Melt Sea Salt Caramel Bar

I know it is popular, or was popular, or something--but I love salted caramel, and I will never give it up, no matter how much it will date me in the future; I still love wild blue razzleberry flavors, anyway. I don't give up on my trendy foodstuffs.  I won't leave you in the caramel trenches, sea salt. This war ain't over.

So, whenever I see salted caramel anything my ears perk up and my lips smack. Gets a bit embarrassing, I mean, it is everywhere.

My husband picked up this bar from Melt's chocolate shop in Notting Hill as a li'l treat for me, and we both got to try some because I'm the nicest wife ever.

It was a sizable bar, about the length of my hand and a bit thicker than my thumb. The packaging was nice, but the eco-brown look isn't really my thing--but it is inoffensive and non-gender or age specific, making this bar a great gift idea for anyone who likes chocolate.

Upon opening, the dark chocolate smell is pretty strong and there is no telling of the caramel to come...

There is a good snap to the chocolate, as is often the case with high quality dark chocolate, and it has that nice half-sweet, half-smokey, citrus-fruity taste. The caramel, aw damn.  Damn, damn, damn. So nice, it reminds me a lot of Paul A. Young's salted caramel truffles, which are my absolute number one favorite chocolates ever. Thick, but still liquid--no chewing necessary.  I hate chewy caramels, and I don't like runny ones that much, either. This has just the right viscosity.

The only problem, and it is quite dinky, the ratio of chocolate to caramel isn't perfect for me. The dark chocolate is about 70 percent of each chunk, and the caramel is about 30 percent. With the Paul A. Young truffles, the ratios are basically reversed. This is just my preference though, because I have enormous sweet/salty tooth. I can see someone who likes dark chocolate more than caramel being way more into this bar.

I'd get this again if I happened to be more near a Melt than a Paul A. Young and I was craving good chocolate, but if given the choice, I'd gladly take a box of 4 truffles for £7.00 from Mr. Young.  I like them better, and I think they're slightly more value for money--this bar was £4.10 and had three big chunks, but left my husband feeling like he barely got to try any (whiner) and left me wishing I had another square or two--that might've had to do with my perceived lack of caramel.

Paul A. Young would leave us both quite satisfied at two truffles each.

Seriously though, a delicious bar.  Not as delicious as the other Melt item I tried, some kind of Mississipi Mud Pie, which I would love to review but got snarfed down way too quickly. Sorry for my gluttony, world.