Caramel Candies: Our Favorites for 2022!

Odds are that ever since your childhood, caramel has been something you have always thoroughly enjoyed. Since you’ve found yourself here, we want to talk about the soft, chewy caramel candies that we’ve all grown to love. Since its inception nearly a thousand years ago, caramel has added a sweet flavor to our lives in more ways than one.

What is caramel?

Caramel is simply sugar that is browned and melted into a creamy, smooth syrup like substance. This chewy candy can take many different forms, depending on how it is prepared. It can be served as wet caramels - a dark amber liquid that is perfect for ice cream sundaes, or to cover nuts like pecans, (which turns them into pralines). You can even use this runny, liquid caramel sauce to coat popcorn to create a deliciously sweet caramel corn.

Turn up the heat a little bit, and mix in some milk or heavy whipping cream to the caramelized sugar and you’ll create a more solid form of caramel candy. This is known as the “firm ball” stage of cooking sugar. What you have made here can be the perfect addition to chocolate bars and other forms of confections.

Finally, if you keep increasing the heat, you will end up with a hard candy form of caramel. This is the “hard-crack” stage of cooking sugar. At this point, you may add butter to create toffee, or you can let it harden, then separate it into little squares to make caramel hard candies.

The surprisingly unknown origin of caramel

We know a lot about human history, especially when it comes to our food. While people have been cooking sugar to the point of caramelization for at least a millennia, no one really knows who created the first caramel candy.

Many historians have agreed that the Ancient Persians first discovered caramel sometime around the year 1000 A.D. But this concoction was surprisingly not meant for eating.

Beauty was an important aspect of their culture. You can find evidence of this dating back to 1900 B.C. where primitive razors and tweezers have been discovered. From this, we know that many Middle Eastern cultures took their beauty very seriously.

One of the most important aspects of their beauty regimen was dealing with body hair. Most of the primitive methods of removing hair were, well… let’s just say they could be quite unpleasant.

This led some Persians to find a method of dealing with unsightly body hair that involved boiling liquid honey and oil until it became a thick, sticky substance. This could be slathered onto parts of the body and left to harden. Once it was hard, it could be pulled of, taking any hair in the area along with it. This process is called “sugaring” and it’s likely that a beauty salon in your area currently offers a very similar service.

While the concoction was probably delicious, there is little evidence of people using caramelized sugar as a confection until sometime in America in the 1800’s. Somewhere around 1850, milk and other forms of fat started being added to the sugar and water to produce a chewier form of caramel. These candies would prove to become immensely popular as hundreds of American candy companies were producing these hard candies and chewy caramels.

In fact, Milton S. Hershey’s first successful business was the Lancaster Caramel Company. This company was the impetus that helped make Hershey a household name across the world. In looking for new ways to coat his caramels, Hershey considered chocolate as one of the coating options. After years of experimentation, Hershey perfected his recipe for milk chocolate and the rest is history!

At Redstone Foods, we just so happen to love all things candy! With hundreds of caramel options available on the market today, it can be a monumental task to choose just a few of your favorites. With options like chocolate bars, bulk candy, hard candies, taffy and even soda pop, there are plenty of ways to enjoy rich caramel flavors!

Here are just a few of our favorite caramel candies for 2022:

Lindt Lindor Balls - Caramel Milk Chocolate

Lindt makes some of the smoothest milk chocolate in the world. What could possibly make them even better you might ask? How about adding a rich, irresistibly smooth caramel center! We guarantee that these are the perfect balance of caramel and chocolate. Order these in wholesale quantities on our website, here.

Twix Salted Caramel

The classic caramel chocolate cookie bar you know and love has been made even better with just a simple pinch of sea salt! Twix has taken the soft and crunchy, sweet and salty experience to a whole new level with this bar. We definitely think you should order these Salted Caramel Twix bars. Your customers will thank you!

Werther’s Original Sugar Free Hard Candy

In keeping up with modern trends, Werther’s Original Sugar Free Hard Candies leave the sugar behind, and you probably won’t even miss it! Staying true to the original hard candy, Werther’s Sugar Free still has the delicious, buttery, creamy caramel flavor you know and love, but no sugar for those who are looking for alternative ways to satisfy your sweet tooth!

Darrell Lea Caramel Craving Milk Chocolate Blocks

From the land down under comes Darrell Lea’s Carmel Craving milk chocolate block. This Australian candy bar combines rich, caramel-flavored fudge pieces, with chunks of crunchy caramel to go above and beyond to deeply satisfy your intense caramel cravings. All of Darrell Lea’s chocolates are made with only the finest ingredients. This bar is also proudly palm oil free.

Goetze Caramel Creams

Goetze Caramel Creams are made of a delectably soft, chewy caramel with a rich creamy center. These were originally marketed as Bulls-Eyes and are truly unlike any other caramel candy ever made. These contain wheat which makes them chewy, but not sticky and their vanilla center is the same original flavor that was introduced all the way back in 1918.

Chocolove XO No Sugar Added Salted Caramel in 60% Dark Chocolate

Chocolove truly are masters of the chocolate bar. Each one of their bars is made with non-GMO ingredients and they are Rainforest Alliance Certified. Chocolove’s XO No Sugar Added Salted Caramel Dark Chocolate bar is sweetened naturally with chicory root fiber. The “X” stands for extra fiber and the “O” stands for zero sugar added. Enjoy this bar today as one of our featured October Monthly Deals!

Godiva Signature Mini Bars – Salted Caramel Milk Chocolate

Belgian chocolatiers, Godiva make some of the most flavorful chocolate bars in the world. If you truly love caramel and chocolate together, then you must try their Salted Caramel Milk Chocolate Signature Mini Bars sometime very soon! These bars include a salted toffee crunch that pairs nicely with their smooth milky chocolate. Take your snacking to new exquisite heights with these little gold-foil wrapped chocolate bars!

Bailey’s Irish Cream Salted Fudge Caramels

Your favorite Irish treat just got even better! Now you can enjoy the rich creamy flavor of Bailey’s Irish Cream in a salted fudge caramel! Plop one of these into your hot chocolate or cup of coffee and you’ll be saying “top o’ the mornin to ya!” in no time. These make for the perfect Christmas gift and can be ordered in wholesale on our website, here.

Boots Beverages Caramel Apple Soda

Who says caramel is just for eating? Besides your morning caramel macchiato, you can also enjoy the rich caramel flavor in an ice cold craft soda. Boot’s Beverages Caramel Apple Soda tastes just like a caramel-covered apple, but without all the sticky mess! These gourmet craft sodas are made with all natural ingredients and pure cane sugar.

We hope you enjoyed our look at caramel as much as we enjoyed writing it! At Redstone Foods, candy is our way of life. We’ve been serving customers all over the world since 1966. With our massive inventory of over 6,000 different and unique items, you’re sure to find all the right products for your store.

Sign up for an account online, or give us a call with any questions you may have. We are always happy to hear from you!

1-800-444-3520