A hardy and vigorous but small tree, Macoun will need aggressive thinning to maintain fruit quality and annual bearing. It is resistant to cedar-apple rust, susceptible to fireblight, and very susceptible to scab and canker. Best fruit quality is attained in the Northeast.

This heirloom apple is the same shape and size as McIntosh, but with a more striped and deeper red coloring; the skin is a dark purplish red blushed over a green background. The flesh is greenish white and crisp yet melting. This is an aromatic, high-quality eating apple. Sweet-tart with a hints of spice and flowers, Macoun is a cult favorite in the Northeast, but the fruit drops readily, bruises easily, and stores poorly. As Jacobsen puts it in Apples of Uncommon Character, "Because you can't take it with you–Macoun neither ships nor stores–it functions like a seasonal madeleine in the memory of many a New Englander."

Macoun is a cross of McIntosh and Jersey Black that was developed by New York Agricultural Experimental Station in Geneva, NY in 1909 and first released to the public in 1923. It was named after William Macoun, the famous Canadian fruit breeder and Dominion horticulturalist at the Central Experimental Farm near Ottawa, Canada. This man was largely responsible for the success of McIntosh.