Today's Delightful Bites post hails from the City of the Gateway Arch-Saint Louis, Missouri. You know how I previously mentioned my ACA (Artisan Candy Addiction)? Well, this Taste of Saint Louis sampler box from The Caramel House just furthered that addiction-in a good way, of course. The Caramel House is an artisan caramel company that creates handcrafted, fresh and mouthwatering caramels in a variety of interesting and tantalizing flavors. What really sets their company apart from others like them is that not only do they use the freshest ingredients available (local, no preservatives, additives, or stabilizers) in each and every single batch, but they also infuse flavors from well-known and popular brands in St. Louis in most of their caramels. In addition, each caramel is carefully handcrafted, handwrapped, and handpackaged-these days, consider yourself lucky if you can get your hands on anything like this. Once again, SUPPORT local businesses and artisan-created goods. I've never been to St. Louis, so I had some pretty high expectations of this 'Taste of Saint Louis' box.
Let's get started:
✿Taste of Saint Louis Box ($15)
✿Contains 12 caramels-2 of each of the flavors The Caramel House offers: Almond, Bacon, Beer & Pretzel, Beer & Chip, Cookies & Caramel, Vanilla
✿View upon opening-Each set of 2 comes individually packaged (see below)
✿Description of the individual flavors:
1. Almond: Using Lochhead Vanilla and roasting our own almonds makes this flavor a favorite. Fresh creamy vanilla caramel with the bite of roasted almonds makes this the perfect treat for nut lovers.
2. Bacon: Using Missouri Bacon gives this soft caramel a sweet and smoky flavor. This has been called our “Man Candy” but we know everyone loves it!
3. Beer & Chip: Using locally made ingredients from The Billy Goat Chip Company and Schlafly Beer, our Beer & Chip flavor is one of our newest sweet and savory flavors. This is one to try!
4. Beer & Pretzel: Locally made Schlafly Beer and Gus' Pretzels make this flavor a hit! Fresh salted caramel with the crunch of pretzels. Yum!
5. Cookies & Caramel: Our Cookies & Caramel uses Saint Louis' own Dad's Cookie and our fresh caramel. This is one delicious treat for cookie lovers.
6. Vanilla: Our fresh creamy vanilla caramel made with Lochhead Vanilla is the favorite among caramel fans. One bite and you'll be stuck on these!
✿Out of the baggies-caramel goodness
✿PACKAGING: LOVED it! Honestly, I appreciate any type of packaging where the company puts so much love and time to create. And as you can tell from the pictures, The Caramel House does just that. The caramels comes hand-packaged in a chic eco-friendly box, making it a perfect gift to give to your friends, family, teachers and more. In addition to the exterior packaging, the gem is on the inside. Instead of having to play "Guess That!," each of the flavors in this box comes individually labeled, so you know exactly what's going into your mouth, especially if you may have allergies or special dietary restrictions. It was really thoughtful of them to package it this way and to take the time to do so, when other companies would've just tossed them all together and let them be on their merry way. But NO-at The Caramel House, each of their caramels are given special attention, just how it should be. Also, I just love their logo-the cute caramel that says "The," followed by Caramel House beneath it.
✿TASTE: BRILLIANT! When I said I had high expectations for this box-each and every one of those expectations were met! The unique flavors in this box absolutely blew me away!! Come on, I know what you're thinking....Bacon, Beer and Chips, what?!? No-don't be fooled or make those faces until you've actually had a bite of them. I'm pretty much a bacon fanatic, especially when it comes to bacon and sweets. While I've had bacon and chocolate, bacon in a lollipop and so on, I've yet to try a bacon caramel. Two words-Porky Paradise. Seriously--smoky bacon enrobed in buttery and creamy caramel, this flavor was easily my favorite of the bunch. I also really enjoyed both beer flavors. Surprisingly, they weren't overwhelmingly beer flavored and gave the caramels their umph. It was much more subtle-the beer & pretzel had a pretzel chip in the center making it crunchy, and the beer & chip flavor had pieces of potato chips in every bite, making them both a salty/sweet treasure. How they managed to keep the chips and pretzel crunchy still amazes me. They'd be great flavors to give out at a tailgate, and fewer calories too. If those flavors didn't make you drool already, they also had some flavors that kids would enjoy too-Vanilla, Almond and Cookies. The vanilla caramel is so darn addicting-I love that it composes and is a part of each flavor they offer, it's a standard! There was some great crunch in the almond flavor due to the bountiful slivers of roasted almonds in each bite. And lastly, the cookies flavor was delicious. It was simply a vanilla caramel, topped with cookie crumbs/sprinkles and tasted like a mix between sugar/oatmeal/snickerdoodle cookies. I couldn't quite place my finger on it, but it was an amazing cookie fiesta inside of my mouth. Sadly, I only wish someone would fill my piñata with an endless amount of artisan caramels from The Caramel House.
✿RANDOM: Local ingredients for a local small business is the way-to-go. It's an ingenius idea to create a product using some of the most well-known food brands in your city-in this case that includes Gus' Pretzels, The Billy Goat Chip Factory, Dad's Cookies, Schlafly Beer and more! Because not only are you supporting The Caramel House, but you're also supporting the other local businesses that they do business with-keeping it local, keeping it real. We need to show the world that small businesses can do anything big businesses can, even better.
There you have it-The Caramel House caramels were a hit with myself and everyone in my household. Fresh, buttery, and creamy-it just doesn't get any better than that. Since there's that saying "Nobody is perfect," I'll just tell you that their caramels are nearly perfection (or a tiny baby step from it). Please do me a favor and treat yourself to a 'Taste of Saint Louis' box or a bag of just one flavor today! I bet you anything you won't be able to stop yourself once you've had a single bite, just like you wouldn't be able to stop yourself from eating one french fry in the drive-thru.
Want some for yourself?
Order them at: The Caramel House
Either online or at the various retailers listed here: Retail Locations
Show them some lovin here:
Peace, Love & Caramels,
-Sandy
FTC: This product was generously sent to me for the purpose of conducting a review, but all reviews and opinions expressed are my own.
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