15 Best Applesauces Ranked

While applesauce holds a humble reputation as a healthy afterschool snack, it is something of a dark horse in the kitchen. Need a quick and easy condiment to take your pork chops to the next level? Applesauce is there for you. Looking for a low-fat alternative to oil in your baking recipes? Applesauce has got your back. Beyond serving as a hydrating, glucose-boosting treat, the applications for applesauce are seemingly neverending — though you might not think so at first glance.

Consisting of little more than pureed apples, homemade applesauce recipes are still a little more involved, requiring a good deal of prep and watchful simmering to achieve optimal texture and flavor. When it comes to ready-made applesauce, however, options have greatly expanded beyond traditional recipes. Whether you're a fan of blueberries or bananas, you can find applesauce featuring nearly any fruit purée you please these days. 

That said, finding the finest applesauce out there requires going back to basics. At Tasting Table, we made it our mission to sample every unsweetened variety we could find to uncover the best applesauce money can buy.

Unless you're located in the Northeast, you might not know of Bowl & Basket. The store brand can be found in ShopRite supermarkets scattered across six states from Maryland to New York. But, even if you're lucky enough to live near a ShopRite, you could have some difficulty finding Bowl & Basket applesauce. Of all the sauces we sourced, Bowl & Basket's unsweetened variety proved to be something of a white whale. After several unsuccessful trips to local ShopRites, we finally obtained a six-pack of our own at a reasonable price.

Pulling out a container from its cardboard home, we were swiftly greeted by a message on Bowl & Basket's lid warning us not to resell the product for individual sale. With our dreams of a lucrative applesauce empire dashed, we dove in for a taste. Thankfully, our stir test showed that Bowl & Basket was juicier than 365 by Whole Food's product, but its flavor was only marginally better. 

Tasting Bowl & Basket applesauce was like biting into a forgotten apple at the back of the fridge, with stale and fermented notes at the forefront. Its texture may have been passable, but we couldn't get past how Bowl & Basket's recipe managed to capture the very essence of mealy apples. As such, Bowl & Basket tumbled toward the second-to-last place in our ranking.

Shoppers in New England and New York should be well-acquainted with this wholesome grocer's store brand. Headquartered in Scarborough, Maine, there are Hannaford stores throughout the Northeast. It didn't take long before we found their unsweetened applesauce on our local store's shelves, a pink cardboard package retailing for a modest $1.95, at the time of publication.

Right away, we noticed some curious similarities between Hannaford and Bowl & Basket. Both products bore the same ominous black-and-white message on their lids, although Hannaford's actual sauce appeared to be slightly darker in color. That said, we found that Hannaford's applesauce was more palatable than ShopRite's, even if it was a bit bland. 

We wouldn't recommend it as our favorite sauce for snacking purposes, but it could certainly do well as a last-minute baking or recipe ingredient. In light of its underwhelming flavor and appearance, Hannaford narrowly inched past the bottom of our applesauce ranking.

We happened upon Field Day Organics by chance while shopping at our local health food co-op. Little is known about the origins of the brand, though it supplies American grocers and co-ops with everything from sustainable household goods to organic pantry products. One of the few brands to feature a four-pack in lieu of a six-pack package, we procured our Field Day applesauce for $3.99 — making it one of the most costly products on our list.

Our initial impression of Field Day was positive in spite of its steep price tag. Upon giving it a stir, we noticed that this applesauce had a denser consistency than others, with little juice to speak of. It's not uncommon for applesauce to contain ascorbic acid or vitamin C, but Field Day's recipe tasted exceptionally tangy — a surprising feat, given its very low vitamin C content at 2% per serving in contrast to the standard 100%. Overall, we felt Field Day had a clean and bright flavor profile, but its dry texture detracted from its final score.

Anyone who regularly strolls down the canned fruit aisle has some awareness of Musselman's. Established in 1907, the company specializes in everything apple-related, from pie fillings and ciders to farm-fresh sauces. With great enthusiasm, we picked up Musselman's unsweetened applesauce six-pack from Price Chopper for $2.99.

As we dug into Musselman's unsweetened applesauce, we detected a slight hint of fruity fragrance emanating from its cup. After giving it a good stir, we went in for our first spoonful of sauce. Although Musselman's contains both freshly-picked produce and a generous amount of vitamin C, we felt its flavor was very faint. Its shining achievement was the fact that it had no strange aftertaste, the bane of several other sauces in our ranking. 

For a company with such a strong emphasis on all things apples, we felt underwhelmed by Musselman's offering in the applesauce department. Consequently, the brand fell several places behind other competitors.

In case you weren't already aware, Good & Gather is mega-chain Target's private label. We've had many fine experiences in the past with Target's own line of groceries, from frozen goat cheese pizzas to grab-and-go charcuterie bites, but we were curious to see what the company could accomplish with a product as simple as unsweetened applesauce.

Keeping with Good & Gather's laidback branding approach, the applesauce's packaging is cool and minimalistic. Peeling back its lid yielded little in the way of scent, but revealed a striking yellow sauce underneath. Its thick, juicy consistency passed our stir test with flying colors — there's no soupy applesauce splashing around here. 

Good & Gather doesn't have a remarkable depth of flavor, but what it does project is sweet, mild, and almost floral in nature. What's more, there's a refreshing bite from the inclusion of vitamin C, though it isn't overstated like in other applesauce recipes. Good & Gather's above-average attributes and reasonable price secured this applesauce a spot toward the top of our list.

Prior to planning our applesauce expedition, we'd never heard of Applesnax. The brand is available in the grocery section of Dollar Tree stores, but finding the unsweetened version was a tedious task. It took us two tries before we tracked down Applesnax, a cheerful four-pack of sauce retailing for $1.25 at the time of publication. Oddly, by purchasing an unsweetened variety, Dollar Tree shoppers lose out on the extra two cups provided in corn syrup-sweetened Applesnax applesauce.

Considering Applesnax was the lowest-priced product on our list, we were thoroughly pleased by its performance. The applesauce itself has a uniform sheen and color with few, if any, visual imperfections to be found. We must warn you, however, that this applesauce isn't for the faint of heart — or tastebuds. Applesnax contains a particularly potent form of vitamin C that shocks the tongue with its tartness, almost verging on the sour or tannic territory.  

Although we'd shy away from using its aggressive flavor in baking recipes, Applesnax is a real treat for sour snack fans at an unbeatable price. With this in mind, the Dollar Tree delicacy earned sufficiently high marks.

You don't need to know much about Mott's to know the brand is synonymous with shelf-stable applesauce. But it's worth pointing out that Mott's has been dealing with apples for nearly two hundred years. Most importantly, we have Mott's to thank for the invention of individual plastic applesauce cups, released in 1985. It makes sense that Mott's is behind the original single-serve design, considering the extraordinary attention to detail in its present-day cups. If you look closely, you'll see that each Mott's container is molded to resemble the shape of an apple barrel, complete with textured "wooden" grooves.

We chose to try the Granny Smith variety, a twist on the typical unsweetened applesauce. In our stir test, Mott's appeared noticeably thicker than other sauces, holding a peak, whereas others fell flat. Regretfully, the appeal of a fresh Granny Smith apple doesn't quite translate as an applesauce — at least, not to our palettes. In lieu of its sweet and sour tang, there's an almost bubblegum or anise-like flavor present in Mott's sauce. Some may appreciate its unique characteristics, but it wasn't for us. 

Nevertheless, its texture was superb, and we can't overlook Mott's contributions to the applesauce community as a whole. Thus, Mott's managed to receive a handsome overall score.