Beloved gourmet caramel apple shop in Centerville reopens under new owners
Known for more than 200 flavors of handcrafted gourmet caramel apples, The Apple Basket in Centerville is back in business under new ownership after closing in late February.
Roz and Keith Turner, who started the beloved shop in July 2018, have handed over the reins to longtime customers Clayton and Cindy Brown.
“We’re really happy for them,” Roz Turner said of the Browns. “We’re so glad that they can continue this journey in this community.”
Nestled in the Galleria Pointe shopping center near the Houston County Galleria, The Apple Basket is at 100 North Houston Lake Blvd., Suite X.
Meet the new owners
The Browns also own Grammy’s Shaved Ice in Byron, where they make their home. Both are veterans. He served in the infantry in the U.S. Marine Corps.
Cindy Brown served as a medic for 12 years in the U.S. Army Reserve. She is an associate veterinarian at Plantation Centre Animal Hospital in Macon.
The Browns also volunteer as community coaches at Peach County High School. He coaches boys wrestling and she coaches girls wrestling.
Clayton Brown will manage the shop full-time and his wife is expected to join him at night when they craft the apples and on weekends.
Their 20-year-old son, Eli Brown, a sophomore at Andrew College in Cuthbert where he’s on the wrestling and football teams, is helping out at The Apple Basket over the summer.
“I just want to tell them (the Turners) I’m so thankful; that we’re just trying to carry on their legacy, and show them honor and grace,” Clayton Brown said.
“They’ve been great with us and teaching us what they do. So I just want to say, they’re just amazing people.”
Keith Turner has been working with Clayton Brown to get the handmade caramel, which coats the fresh and crisp Granny Smith apples, just right.
The Turners also started the Browns off with about 25 to 30 of their staple gourmet caramel apple flavors, with the Browns also planning to come up with some of their own.
Clayton Brown already is experimenting with a fortune cookie flavor. He also saw one that was a charcuterie caramel apple with cheese and pepperoni.
“It didn’t sound good but it tasted good so we’re going to be trying different stuff and see,” Brown said.
First day for the Browns
At the shop’s soft reopening Monday, the Turners were on hand helping Clayton Brown and Eli Brown.
Gourmet flavors for sale at the reopening included pina colada, pecan blast, key lime pie, apple pie, strawberry shortcake, cranberry almond, Himalayan, banana pudding, cotton candy, cookies and cream, red velvet, toffee, cheesecake, and fruity pebbles. The cost is $7.95 an apple.
Plain caramel apples are $5.95 each, while caramel apples coated with white or milk chocolate or peanuts are $6.95.
“Our whole intention was to create as many flavors as possible to accommodate everybody’s taste palette,” Roz Turner said when asked about the most popular flavor. “It’s really hard to say there’s a particular flavor. Everybody has their own favorite.”
While the gourmet apples are the mainstay, The Apple Basket also offers other sweets — including fresh pineapple rings covered in white chocolate and drizzled with dark chocolate for $3.45.
Other treats include white and chocolate covered strawberries, Oreo cookies covered in white chocolate, white and chocolate marshmallows and white and chocolate pretzel sticks.
First customer buys 35 gourmet caramel apples
Al Chromy, principal of Sacred Heart Catholic School in Warner Robins, was the first customer at the reopening. He bought 35 gourmet caramel apples for teacher appreciation day.
“Teachers love getting apples from The Apple Basket for any sort of occasion,” said Chromy, a longtime customer whose favorite is the pecan blast with caramel, chocolate and lots of pecans.
“I love the caramel,” Chromy said. “The apples are always fresh, and I love their creativity on the taste.”
Patti Bueno, who’s been a customer of The Apple Basket since it first opened under the original owners, was the second customer to arrive Monday.
“I always go to the old school caramel — just the plain caramel,” Bueno said. “But there’s so many ones that I’ve tried that are delicious: the pina colada, the banana pudding. So many great choices.”
Closed up shop, then decided to sell
With plans to return home to Hawaii, the Turners closed The Apple Basket on Feb. 28. At the time, they were “kind of wishy washy” about potentially selling the business.
“It’s my baby, and I wasn’t absolutely 100% sure I wanted to let it go to anybody, and we’re thinking maybe we’d do it on the Big Island,” Roz Turner said. “But then again, I have other plans on the Big Island, so I’m not sure that I want to do that either.
“So, the community was really, I’m not going to say upset, but disappointed when we closed and we knew that this would be exciting if we could find the right people to take it, it would be OK, and they (the new owners) would be OK because it’s absolutely the only thing like this out here. So I think Cindy and Clayton will be just fine. They’re a beautiful couple, very humble.”
On April 1, the Turners posted on The Apple Basket’s Facebook page that the business was reopening in May under new owners, with most commenters expressing excitement over the news and at least one asking whether it was an April Fool’s joke.
Saturday, the Turners announced on Facebook that the Browns were the new owners and encouraged their patrons to come out and welcome them during their soft opening.
Over the years, the Browns became friends with the Turners as they frequented The Apple Basket, Clayton Brown said. The Turners would come over to Grammy’s Shaved Ice once in a while.
“When they posted that they were leaving and they were going to sell it, of course me and my wife said let’s go see them and talk to them,” Brown said. “I said, ‘I can maybe make some of these and sell them at Grammy’s Shaved Ice.’
“And then we started talking to them, and they said, ‘Hey, we’re going to entertain maybe selling to somebody.’ They interviewed several different people and it worked out for us.”
Brown said he never expected to own and operate a gourmet caramel apple store but he always knew he wanted to own his own business.
“My parents taught me to work for yourself, so I knew I’d have a business or several businesses,” Brown said. “I just didn’t know what.”
In 2010, Brown started a carpet cleaning business that he closed in January 2024. In 2019, he and his wife took over Grammy’s Shaved Ice at 103 Church St. in Byron and now they also have The Apple Basket.
“It’s exciting, a little nerve racking because it’s something that I don’t know everything A to Z yet,” said Brown, who noted they aim to hold the standard to what the Turners set.
“We want them to look perfect,” Brown said of the gourmet caramel apples. “We want the same quality that they built up in this community.
“They’ve got 11,000 followers on Facebook. People understand what product they have, and I just want to keep that the same level.”
On their first day, the Browns sold out shortly before 2 p.m. Of the 126 caramel apples sold, the four Himalayan caramel apples coated with dark chocolate and sea salt were the first to go within 30 minutes of the store’s opening.
What’s next for the Turners?
Meanwhile, the Turners are considering the possibility of starting a new venture in the Big Island, including Airbnb tents, a candy line but not with apples, and homemade wine, a craft that Keith Turner has been perfecting.
But even if they don’t start a new business, they’ll be plenty busy tending vegetables and fruits as they plan to go 100% off-grid growing their own food, relying on solar energy, a non-conventional septic system and catching rainwater for drinking, Roz Turner said. They’re considering a simple prefab home for sleeping and showering.
She explained that island living is really about outdoor living. The couple plan to return to Hawaii as soon as they sell their Byron-area home.
For now, operating hours for The Apple Basket are Monday, Tuesday and Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. — or until sold out. Also open 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. Closed Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday.
This story was originally published May 6, 2025 at 10:58 AM.