Chewy, Gooey & Found All Over
From desserts and ice creams to bonbons and bars, the trend of nostalgic and comforting has merged with sweet and salty to prolong this delectable trend that I wouldn't be surprised to see extend into the beverage category.
Chewy or soft, liquid or creamy, grey salt, smoked salt, sea salt, pink salt, even fleur de sel caramels are big sellers sold as-is in simple twist wraps or drenched in milk or dark chocolate in beribboned gift boxes. As the trend of sweet with salty proceeds to flow forward, crunchy salt crystals atop chewy sweet caramels blanketed in rich chocolate continues to delight the curious and the connoisseur.
Even Häagen-Dazs jumped on the salty caramel bandwagon with its Fleur de Sel Caramel ice cream. Häagen-Dazs also recently launched a new all natural 37% cacao milk chocolate coated Fleur de Sel caramel ice cream bar. Leave it to the iconic ice cream maker to capitalize on a popular chocolate category trend by upping the ante with the hand-harvested French "flower of the salt" — a rare, delicate salt that offsets the sweetness of the caramel and complements the creaminess of the ice cream. Soon, we may see salted caramel fudge sauce on our supermarket shelves. And more and more salt caramel truffles are being introduced in mass and specialty channels. Salted caramel hot chocolate anyone?