Empire is a clonally propagated cultivar of apple derived from a seed grown in 1945 by Lester C. Anderson, a Cornell University fruit nutritionist who conducted open pollination research on his various orchards.

However, some apple growers including Verger Denis Charbonneau Mont-St-Grégoire, Quebec, Canada easily keep them until June under controlled refrigeration in a gas atmosphere.

[citation needed] The original seed was a cross between the varieties McIntosh and Red Delicious.

Empire apples are excellent for eating and salads, and good for sauce, baking, pies and freezing.

[4] By the year 2001, three mutant cultivars (sports) of Empire had received US plant patents.