The Best in the Box

I myself am hoping for a box of buttery caramels, coated in dark chocolate and dusted with the tiniest flecks of sea salt (hint, hint). Even before American caramels first underwent a salty makeover, in the late 1990s, they were always the ones I pulled out of the box, discarding any chocolate-covered cherries and marshmallows that obstructed my path.

The good news for me and my fellow caramel lovers is that more and more of the country’s best artisanal chocolate makers are producing them. The quality is higher than ever, with chocolatiers obsessing over the percentage and blends of the chocolate coating, the feed of the cows that produce the butter, the minerality of the sea salt. Naturally this attention to detail comes at a cost, and buying a box of these chocolates can be akin to investing in a bottle of fine Champagne — with good cause. The best of them demand to be taken as seriously as coffee or wine.

So which caramels should you give your Valentine? To find the best American small-batch, handmade chocolate-covered salted caramels, the Dining section held a blind tasting. Julia Moskin, Florence Fabricant and I sampled 27 candies, alongside Karen DeMasco, the pastry chef at Locanda Verde in Manhattan, and Michael Laiskonis, the creative director of the Institute of Culinary Education (and the former executive pastry chef at Le Bernardin). All can be bought online and delivered by the 14th.

But first, in case you were trapped under a gluten-free cupcake and missed the salted caramel phenomenon, here is a brief history: It’s nothing new. Ages before Starbucks introduced its salted caramel mocha, caramel candy made with salted butter was a traditional confection in France, Brittany in particular.

What set those French caramels apart from regular caramel candy are both the type and amount of salt used. Fleur de sel, a high-quality flaky sea salt, is the choice for most caramels from Brittany, with sel gris, a chunky mineral-rich gray sea salt, a close second. And while a small pinch of salt is used to enhance flavor in nearly all caramel recipes, salted caramels contain enough salt to make its presence known. “Caramel with salt is like berries with lemon,” said François Payard, the noted pastry chef, who offers salted caramels of his own (though he isn’t this season). “The salt amps up the flavor of the caramel and balances it.”

Jansen Chan, the director of pastry operations at the International Culinary Center (formerly the French Culinary Institute), said that American pastry chefs began the widespread salting of their caramel and sprinkling their chocolate desserts with a pinch of fleur de sel in the early 1990s. “Salted” may now seem like a buzz word, but it remains a cue for diners, who usually don’t expect an assertive salt flavor in their desserts. “If we say something is salted, it’s to call out the salt so people aren’t surprised,” Mr. Chan said. “It gives them the chance to appreciate the contrast of salty against the sweet.”

Dipping the salted caramels in melted chocolate was a natural next step.

In San Francisco, Michael Recchiuti was one of the first American confectioners to coat fleur de sel caramels in chocolate, in 1998. Fran Bigelow, in Seattle, tweaked the form in 1999, garnishing her chocolate-covered caramels with a sprinkle of French gray sea salt. Andrina Bigelow, the chief executive of Fran’s Chocolates (and Fran Bigelow’s daughter), said her mother did this to retain the crunchy texture of the salt, which would otherwise melt into the caramel. Today, the gray salt-topped caramels are iconic (so much so that we did not include them in our blind tasting, since they are too recognizable), and salted caramel chocolates are de rigueur for artisanal and commercial chocolate makers across the country.

During our tasting, two things quickly became clear. The first was that the balance of salt, caramel and chocolate is crucial. And, as Florence said, “Who knew there were so many ways to make a salted caramel chocolate?” (The full tasting report is below.) We tended to prefer the caramels that were more sparing in their use of salt, including several with just a few crystals sprinkled on top. Similarly, we all liked the confections with just enough thin, crisp chocolate to contain the caramel center. A thick chocolate shell was distracting.

Really, then, the chocolate and salt are supporting players, ones that should not obscure the star: the caramel, which is also the trickiest element to get right.

Good caramel must find the right mix of bitterness and sweetness. The darker you cook the caramel, the less sweet and more bitter it becomes. Since caramel is such a sweet flavor to begin with, cooking it enough is key, but overdoing it can lead to an unappealing acrid note. Of the chocolates in our tasting, cloying and undercooked was more of a problem than bitter and burnt. As for texture, the caramel ran the gamut from as runny as syrup to thick and chewy. We liked them all, as long as the chewy ones didn’t stick to our teeth, and the liquid ones didn’t drip all over our shirts.

The best caramels quickly dissolved on the tongue, leaving a pronounced caramelized, buttery flavor in their wake. Even the most curmudgeonly Valentine couldn’t help but melt at that thought.

Glossy and Assertive
Tumbador
The shiny, ultra-thin domed shell barely contains the burnt-sugar-flavored, delicately textured caramel within.
tumbadorchocolate.com

Dark and Salty
Éclat
These tiny mouthfuls have the silkiest of chocolate shells, filled with a liquid dark caramel and just enough salt.
eclatchocolate.com

Small and Sleek
EH Chocolatier
“Great synergy between dark chocolate and caramel,” wrote Michael Laiskonis in his tasting notes. This diminutive dome contains a nicely runny caramel with undertones of brown butter.
ehchocolatier.com

Downright Sexy
William Dean
The gently flavored, just salty enough caramel erupts from its wafer-like shell in the best possible way. The caramel is on the sweeter side, without crossing the line into cloying.
williamdeanchocolates.com

Creamy and Classic
Fleurir
The only milk-chocolate-coated bonbons to make the cut, these stand out for their restraint. They are not too sweet, not too salty, and walk the line between chewy and soft.
fleurirchocolates.com

Intense and Bittersweet
Recchiuti
Mildly salted on the inside and not on top, these buttery confections are for lovers of high-cacao-percentage chocolates. “Elegant, bitter,” as Julia Moskin succinctly put it.
recchiuti.com

Brawny and Straightforward
Jean-Marie Auboine
These chocolate squares are larger and more substantial than most (“Beefy,” as Florence Fabricant said), with an extremely soft, mild caramel center held in place by a dense chocolate coating.
jmauboinechocolates.com

Highly Refined
L’atelier du Chocolat
This ultra-creamy caramel has a bare hint of sugar and is studded with crunchy crystals of flaky salt. Perfect for those who love savory more than sweet.
egchocolates.com

Chewy and Well Balanced
Hedonist
Flavored with a touch of vanilla and the right hit of salt, the caramel has what Karen DeMasco described as “a beautiful runny consistency.” It melts on the tongue once the chocolate dissolves.
hedonistchocolates.com

Robust and Rustic
Sahagún
Meant to be eaten in one bite, this bittersweet caramel has a syrupy center that flows freely and lusciously once you crack the rather sturdy chocolate shell.
sahagunchocolates.com