We make hundreds of Caramel Apples every fall. We make them for classes. We make them for family. We make them for neighbors. We make them for gifits. And through it all we forever swear by using our beloved Peter’s Caramel. It’s delicious, affordable, and consistently works great!
Honestly, we've been using it so long we forgot other caramel exists. It's been years since we tried other caramel products out on the market, so we thought it might be time to give an honest review of the other offerings available out there. The results didn't really surprise us.
The Caramel Apple Test!
We gathered up the most commonly seen products and here’s what we tested: homemade caramel, store-bought Kraft square caramels, Peter’s Caramel, and caramel apple wraps. We followed the instructions for each type of caramel to the letter and covered some classic Granny Smith apples. Here's what we figured out.
Here’s what they looked like:
One hour after dipping:
Right out of the gate, these caramel apples looked relatively comparable. Aside from the caramel warp (which is pretty obvious) there wasn't a ton of difference between the finishes on the other apples. That said, the smoothest and most even coating and best set up was Peter's Caramel.
24 hours after dipping:
From Left to Right: Homemade, Kraft Squares, Peter’s Caramel, and Caramel WrapAfter 24 hours things started to change more dramatically. The homemade caramel was slowly sloughing off the first apple. And the Kraft Squares caramel had a huge bubble that got bigger and bigger with time. We were happy to see the Peter's Caramel and Caramel Wrap looked nearly unchanged. Definitely holding up better than the other two.
72 hours after dipping:
After 72 hours, none of the caramel apples were looking great. The caramel is sloughing off all of the apples and forming puddles. At this point, we were surprised to see the homemade caramel holding up better, at least as far as form was concerned.
Now, we don't recommend leaving any caramel apples out at room temp for 72 hours, but still, it was interesting to see what happened. And now that you’ve seen what these apples looked like right after dipping, after 24 hours, and after 72 hours, it’s time to share what they tasted like. We cut each one into chunks for sampling and shared them with the Gygi crew. Everyone tried all four types of caramel apples and ranked them by taste & texture.
Their reactions were the most fun of this whole process. And the scoreboard is as follows:
1st place: Peter’s Caramel. We never doubted this one! It’s been our favorite caramel to use for apples for yeeears and just proves time and time again that consistency and reliability matter most. The the coating and set up is smooth and silk and the taste is always spot on.
2nd place: homemade caramel. We loved the flavor of the homemade, but it stayed super soft, never fully setting up on our apple. Flavor-wise, it was a close 2nd to Peter’s Caramel but texture-wise, we were hoping for a sturdier result.
3rd place: Caramel Wrap. You’ve likely seen these at the grocery store and been intrigued. We sure were. And while they didn’t produce the prettiest, fully coated apples, votes were regained with the flavor. Generally not bad and a super convenient, easy process for kids to do on their own if you're in a pinch.
4th place: Kraft Caramel Squares. This was a really surprising result. We know many people consistently use these to make apples each year. For us, it setup was way too hard and the finished apple was difficult to cut and to eat. And all that work and time with the wrappers wasn't our favorite. Overall, we don’t recommend this method.
In review, we love how easy and tasty Peter’s Caramel is. It is still the clear winner in our minds. However, the homemade caramel was so flavorful. We could definitely see that tweaking the recipe and trying some modifications, we could possibly end up with a homemade recipe that works similarly to Peter’s Caramel. But when it comes to apples and pretzel rods, it’s a no-brainer to just melt and use the Peter’s brand.
For more tips and ways to use your Peter’s Caramel, check out Caramel 101 on the blog.
