I've seen Grapples — grape-flavored apples — in the store for a few years, and FitSugar actually wrote about them last year, but I'd never actually tried one before. I've kinda been snobby about it and thought they were ridiculous. However, recently, a friend of mine became addicted to them. She swears they're fantastic, so I figured it was time to file away my skepticism and give it a try.
Grapples are created by infusing Washington Extra-Fancy Fuji apples in concentrated grape juice, natural and artificial, but let me tell you it smells awfully artificial — like grape flavoring and water. Old reviews say that it's done by soaking, however the Grapple website now says it's a complex patent-pending process. When you take them out of their plastic packages, you can smell them from a mile away, and it's actually quite distracting. The smell is overly sweet, like wet-grape candy.
So how do they taste? They're actually not bad, but that's mostly because they taste like apples. The grape flavor is there, however it's overly sweet and reminds me of grape candy more than actual Concord grapes. They're also quite pricey for what they are — four apples were around $5. The good part about them is that since they do taste like candy, it felt more like a dessert or a treat, and definitely curbed my need for something sweet in the evening. The best part was that, like other apples, they're only around 80 calories each.
Would I buy them again? Probably not, although I can see where folks might really like them — after all this started because I know someone who is hooked on them. Also, I really am wondering what a baked good made with them would taste like. Grapple pie anyone?
