Annie B’s Caramels

I bought these Annie B’s Caramels at a very fancy design/decor shop. So fancy, in fact, that the caramels were all that I could afford in there.

These caramels came in long rods, each about the size of my index finger, rather than in what I consider to be the traditional cube shape. I got one in original (blonde) and one in chocolate (dark brown).

I think Annie B’s was shooting for an old-timey look with their crinkly cellophane wrappers. I wasn’t such a big fan of the packaging – while it did a nice job not sticking to the caramel, it tore awkwardly in places when I tried to unwrap it, leaving me with random bits of cellophane.

The original caramel was far too sweet for my taste. There was a bit of butteriness to it, along with some bright fruity flavors that verged on sourness. The texture was also not what I expected – grainy and chewy rather than sticky and pulling.

I liked the chocolate one far more. In fact, before I looked it up, I thought it was treacle. It’s not as sweet as the original but manages to retain some of that bright fruitiness. There are notes of molasses and a depth to the flavor that’s reminiscent of bitter chocolate.

I enjoyed the chocolate one, which gets an OM, but the original was too sweet to be appealing for me, so that gets just an O.