Holiday Candy

This has bee n a long year for me and several of my friends so I decided to have a comfort food holiday gathering. My goal is to surround my guests with foods and munchies that aren’t fancy but make you hum when you eat them. While there will be some healthier food options, this is one party where chips, not vegetable sticks will make their way into the dip. Trader Joe’s makes awesome ripple cut potato chips so I took a moment to scroll through Fearless Flyer to see what other munchies or little sweets would be a good addition to my menu. It was there that I learned about their dark chocolate sea salt caramels. That was it for me: dark chocolate and caramel, I’m there.

Once I arrived at home with the candy, I remembered that a gracious host should try a new item before serving it to guests. I would after all hate to place my guests in the uncomfortable position of eating something unpleasant at a comfort food dinner party. The small flat candy box contained 12 perfectly shaped chocolates. Craggy mounds of sea salt fit neatly into the swirled folds that adorned their shiny, brown crowns. My first bite released a ribbon of liquid caramel that dripped onto my bottom lip. As I inhaled to retrieve the fallen caramel, I detected a faint hint of coconut. Though not unpleasant, the flavor was definitely unexpected. I shifted my attention to the rich, velvety dark chocolate. The chocolate melted smoothly on my tongue with the sea salt providing a lovely contrast to the finish.

I finished the first chocolate and quickly plucked another one from the box. Gingerly, I bit the candy’s corner so as not to make the center leak out. Again, the trace of coconut filled my mouth.  Flipping over the box, I read that the candy contained coconut oil. I was somewhat disappointed that coconut oil preceded butter fat in the ingredients. Though I would have loved this candy had there been more butter than coconut oil, they are a nice little sweet treat. Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Caramels make a great accompaniment to a strongly brewed cup of coffee either hot or cold. Give them a try for your holiday menu.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 14th, 2009 at 5:07 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.