I tried a honeycrisp apple at a local grower this season. It was good, but I didn't think it was so great that I wanted to buy them over all others. The season is short, and apparently they can be pretty finicky to grow (I think these are not as disease resistant as some others? Can't remember, something like that) which is why they are expensive.

We were getting some apples via our CSA subscription until that ended a few weeks ago. Our favorite for the season was something this farm got from their neighbor farm, golden supreme. This variety is just enough different from golden delicious, and in a good way, better texture, more flavorful. We liked them so much we got a half bushel at an additional cost and went through them all pretty quickly (just two of us).

It may also help flavor-wise that local apples are not treated and/or bred to ship well, so with these the more local you can get them the better. True of most produce, really. All the stuff we got via our subscription seemed much better than what is typical in many stores.