Trader Joe's Fleur De Sel Caramels

I am a really late comer to review these caramels
Cybele reviewed them way back in December of 2006! (read her review HERE) .
This review has become my white whale. I have sat down to write this thing more times in the last month they I care to admit. For some reason I just blank when I get here. I think what has made it so difficult is the fact that these caramels themselves are inconsistent.

Salted caramel is one of the great pleasures of life as far as I am concerned. Since having salted caramel, "normal" caramel while still good is just not as good.

Some of the caramels in this package have been outstanding. The salt hits your tongue in just the right way so that the flavor as a whole seems brighter, sweeter. The milk tastes richer. The gently burnt sugar lingers in your mouth. The texture is slightly sticky, yet buttery smooth. There's just enough "pull", but not so much that it gets stuck in your teeth.

But some of the caramels in the box... they have tasted like plastic. There's almost an envelope paste aftertaste to them. And there is no warning! you could have 2 or 3 blissfully perfect caramels in a row and then WHAM! you get hit by this foul glue-type abomination. There's no warning. They look the same, smell the same. They're in the same box! I don't get it! Did I get an off box? is this just the luck of the Trader Joe's draw? Has anyone else out there noticed this?

I am rating this based on the good caramels with the assumption I just got an off box- but I may revise this if the next box is the same way.




PURCHASED FROM:
Trader Joe's