In the comment section people have stated it should work with honey, but has anyone actually tried? I hate the thought of using cornsyrup.

Wow, thank you so much for the lesson! Very informative. My project for the weekend.

You could try using honey, but I would not recommend it. The purpose of the corn syrup is not just for the sweetening. It is a form of invert sugar, which helps prevent crystallization. It is also NOT the same thing as the HFCS- high fructose corn syrup you hear about. Corn syrup is all glucose, the other has been altered to convert some of it to fructose, another sort of sugar that is also sweeter tasting. When you make candy, especially caramels, you want to avoid ending up with a crystallized, grainy end product. That's where the invert sugar comes in, and why so many recipes call for it. So if you don't want to use corn syrup, you need to sub in another form of invert sugar. Honey isn't one. But you could use brown rice syrup or golden syrup. Each of those will bring it's own flavor profile to the mix, with the brown rice being a bit more on the nutty side, and the golden syrup a bit more buttery. The corn syrup will be the most neutral tasting of the group. Chemically speaking, they are all glucose syrups- so no one type is better than the other for you. Most importantly, all are invert sugars, which is useful for candy making.