Best Applesauce Pouches, Cups, and More

The best applesauce is sweet, fruity, and slightly tart. It is one of the few mushes that spans generations and ages. It’s a stone cold classic snack. But not every brand you see on the shelf is A+ stuff.

Over the course of two taste tests, we sourced 26 different applesauce jars, cups, and pouches. Here’s what we were looking for: The best applesauce should have texture instead of being as smooth as baby food. It should strike a balance of sweet and tart. There shouldn’t be too much added sugar. And bonus points if it’s easy to toss into a lunchbox or backpack or purse. Added notes of cinnamon and other blended fruits were welcomed in our tastings, but not absolutely necessary. Bottom line: Applesauce should taste and feel like it’s made of apples. 

Here are the nine best applesauce pouches, cups, and jars you can buy at the store (strawberry applesauce included!).

Best Strawberry (Sweet)

Mott’s Applesauce Strawberry

Walmart

If you’re looking for strawberry applesauce—emphasis on the strawberry—then Mott’s is the best applesauce brand for you. These little cups are filled with pink puree that is heavy on the strawberry. And it is sweet. In fact, Sporked managing editor Gwynedd Stuart called it “upsettingly sweet.” But I think there’s just enough tart apple in the mix to balance out the flavor and keep you coming back for more. —Justine Sterling

Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart

Rating:

7/10

Sporks

Best Unsweetened Cups

Good & Gather Unsweetened Applesauce Cups

Target

Target makes good applesauce, man. The consistency is viscous, not soupy, with a coarse texture you can savor. Plus, we just like applesauce that doesn’t have a ton of added sugar. To me, applesauce cups are still the most convenient form of the product—great for school lunches or to keep around the fridge at home. And Good & Gather makes some of the best applesauce cups we tasted for a good price. —Danny Palumbo

Sarah Demonteverde / Target

Rating:

7.5/10

Sporks

Best Strawberry Pouches

365 Strawberry Applesauce Unsweetened

Whole Foods

If Mott’s is too sweet for you but you still want some strawberry applesauce, head to Whole Foods for the best applesauce brand for your tastes. Available in grown-up-sized pouches, this strawberry applesauce is a delightful blend of the two fruits. It has a vibrant strawberry flavor that tastes like real strawberries—which are tart and sweet. I would gladly pack this in my kids’ lunches as well as my own. —Justine Sterling 

Credit: Liv Averett / Whole Foods

Rating:

7.5/10

Sporks

Best Fruit Combo

Trader Joe’s Apple Mango Crusher

Amazon

Trader Joe’s is known for crunchy snacks, but this puree is another snack that deserves some praise. Big enough to satisfy a grown-up or hungry kid, this (admittedly liquidy) applesauce pouch gets the edge from its delightful flavor. Thanks to the mango, it’s extra fruity with some citrusy notes that make it taste like a smoothie that should cost way more than it does. —Justine Sterling

Sarah Demonteverde / Amazon

Rating:

8/10

Sporks

Best Unsweetened Pouch

Simply Nature Squeezable Fruit Blend Apple

Aldi

I love these Aldi applesauce pouches. The applesauce inside is thick and creamy. It tastes natural and very wholesome and homey. The difference between these kid-sized applesauce pouches and GoGo Squeez is that these taste like cooked, homemade applesauce and GoGo Squeez tastes more like pureed raw apple. Plus, because they’re Aldi, they’re super affordable. —Justine Sterling

Credit: Liv Averett / Aldi

Rating:

8/10

Sporks

Best Cinnamon

Good & Gather Cinnamon Applesauce

Instacart

This is the applesauce we kept eating around the office after the taste test was over. Target’s brand of cinnamon-spiked applesauce comes in delightful little cups, which makes it ideal for packing school lunches or bringing to work. The flavor is the perfect balance of sweet and tart; you can still taste apples even with the added sugar. It’s so sweet and fragrant that it feels like dessert. The consistency is on point, too, which is huge for a nationwide store like Target. This easily could’ve taken the top spot on our list, but we realize that cinnamon isn’t for everyone. —Danny Palumbo

Credit: Sarah Demonteverde / Target

Rating:

8.5/10

Sporks

Best Tart

Trader Joe’s All Natural Unsweetened Applesauce

Amazon

This unsweetened applesauce is big on apple flavor. Its tartness and fruitiness gave me Granny Smith vibes. There’s no added sugar, but the sauce itself is still sweet enough that it feels like a treat. The texture also achieves that pleasant, somewhat chunky feel that we adore. Not too smooth and not too sugary—that’s what makes a good applesauce, and that’s what Trader Joe’s does so well here. —Danny Palumbo

Credit: Sarah Demonteverde / Amazon

Rating:

8.5/10

Sporks

Best of the Best

365 Organic Unsweetened Applesauce

Amazon

This applesauce does everything right. Whole Foods’ applesauce doesn’t have a ton of added sugar, so it’s not cloying like many other name brand applesauces. The texture is also just wonderful—coarsely blended so that it resembles something homemade. No, you can’t suck this through a straw, and that’s a good thing! This applesauce is just so versatile: It would be great as a snack, as a side to pork chops, or delicious dolloped on some latkes. Whole Foods proves that you don’t need anything besides delicious, organic apples to make the best applesauce. —Danny Palumbo

Credit: Sarah Demonteverde / Amazon

Rating:

9/10

Sporks

Other products we tried: Sprouts, Northcoast strawberry apple, Kirkland, Tree Top, Tree Top Cinnamon, Mott’s Grannysmith, Mott’s Cinnamon, Good & Gather Homestyle, 365 Strawberry, Santa Cruz Organic, Musselman’s Cinnamon, 365 Cinnamon, Mott’s Mighty Strawberry and Peach, Mott’s Mighty Honeycrisp, Mott’s No Sugar Added Granny Smith, Mott’s Unsweetened Applesauce Cups, GoGo Squeez Fruit on the Go Variety Pack