When I was a child, my mother would get cases of Cox's Orange Pippin freighted over from an orchard region. I think late summer/fall. Far and away the best dessert (eating) apple I've tasted, and the texture was great too.

But they were susceptible to sunburn and leaf marks, they bruised easily (needed careful handling) and the skin wrinkled quickly in retail temperatures and atmospheres. When supermarkets took off, varieties like that died. It's going to be hard to bring any of them back in any meaningful sense.