Jafar, do you mean that a store-bought local apple variety has a lower brix than the same apple variety  that was ranked - for example a locally-purchased King David compared to a ranked King David?  Or do you mean, just in general?  How do you think that either brix level would compare to home-grown apples that are left on the tree until fully ripened?  One of the most curious realizations in growing my own apples is how variable the quality has been, from year to year.  For example Liberty apples have ranged from excellent to decent, from the same tree.  I wonder if brix levels would correlate with this.

Brush, that's a good question about Brushy Mountain Limbertwig and something that I've wondered also. I had always heard, growing up only a few miles from where Golden Delicious was discovered, that it should never be grown west of the Mississippi River; that doesn't seem to be true, though.  So maybe it's worth a try, and maybe there will be scions at the HOS Fruit Propagation Fair in March.

I never trust those things.   I've got to taste the apples for myself.   

Further, I've attended a lot of apple tastings here.  And, the apples are never all at their peak at the same time.

Quite an art really....  Raising apples perfectly, picking them at just the right time, storing and shipping them, and getting them into  people's mouths, at the peak of texture and flavor.

Sadly, circumstances often conspire to elevate the mediocre, to the winners circle.

Can't imagine a well ripened Spitzenberg, so far from the head spot.  But, perhaps it doesn't reach top flavor down South.  Or, they had a bad year.  Or, they were picked too early.  Or, the apples were past peak.

None-the-less, thank you.  Lots of apples I've never heard of before.  Some of them have to be really good.