There are certain foods that seem to belong to a season.
Watermelon tastes like summer.
Hot cocoa belongs beside a winter fire.
And a crisp apple covered in a thick layer of buttery caramel?
That's fall on a stick.
Caramel apples appear at orchards, farm stands, county fairs, Halloween parties, and candy shops as soon as the leaves begin to change. They can be simple—just an apple and caramel—or transformed into elaborate creations covered with nuts, chocolate, sprinkles, cookie crumbs, or candy.
They feel wonderfully old-fashioned.
Which makes it surprising to learn that the caramel apple, at least in its familiar modern form, is relatively young.
The treat became popular in America during the 1950s, reportedly thanks to a Kraft Foods employee faced with an especially delicious problem:
What do you do with leftover Halloween caramels?
The answer helped create a fall tradition.
First, a Little Caramel Apple Confusion
Before we get to that story, there's an important distinction to make.
A caramel apple and a candy apple aren't the same thing, although the names are sometimes used interchangeably.
A candy apple typically has a shiny, hard sugar coating—the brilliant red shell that cracks when you bite into it.
A caramel apple has a softer, chewy coating made from caramel.
And the candy apple came first.
According to the commonly told story, Newark, New Jersey candy maker William W. Kolb created the red candy apple in 1908 while experimenting with a red cinnamon candy mixture he was selling for Christmas. Kolb dipped apples into the mixture and displayed them in his shop window.
Customers apparently liked what they saw.
The apples sold for five cents each, and the treat eventually spread to candy shops, circuses, and the Jersey Shore.
The caramel apple would arrive decades later.
What Do You Do With Leftover Caramels?
Our story moves to the 1950s and a Kraft Foods employee named Dan Walker.
As the story goes, Walker was experimenting with excess caramels left after Halloween. He melted the candies and tried dipping apples into the warm caramel.
It was an extremely simple combination.
It was also extremely good.
The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History notes that caramel apples became a popular treat during the 1950s after a Kraft employee experimented with leftover caramels following Halloween.
Think about why the combination works so well.
Caramel is intensely sweet, buttery, and rich.
A good apple is crisp, juicy, and tart.
Put them together, and each fixes the other's excesses. The tartness of the apple cuts through the sweetness of the caramel, while the caramel turns an everyday piece of fruit into dessert.
It's one of those food combinations that seems so obvious after someone thinks of it.
Then Came the Caramel Apple Machine
At first, caramel apples had to be dipped by hand.
That was fine for the home kitchen or candy shop.
It wasn't particularly efficient if you wanted to make thousands of them.
In 1960, Vito Raimondi of Chicago patented an automated caramel apple machine, helping make large-scale production of the treats possible.
Suddenly, the caramel apple wasn't merely something someone could make at home.
It could be mass-produced.
And its timing was perfect.
Halloween Was Changing, Too
The middle of the 20th century was an important period for another American tradition: trick-or-treating.
As trick-or-treating grew in popularity, commercially produced and individually wrapped candies became increasingly convenient and economical to hand out to large numbers of children.
Homemade treats still had a place in the Halloween bag, though, and caramel apples joined popcorn balls, cookies, fudge, and other goodies associated with the holiday.
By the 1970s, attitudes toward homemade Halloween treats had begun to change. Parents increasingly preferred factory-sealed candy from recognizable brands over unwrapped or homemade items from people they didn't know.
The caramel apple didn't disappear.
Instead, it found an even bigger home in the broader world of fall.
From Halloween Treat to Fall Icon
Today, you don't need to go trick-or-treating to encounter a caramel apple.
Visit an apple orchard in September or October, and there's a good chance you'll find them somewhere nearby.
The same is true at fall festivals, fairs, farm stands, pumpkin patches, and candy shops.
And that's where the caramel apple fits particularly well.
It combines two sides of modern fall culture.
There's the agricultural side: orchards, apple picking, harvests, cider, farm stands.
Then there's the nostalgic side: Halloween, fairs, candy, hayrides, crisp afternoons, and treats you probably shouldn't attempt to eat while wearing anything white.
A caramel apple belongs equally to both worlds.
The Gourmet Caramel Apple Arrives
Somewhere along the way, people also realized there was absolutely no reason to stop at caramel.
Once the caramel is still sticky, you can roll the apple in chopped peanuts.
Or pecans.
Or sprinkles.
Or crushed cookies.
Then someone inevitably asks: What if we add chocolate?
Modern caramel apples can be dipped in caramel, covered in chocolate, drizzled with another kind of chocolate, and rolled in toppings until the apple underneath becomes almost an afterthought.
Candy shops now sell versions inspired by everything from candy bars to seasonal colors and holiday characters.
The humble caramel apple became a canvas.
But there's something to be said for the original.
A tart apple.
Warm homemade caramel.
Maybe a handful of chopped nuts.
Nothing more required.
And that's the version we're making to finish our Apple Season series.
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