The pros: Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Salted Caramels are for those who love pumpkin spice and are willing to embrace the very crunchy salty nature of this treat. To me, the chocolate was the highlight. The packaging was nice too. I was also glad I did not pay for a larger package then what was here.
The cons: For me, this salt was too assertive. This might also be pumpkin spice gone wrong.
The verdict: There is pumpkin spice done right. And pumpkin spice done wrong. For me,Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Salted Caramels was almost all wrong. Let's start out the good: the chocolate. The dark chocolate is of high quality and has a nice crisp crunch when you bite into it. However, from there it is all down hill.
While I was trying to enjoy the chocolate my tastebuds were completely overwhelmed by the super large coarse red Hawaiian sea salt. Now, I enjoy the sweet and salty combination, but this became terribly salty. Like grab a drink salty. It even tasted saltier than the rim of the last margarita I made. This salt is way to big and coarse to be on a candy this small. If it were half as much and half the size, then there is some possibility that this might have worked. As is, it's just overpowering. The caramel holds the flavor of the pumpkin spice (even though that doesn't seem to be listed in the ingredients). It almost reminded me of a sugary pumpkin pie filling. In my book thats taking it too far to be enjoyable. This was just a bit too much of almost everything and that's a bummer.
Pumpkin spice is nice, if it's done right. For $1.99 reach for Trader Joe's Apple Cider Caramels instead. Those had me wishing they sold them in a larger box.Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Salted Caramels on the other hand, had me wishing I had a a tall drink of water. Sorry, this is a big no from me. Really nice packaging, but a disappointing product inside.
Here is the visual run down of what you get if you buy this product:
The box of Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Salted Caramels:
The nutritional information and the ingredients:
Out of the package you get:
Would I buy this again? No, I would not buy Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Salted Caramels again. If I wanted extra calories then I'd rather pick up the new Apple Cider Caramels as they were fall in flavor, but did the season right.
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