Trader Joe's Chocolate Cara Cara Caramels

The pros:  Trader Joe's Chocolate Cara Cara Caramels are bite sized and a unique flavor combination.

The cons:  That unique flavor combination might not be for everyone including myself. Package is quite small containing about 10 pieces.

The verdict:  

Chocolate and orange are known to be a good pair. However, the pairing used here is much different. This product has a dark chocolate shell. The filling is a caramel and Cara Cara Orange filling. So the question is do orange and caramel work together?

My conclusion is they do not play well together. Yes, caramel and an acid like vinegar actually worked in Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Malt Vinegar Caramels. For the most part, I couldn't tell there was vinegar in them. I've made caramel in the past and added some lemon juice to up the acidity level. Unfortunately, Cara Cara Oranges are not noted for their acidity. They are known for their sweetness.

I really enjoyed the contrast in texture here. The chocolate had a nice snap to it and the caramel was extremely soft and will flow out of the candy easily. I was wishing for some contrast beyond sweet on sweet on sweet. Beyond its sweetness, I just did not like the orange flavored caramel. I just did not work with the dark chocolate shell. I just made everything taste off and unpleasant. When eaten separately, the flavors were ok. Perhaps Cara Cara Caramel could work in the same way that Trader Joe's Vietnamese Coffee Caramels worked. While the chocolate was fine on its own, it just did not work with that flavor of caramel. For me, this was $3.99 wasted on just 10 pieces of candy. I won't be repurchasing this item.

The box of Trader Joe's Chocolate Cara Cara Caramels:

The nutritional information and the ingredients:

Out of the package you get:

Would I buy this again?  Nope. This is one of those flavors that looked fine on paper, but didn't work in practice.

Want to see more items I've reviewed from Trader Joe's? Click on Thoughts & Reviews of Trader Joe’s for a searchable list.

Did you try it? Let me know what you think in the comments section!