Apples can be divided into three broad categories that roughly correspond to taste and use: dessert, cooking and cider apples. Dessert apples are usually eaten fresh out of hand and are sweet in flavour but balanced with acidity. Cooking apples often taste more tart because they have more malic acid (the active ingredient in most sour or tart foods) or because they have less sugar. They also tend to cook down into a softy, pulpy mass rather than retaining their shape like dessert apples.
