Red Candy Apples

• Perhaps the most iconic of the candy apple varieties, red candy apples are dipped in a combination of boiling sugar, corn syrup and red food coloring. The result is a glossy, red outer shell that's tough and sticky. The red coating retains its adhesive property in a slightly less sticky form after cooling and hardening. Variations of the red candy apple involve rolling the recently sticky-coated apple in coconut, nuts and chocolate chips.

Caramel Covered Apples

• Caramel apples are made by dipping a fresh apple in a heated mixture of melted caramel, salt and sugar. Caramel originated in North America by slowly boiling milk and sugar into a stretchy, sticky substance. Today's candy apple vendors sell caramel apples plain or roll them in various extra coatings such as crushed peanuts, cashews, gummy candy, sprinkles or small chocolate chips.

Chocolate Covered Apples

• Chocolate covered apples are whole apples dipped in dark or milk chocolate. Making an aesthetically appealing chocolate candy apple can be especially challenging due to the difficulty of applying clean craftsmanship to melted chocolate. The chocolate coating does not offer the same adhesive properties as the red candy or caramel coatings, which is why chocolate covered apples typically have coatings of lighter weight foods such as sprinkles or shredded coconut.

Double-Dipped Apples

• Double-dipped apples are the most decadent of the candy apple types. These double-dippers are especially large because they have not one, but two coatings of candy. The first coating is a sticky adhesive layer of caramel or red candy covered with nuts, shaved coconuts or sprinkles. The second, outer layer is dark, milk or white melted chocolate. The outer shall sometimes has small decorative patterns with white and dark chocolate, but generally the size and decadence of this double=dipped creation is impressive enough.