Jello Grapes Recipe: Healthy Sour Patch Grapes from TikTok

Frozen jello grapes or sour patch grapes are perfect for a summer picnic. They're light, fun, tart, and perfect to fend off the scorching summer heat. Besides being super easy to prepare, they are a cooling yet sweet dessert that will leave you instantly refreshed.

Ever since these TikTok grapes hit the internet, we tried making this dessert to figure out what all the hype was about. After falling in love with the trend, we bring you our ultimate candied grapes recipe. It is super easy, clump-free, and takes only 5 minutes to make. Furthermore, you can make it with any flavour of jello you like, and their colourful nature makes these sour patch candies great to serve at parties. 

If you want to try making frozen jello grapes with the perfect amount of sourness, we’ve got you covered. Our easy frozen sour patch dessert only takes a few minutes to make and we think you’ll love it as much as we do.

Jump to:

• What Is It?
• Why Is It Popular?
• What Does It Taste Like?
• Jello Grapes Vs Crack Grapes
• Is It Healthy?
• Sour Patch Grapes Ingredients
• How to make them?
• Making Sugar-Free Jello Grapes
• Sour Patch Grapes Using Lemon Juice
• How To Make Rainbow Jello Frosted Grapes?
• Cooking Tips
• How To Store
• How To Enjoy Them?
• Jello Grapes Recipe: Healthy Sour Patch Grapes

What Is It?

Sour patch grapes are made out of lemon, grapes and jello powder. To create this frozen dessert snack, you simply have to coat flavoured gelatin over the fresh fruits before freezing them. Once your frozen jello grapes have hardened, you can eat them immediately. 

Why Is It Popular?

Even though grapes in jello frozen has been around as a dessert, it only became more widespread because of TikTok. As internet sensations go, people love quick and easy alternatives, and this icy concoction is no exception.

As this recipe uses only grapes and jello powder and only takes a few simple steps, many Tiktokers began attempting to make frozen jello grapes. The deliciousness of this simple treat was such a surprise to many that this ice dessert quickly became viral.

What Does It Taste Like?

Frozen grapes with jello taste sour and sweet. You’ll get a wholesome tartness and a sweet, fruity burst of flavour with every bite. Moreover, you will also taste a flurry of either lime, cherry, orange or other fruits, depending on the flavour of gelatine that you chose to coat your grapes with. We noticed that the jelly flavours taste so much stronger because we’re just using the powder.

Jello Grapes Vs Crack Grapes

It is common to mistake frozen grapes with jello for another variation known as 'crack grapes'. Crack candied grapes are fruits that have been coated in a type of candy syrup. The syrup dries clear, and when the vine fruits are rolled in hard candy, they become colourful and increasingly delicious. This is also another snack that both kids and adults love to have. It reminds of us the Chinese treat named Tanghulu.

However, as the fruit is usually covered with sugary candy, the 'crack' types are considered less healthy than their 'jello' counterparts. Nevertheless, we also find that many people like to fuse the two recipes together.

In addition to coating the sweet fruits with candy, you can also use jello to build up the taste profile of the dessert. Sour candies like Cry Baby Tears are a particular favourite, which balances well with the sweetness of frozen jello grapes.

Nevertheless, we also find that many people like to fuse the two recipes together. In addition to coating the sweet fruits with candy, they also use jello to build up the taste profile of the dessert. 

Sour candies like Cry Baby Tears are a particular favourite, which balances well with the sweetness of the jello grapes. 

Is It Healthy?

The key ingredient, grapes, is ultimately a healthy fruit. They mostly consist of water and have lots of nutrients, including potassium, manganese, vitamins C and B. In particular, you can get a healthy dose of vitamin K from eating these vine fruits. The colours of the berries are derived from naturally occurring flavonoids in them. 

On the other hand, jello powder usually contains processed sugar and artificial colouring, which are quite unhealthy. However, you can opt to choose brands that contain a lower sugar content or even artificial sweeteners to counter this.

Overall, frozen fruit is better than ice cream because it doesn't contain as much fat or sugar. One serving of these frosted fruit treats contains a calorie count of about 115 calories. Overall, grapes in jello frozen are a low-calorie sweet treat that contains natural nutrition.

Sour Patch Grapes Ingredients

The ingredients you will need to make frozen grapes with jello are grapes and jello powder. We also love adding lemon to the recipe for an added sour kick, albeit this is optional.

Grapes

Seedless grapes are the ideal choice to make these tiktok treats as they offer seamlessly juicy and crunchy bites. 

We recommend using popular varieties like Muscat or Thompson seedless. Muscat grapes have a juicy, sweet flavour and mild floral fragrance. They also have a tropical aftertaste that resembles lychees. Meanwhile, Thompson seedless has a sweet-tart flavour and a crispier texture. These two varieties are also much sweeter than the average supermarket bunch.

Alternatively, you can also use another sought-after variety, like cotton candy grapes. These seedless hybrid fruits are sweet and juicy with a crunchy mouthfeel. They also have a subtle vanilla and cotton-candy-like aftertaste. Although this variety is not available all year round, you can expect to find them in your local stores in early June.

Furthermore, both green and black grapes work fine for our recipe. However, the former has a sweet-tart and a mildly sour taste. In comparison, its black counterpart is generally sweet and more tangy. 

Best size and ripeness

You should ensure to choose fruits that are fresh, firm, round, and less oblong. Moreover, you should avoid using overripe, mushy, and shrivelled fruits that can cause uneven coatings. Without an uneven surface, the powdered jello can stick better and uniformly on round and firm fruit.

Since bigger fruits would need more coating powder, go for smaller ones. You can also mix both big and small varieties for a visually appealing dessert. Furthermore, you should rinse the fruits first when preparing this dessert to remove any chemical residue that may be present on their skin.

Although grapes are the original fruit used for this frozen jello grapes recipe, you can get creative and try this recipe with other fruits. Just like how candied strawberries have become another TikTok trend, jello strawberries are probably worth the try, too. Bite-sized fruits such as blueberries and strawberries are also other tasty variations that you could try.

Jello

Pick your favourite jelly powder to make these treats. We used 4 different flavours: strawberry, raspberry, forest berries and orange, to get a good mix. While you cannot go wrong with picking out a flavour for jello, it’s best to note that conventional gelatin contains animal products.

When picking a brand, we tend to pick ones with low-sugar content and are vegan-friendly. This is especially useful when we make frozen jello grapes for a party of people with different diets.

In the UK, we like using Wibble’s jelly crystals, but there are plenty of other options out there, such as Simply Delish mix vegan jelly powder.

Vegan-friendly, gluten and sugar-free Simply Delish Jello Mix
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How to make them?

Our candied grapes recipe is easy and fun to make, even with kids. All you have to do is rinse your fruit and destem them. Then, place them in a freeze-safe container and squeeze lemon over them. You can also use lime for an extra punch of sourness. Mix them together with your favourite flavour of gelatin in a plastic container. Then, pop the jello powder-coated fruits in the freezer for 1 hour or until they are frozen. These TikTok grapes are then ready for you and your friends to enjoy.

If you want to make sure your sour patch grapes are evenly coated, you can roll the fruits individually using toothpicks. Although this method can be time-consuming, you’ll get grapes that are thoroughly covered and look a lot nicer too.

Making Sugar-Free Jello Grapes

To make jello frozen grapes with no added sugars, we like to use a sugar-free jello alternative. You can then follow the exact steps in our main healthy sour patch candy recipe. For more variation in flavours, you can also mix two different flavours together. We’ve tried using half a pack of raspberry and half a pack of orange powder. If you roll your fruits in these, you’ll get a lovely yellow and pink outer shell.

Although our sugar-free dessert won't taste as sweet as the ones you make with sugary jello powder, you can still get a natural burst of juicy sweetness and a crunchy bite from the frozen fruit. Ultimately, we do think this option is healthier than the sugary version.

Sour Patch Grapes Using Lemon Juice

If you love a sour burst in your candies, then we highly recommend making jello grapes with lemon juice. We love this recipe twist as it adds a surprising layer of flavour, which we think is perfect for parties.

You just need to cut a piece of lemon and squeeze out half a lemon over 200 g of grapes. This ratio is a good starting point to get a balance between sweet and sour for the candy. However, you can adjust this to your own taste.

Alternatively, you can swap lemon with lime juice to get a similar sour kick. However, please note that lime has a slightly bitter aftertaste, whereas lemon has a mildly sweet undernote. Similarly, you can also use other small berries and follow the steps above to make a different sweet and sour treat. 

How To Make Rainbow Jello Frosted Grapes?

To make this frosted dessert colourful, you will first need to get gelatine packs with different colourings. Ideally, you want to get each colour of the rainbow. However, having four distinct colours such as red, blue, green and yellow, would usually be enough to produce a 'rainbow' effect.

When you have all the powders ready, open the packages of jello and put each colour in its own dish. Use a toothpick to poke holes in the rinsed wet berries and then cover them in the coloured powder. Put all of these on a tray, one right after another. Try not to get any colours mixed together. 

Alternatively, you can also choose to put the fruits in separate plastic zip-lock bags. Then, pour the powders into different bags and shake the closed zip lock until mixed thoroughly. Finally, put the fruit into the freezer. 

Cooking Tips

Here are some useful tips when preparing frozen jello grapes at home that we think you’ll find handy.

Using powdered jello

When you’re handling the powdered jello, it can stain your fingers if you coat the fruit using your hands. So, we recommend using a toothpick or a skewer to poke and handle each grape. Alternatively, you can also use a plastic container to shake the berries with the coloured powder together.

You can coat your tiktok grapes with jello by pouring the flavoured powder on a large plate. Then, roll each fruit until it's completely covered. Although this method will take more time, it is effective in getting an evenly coated berry.

If you like a thicker coat, feel free to double-coat the frozen grapes. Let the first layer set in the freezer before recoating this dessert again with jello powder.

If you want to make your frozen dessert more flavourful, cut some of the berries in half before coating them with the jello powder. The powder can easily stick to their wet and juicy interior.

Preparing the fruit

Definitely make sure you wash the grapes before freezing them, regardless if they are organic or not. Not a lot of people know but this vine fruit is on a list of produce that are known to have a lot of pesticides used on them. The skin of these fruits are covered with a whitish and waxy film called "bloom". Although this film isn't toxic, it tastes chalky and bitter. The only way to remove this natural coating is by washing the fruit thoroughly.

You should rinse the fruit if they get dried out but don't keep them in water, as they will get too wet. This will cause the powder to clump together, resulting in an uneven spread of jello.

Conversely, you must not completely dry the water off of the fruit. The liquid helps the jello powder stick to the surface of the berries. If the grapes are too dry, then it is likely to have an uneven coat of flavoured powder. This will ultimately ruin the overall taste. 

Lemon or Lime?

You can swap lemon or lime juice with powdered citric acid for an extra sour flavour. Mix a pinch of this powder with the powdered jello before coating the fruit. Since powdered citric acid is odourless, you won't get a citrusy scent on your frozen dessert.

How to get an even coat on your sour patch grapes

To get evenly frozen jello grapes, you can lay them on a baking sheet in a large tray. Then, set the coated berries on the tray, cover them with another sheet, and freeze everything for an hour. This method will allow enough space for the fruit to properly freeze. Since these berries aren't stacked on top of one another, your frozen dessert also won't stick together.

Just before serving, you can roll each fruit one by one in more powder for a prettier look.

How To Store

You can keep this quick dessert in the freezer for up to a month. If you store them properly in an airtight container, it will taste just the same as freshly made. However, we would avoid storing these sweet treats in the refrigerator as the coating will turn mushy and gooey in just a few hours.

How To Enjoy Them?

We usually serve and enjoy this snack as it is. However, you can easily serve these perfect party treats as desserts. Furthermore, you can put them in drinks to serve as ice cubes. The frozen jello grapes will slowly thaw in the beverage, allowing the flavours to gradually seep into the taste of the drink. You could also use them as an interesting topping for some ice cream or sorbet.

If you enjoyed making frozen jello grapes at home, why not try out our ultimate no-churn taro ice cream recipe? For more delicious antics, tips, tricks and recipes, check us out on YouTube.

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Are you looking for another cooling dessert to make at home? Let us introduce you to our taro ice cream recipe. You won't need an ice cream machine for this easy, no-churn recipe either.