I live about 10 miles from the best apple-growing area of California. We see both kinds down here, especially at the County Fairs. I’m not partial to either of them, actually. I’d rather have a frozen banana dipped in chocolate and rolled in chopped peanuts! 
Born, raised, and living in Washington State, traveled to every state, lived in 6 of them. Never heard of Candy Apples. I’ve heard of the car color ‘Candy Apple Red’, but always figured that a Candy Apple was some weird kind of old-time sugar candy shaped or flavored like an apple.
Mrs. danalan informs me that she has had Candy Apples, but found them too sweet for her taste. Must be pretty damn sickeningly sweet…
Upon viewing the thread title the first thing that went through my mind was, “What are candy apples?”
I’ve never had any trouble finding either in the produce department of the local grocery, here or back in Kentucky, although caramel apples seem to be more popular. My grandma used to make both around Halloween, along with popcorn balls and peanut butter cookies.
Just to add to the weirdness, here in lovely Arkansas you see caramel apples more often, but in the stores, next to the produce displays, you find the candy apple coating mix more often. I hypothesize the reason for this is that we all by the caramel apple-making kits and leave the candy apple ones because we are unfamiliar with the concept.
FB
I guess I’ll be the dissenting voice from Ky. Where I grew up, in central Ky, the candy-type were more common which was kind of annoying as I prefer the caramel ones.
From what few times I’ve had candy apples, I thought they were all hot cinnamon coated. However, from the candy apples advertised in this site, it appears that they’re cherry-flavored red candy apples as well.
Around here we have caramel apples[by far the most popular ] and something called candied apples, which is the same caramel coating dyed a suspicious red[and therefore totally bogus] Real candied apples, the kind with the hard, shiny coating[suggestive of lollipops] are nonexistent[perhaps their shelf-life is not as long as the caramel variety] unless you make them yourself. They used to sell a kit for making both kinds, but only the caramel-type is still around.
Happy to oblige. 
Georgia reporting in
When I was a kid back in the olden days we always got the cinnamon candy covered apples at fairs and such…the challenge was eating one and as a kid it was fun to have fruit covered in god-awful candy.
I still see “kits” for them in the produce departments around Halloween, but mostly I see Caramel Apples for sell and in the stores as soon as the good apples start coming in…a horrible thing to do to a good apple but they are yummy! Now I see you can even get “Caramel Dip” for apple slices but I think that is cheating.
:eek:
any aged kid knows anything you eat on a stick is better
Up here in NoCal, I’ve heard of candy apples, but never actually seen one. Caramel apples are far and away more common. And probably better tasting, just going by the fact that there is very little in the world that tastes better than a caramel apple.
Orleans County, between Buffalo and Rochester.
Sorry about the bump, but I lost track of the thread.
Candy apples are more common here in N.J.
Another Washingtonian checking in. I’ve noticed candy apples are scarce here, too. I can think of a few places I could drive to relatively quickly and pick up a caramel apple, but the only place I see candy apples is at the Central Washington State Fair. I grew up in Detroit and saw candy apples as often as I did caramel (70s).
Neither
I haven’t seen them here for years.
And the lasttime, one was rolling around on the store floor.
:eek:
Upper Hudson Valley. This might explain the disparity between our experiences.
As others have said, I’ve been cheated before when I was younger by seeing a sign for candy apples and thinking they were caramel. So at least when I was little they had both at the Texas state fair. I prefer caramel apples, but unfortunately can’t eat them due to an allergy to apples (yes, I am allergic to everything). On a side note, my grandmother insists on making sliced candied apples every year at Thanksgiving and Christmas, simply because she thinks they look pretty on the table. Care to guess what her favourite colour is? 
While the name may have derived from the treat, “candy” in this case refers to a high gloss coating. There’s also Candy Yellow, Candy Orange, Candy Black Cherry, etc.
I grew up in Upstate NY too (Fredonia, (Buffalo-Jamestown area)), and always saw mainly candy apples at county fairs. I may have seen them at the Syracuse State Fair too, but I don’t remember.
Which is ironic, because I remember the Syracuse area for its profusion of caramel corn, and when I heard of Kettle Corn being a long and nostalgic tradition, I was like 