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'Caramel Is All The Good Within This World'

mrobenalt
/
Pixabay

I don’t have a big sweet tooth.  I never have.  I didn’t even like chocolate, the ultimate sugar cliche, until something shifted after I was pregnant.  And I still, after 45 years on this planet, believe chips are a fine meal replacement – especially in the corn or tortilla families.  

I would rather have anything savory for breakfast over the sweet; think, hashes, eggs, burritos, tacos… But, then…then there’s caramel.  I do love caramel. Caramel almost makes me rethink everything I believe about having a sweet tooth as well as rethink everything I know about the universe.  Caramel is all the good within this world.

And I’m an equal opportunity caramel lover as well. As long as there are no nuts anywhere near, anyway.  Nuts belong elsewhere and never near my desserts.  My first memories of caramel are equal parts binging bags of Kraft caramels around Halloween every year and my mom making her homemade caramel every Christmas.  My love is so deep that I appreciated both and then anything else in between; buttery, smooth, slightly harder, more chewy, deep in color, light and soft, to my tongue, it didn’t matter.

A quick internet search shows as many different recipes for caramel as there are people’s opinions, it seems.  Even though the basic ingredients (dairy (butter and a cream of some type), sugar and vanilla) are mostly the same, there is something they all try to claim to make them stand apart, or better from the rest.  Looking over the first few in a list, some of the claims of better include swearing by a strict use of a candy thermometer, others by tossing the thermometer and using the more old-fashioned ‘eyeball and see when it sets up on a cold spoon’ method my mom always employed. Some use traditional cream while others make a promise with sweetened condensed milk.  And then, each recipe will suggest turning it into candy or glazes and sauces or to cover nuts or apples or their caramel will form the basis of various desserts; sundaes, cheesecakes, brulees.  For such a simple candy, the varieties seem endless and I’m always anxious to try them all.

One year on vacation, we found what has since become my favorite piece of caramel while standing in a checkout line in a bustling, coastal, Oregon town.  These specific caramels melt in your mouth unlike any I’ve had and unwrapping one makes my mouth water with anticipation and their strong smell of sugar and cream conjures up a feeling of childishness, in every possible good way.  That trip had me consuming more than my fair share and by the last bite of the last one, I was already dreaming of having more and counting the days, all 600 plus of them, until I could have those caramels again. 

Our next trip to the coast brought disaster.  The store we had first found them in was sold out!  I talked to a couple of people and found the name of the small company that produced the happy sugar but feared it would be another couple of years until I could try finding them again.  Heartbroken, we made our way to the town we would call home for the week and stopped into their tiny neighborhood grocery to stock up.  As I went to pay, my head caught the sight of a familiar box and it took several seconds before it registered:  my caramels!  A full box of my caramels!  I bought a handful of the cellophane wrapped treasures and dropped them into our grocery bag.  I had never been so happy to see something so sweet in my life. 

I’ve wondered over the years what made these caramels so good.  So unusually good.  I thought, perhaps, it was vacation brain morphing them into some kind of candy anomaly but, then, foisting them upon family upon our return batted that theory down.  I was assured they really were just that delicious.

Armed with the name, I found this was a small company based on the Oregon coast.  I also found that the full name was Butter Cream Caramels, leaning into the theory that the ingredients are virtually the same as every other recipe floating through space and time.  It was also apparent that I was not the only one addicted to these sugar confections.  Or that my equal opportunity status was in serious jeopardy after laying my hands on this specific variation. What I didn’t find, however, was any explanation for their goodness.  A secret spilled; an ingredient list divulged.  It seems the mystery will remain and those caramels will live long in my memory and foremost in future vacation plans.

There seem to be differing theories of where caramel originated and how it became popular.  The French, Italians, Egyptians and a smattering of origin stories stemming from the middle east are all mentioned as possibilities.  So, then, we owe not only Sara Jo’s candy store, tucked away in a small Oregon coastal town, but the world at large, a debt of gratitude for the greatest sugar this tortilla-chip-aholic has ever known.