A short rant about salted caramel

This is a post about salted caramel.

I hadn’t given a lot of thought, past vague annoyance, to salted caramel as a concept until I did a poll on Twitter about scones. (It’s afternoon tea week.) Someone replied to my poll saying that they had actually just come onto Twitter to complain about the fact that they had seen a salted caramel scone which, we agreed, is all kinds of wrong.

Firstly, scones should be plain. The jam and the cream are the stars there. But that’s not the point. The point is that SALTED CARAMEL HAS TAKEN OVER THE WORLD.

too much salted caramel

(Not literally obviously, that would be impractical.)

Salted caramel needs to get back in its box.

Salted caramel was fun and exciting for a little while back in 20XX*, but JUST STOP NOW. Yes, yes, it was very clever, putting something so sweet with something so salty, (salt), but enough already. We’re over it.

I had a quick look at all of the different salted caramel things you can get now and it’s just stupid.

Salted caramel rice pudding, salted caramel coffee, salted caramel tequila, salted caramel lip balm, SALTED CARAMEL GREEN TEA?! Nope. If you’re looking to build a bit of muscle you can even get salted caramel flavour ‘impact whey protein’, whatever that is.

That’s enough salted caramel. We tasted your salty sweet goodness and we liked it, but hush now.

*I was going to do some research and pin it down but I didn’t want salted caramel to WIN.

Image – by MaraZe/shutterstock

 

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29 Comments

  1. 15 August, 2017 / 8:24 am

    First it was humous. You used to be able to be humous. Just plain humous. then all sorts of junk started getting added to it: caramlised onion, chilli, lemon juice. Then it was cheese. Wherever I look, cheese just gets dumped on top of everything: nachos, garlic bread, chilli.

    Now it’s scones and salted caramel. Just when will this food fusion madness come to an end?

    • Jo Middleton
      Author
      16 August, 2017 / 1:56 pm

      Oh yeah, what on earth has happened to humous?? It’s like they are turning ANYTHING into humous. The WORLD HAS GONE MAD!

    • Deegee
      4 September, 2017 / 12:39 pm

      I don’t know – have you ever tried the smoked houmous in Waitrose (Moorish). It’s brilliant!
      Salted caramel green tea prompted the term ‘fad fusion’ in this household.
      Fad fusion spotting is now a ‘thing’ on shopping trips. It keeps the kids entertained!

  2. 15 August, 2017 / 9:14 am

    Dare we suggest this is all a huge conspiracy on the part of the salt industry, fighting back after so many other products boast about their lack of salt ?

    • Jo Middleton
      Author
      16 August, 2017 / 1:57 pm

      Haha! I’m imagining all the salt executives having meetings about where they can sneak in salt.
      ‘Do you think we could convince people that it’s trendy to have it in CARAMEL??’
      ‘Surely no one would buy that??’
      ‘We could try…’

  3. 15 August, 2017 / 10:35 am

    I bloody love salted caramel – but some of the salted caramel *things* are just a step too far – salted caramel tea & coffee are just a big no. Home made Salted caramel vodka is a big yay though ;-)

    • Jo Middleton
      Author
      16 August, 2017 / 2:08 pm

      I think the issue I have with things like the tea and coffee is they don’t even really taste of anything! I like the sound of the home made vodka though – how do you make that?

      • 16 August, 2017 / 2:18 pm

        you’re right there – just sweet & sickly with no actual hint of salt, because who wants salt in their coffee anyway!
        I think the salted one was the one I melted mars bars into, and then added some grains of sea salt. I was going to blog it but never got around to it! I’ve also made toffee vodka with Werthers & salt could be added to that one too.

        • Jo Middleton
          Author
          17 August, 2017 / 11:21 am

          I love the sound of Werthers vodka!! Brilliant :-)

          • Laura
            18 August, 2017 / 10:41 am

            Werthers vodka is fab I made some last week. I crushed 2 packets of werthers and added to a bottle of vodka (pour a bit of vodka out to make room) then popped it in the dishwasher on a 30min cycle. It speeds the whole thing up. Leave it overnight to cool and drink it in shots. Love the blog, quite agree about the salted caramel. Goes along with everything being PULLED these days!

          • Jo Middleton
            Author
            20 August, 2017 / 1:40 pm

            Woah! Back up! You put it in the DISHWASHER?? You made ‘dishwasher Werthers original vodka??’ That is the best blog post title I have ever heard! I would definitely read that!

          • 14 June, 2021 / 4:29 am

            I’m very pleased to meet you. There is a diner in Brighton which used to have a wonderful caramel milkshake on their menu – it was my favourite. I went back recently (after the re-opening) and my joy turned to horror. They have replaced my wonderful caramel milkshake with a disgusting salted one!! I hate it. Why do people sit still for this? It’s obviously the industry’s revolt against the sugar tax.
            Now everyone will not die of diabetes, only heart attacks. Smart move on the majority. We need to campaign against this in Trafalgar Square until the goverment takes notice. I’m not sure if this is a worldwide problem or just the UK?

  4. Abi
    15 August, 2017 / 8:07 pm

    Send the salted caramel this way, I love it!!
    Plus, I have to heartily disagree about the scones – indeed the plain scone is fine, but both cheese and fruit scones are also delicious, creating a trifecta of ideal afternoon tea accompaniments.
    Like pleasant sisters.
    Who want you to stay a bit pudgy.

    • Jo Middleton
      Author
      16 August, 2017 / 2:01 pm

      Okay, I’ll give you a bit of fruit – a few raisins is fine. I’m not a fan of a savoury scone though I have to admit…

      • 12 September, 2017 / 8:02 am

        A warm cheese scone with lashings of butter? Heaven!

  5. Vicky Robinson
    15 August, 2017 / 8:11 pm

    I haven’t even tasted it, I can’t bring myself to! I love caramel, but it lost me with the word SALTED…I hate salty stuff and I can’t get my head round why anyone would want to stick salt in something lovely and sweet!

    • Lizzie
      17 August, 2017 / 6:45 am

      I, too, used to think this. OH how wrong I was. Still, if you’re not going to eat it, all the more for me! :-D

      (PS start with a good ice cream. You won’t look back)

      • Vicky Robinson
        17 August, 2017 / 2:57 pm

        It’s OK you are welcome to keep it :-)

    • Andrew Smart
      19 February, 2021 / 2:10 pm

      I agree, after a stomach illness I completely lost my appetite and became over sensitive to salt, so all I can taste in this salted caramel in the chuffing salt. It’s ruined caramel for me.

  6. 15 August, 2017 / 8:46 pm

    I spotted you on my email feed just as I am eating salted caramel dairy free ice cream.So I just had to come and comment. Very yummy it is as well.

  7. A S,Edinburgh
    15 August, 2017 / 9:28 pm

    Yeah. Impact Whey Protein was great for me when I had to be on a high-protein diet for a while, and I had the salted caramel flavour (I didn’t like it; I advise going for the chocolate instead), but I have no idea how it was supposed to be different from a caramel flavour. It’s whey.

    When it’s just the caramel or caramel sauce, salt probably makes a difference, but when the caramel is used as a flavour I don’t see how it’s supposed to be strong enough for the addition of salt to matter.

    A lot of talk about salted caramel always come across to me as an attempt to give an air of superiority to something sweet. “This isn’t just a sweet thing, it’s for people with a sophisticated palate.” It is just a sweet thing. And that’s ok.

    • Jo Middleton
      Author
      16 August, 2017 / 2:10 pm

      Yeah! We should all just say ‘you know what? This is caramel, and yes it’s full of sugar, but we’re okay with that!’

  8. 15 August, 2017 / 9:45 pm

    It is ruddy everywhere isn’t it. I am so over it now….Well apart from Salted caramel fudge. hehehe x

  9. 15 August, 2017 / 10:15 pm

    Hilariously under the email with this post on I had an email about a salted caramel brownie :D

    • Jo Middleton
      Author
      16 August, 2017 / 1:58 pm

      You see?? The damn stuff is everywhere!

  10. Arabella Bazley
    16 August, 2017 / 10:31 am

    I’m 100% with you on this one. My first piece of salted caramel was interesting, nothing to write home about but not particularly unpleasant but now I do everything to avoid it. If a box of chocolates has salted caramels, I don’t buy it. It’s like fusion restaurants, once is enough and does anyone ever really go again??

  11. Marcus Ward
    13 November, 2017 / 5:44 pm

    Salted Caramel… Yeah..

    Another, but I’m sure most don’t mind, it’s Chocolate coated/dipped [insert any type of food here]

    The other week I came across Chocolate coated prawns. PRAWNS! I’m sorry but that’s just a nope.

    Whatever next? Ginger Nuts coated in Tomato Ketchup?

    • Jo Middleton
      Author
      14 November, 2017 / 10:20 am

      Chocolate coated prawns?? I mean I love prawns, and I love chocolate, but just NO.

  12. Philip Adams
    6 April, 2023 / 2:26 pm

    But, what i want to know is, can you get salted caramel flavored condoms? seems everything else is these days…….

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