up.

By the package sizes showing above — gift boxes, bushel cases and mixers, depending on the crop and the time of year.

Yes — that is what the Apple Mixer is for, and it is the best way to taste a new apple against ones you already know.

Yes. What ships is what we pick.

No, ours are not certified organic. We use the best agricultural practices we can, but we do not hold organic certification and we are not going to imply otherwise.

We do, and there are pages built specifically for those destinations because the timing differs. Check the listings above for what is available to your address.

Yes. There is a message field on the order, and we will include it with the box.

Contact us, or telephone 518-695-4517. A person answers.

An apple is a satisfying low-calorie snack with useful fiber. According to USDA figures for a medium raw apple, that is roughly 86 calories and about 4 grams of fiber. The full table is above.

USDA figures for a raw apple with skin give about 2.4 grams per 100 grams — roughly 4 grams in a medium apple. Most of it sits in and just under the skin.

No, and we will not pretend otherwise. USDA does not publish a separate analysis for this variety, so the table describes a typical medium raw apple rather than a laboratory analysis of Cordera.

Not reliably. How sweet an apple tastes depends on the balance between its sugar and its acid, not sugar alone. A tart apple and a sweet one can be closer in sugar than they taste.

Some vitamin C declines over months. Fiber and the minerals do not meaningfully change.

Eat the apple, if the choice is yours. Juicing leaves the fiber behind, and the fiber is a good part of the point.

We sell fruit, not trees. Cordera is a recent named release, which means propagation is licensed — a nursery needs permission to graft and sell it.

You can grow a tree. It will not be a Cordera.

Apples do not come true from seed — every pip is its own new variety, and nearly all of them are disappointing. Every Cordera tree is grafted wood traced back to the original selected seedling.

Nearly all do. Apples are poor at setting fruit with their own pollen, so an orchard block needs a compatible variety flowering at the same time nearby. That is orchard planning rather than anything a shopper needs to think about.

A young variety is planted in small numbers, the trees take years to come into bearing, and there is no scale behind it yet. What you are paying for is scarcity rather than a different kind of apple.

Not widely, so far. It is a recent Geneva release and plantings are still small. Ours are grown here.

Cordera is Spanish for a young female sheep — a ewe lamb.

Because of a person, not an animal. Cornell named it for Robert Lamb, a pomologist whose work runs through decades of the station's apple releases.

A pun and a thank-you in the same word.

No. It is a New York apple with a Spanish word for a name.

More often than you would think. Some are places, some are people, and a few — like this one — are a joke the people who made them wanted to leave behind.