From speaking to a few people in the industry, I believe there is also a significant problem with the delayed return on investment for establishing orchards wit

From speaking to a few people in the industry, I believe there is also a significant problem with the delayed return on investment for establishing orchards with appropriate apples. Part of why AO tastes like candy is because it's made from apples which have been selected for decades, well, to taste like candy, to sell to consumers as eating apples. Their all-granny smith cider comes to mind as a shocking example. Supposedly AO has an intentional business model of selling these subpar products to finance establishing orchards for real cider but idk how that is working out.