Friday Tea and Chocolate: Wild Sweets Classic Caramels

What is better than a box of chocolates?? A box of chocolates delivered to your door! Last week I received a box of chocolate caramels from Wild Sweets that I couldn’t wait to open up.

You may remember that I wrote about Wild Sweets on a previous Friday Tea and Chocolate when I reviewed the Wild Sweets Cinnamon Caramel Hazelnuts & Smoked Salt Bar, which I really enjoyed.

Wild Sweets is based out of Richmond, BC so they’re very local to me, and they’ve operated an on-line shop for over a year.  I’ve also found their bars in local stores like Urban Fare.

The company, owned by chocolatiers Dominique & Cindy Duby, is internationally and critically acclaimed and they back up their reputation with an impressive list of  awards in global chocolate competitions. They won several gold, silver and bronze medals including Best OverallChocolate Bar / Caramels awards in the International Chocolate competitions in San Francisco, Seattle, London (England) as well as winning Best Chocolatiers & Confectioners in America Awards in 2013 and 2014.

Recently, the company opened The Atelier – a pop up chocolate boutique open every Saturday from 10-4 in Richmond.  Local Metro Vancouver customers will be able to pick up on-line orders but, more exciting than that, they’ll be able to pick up a selection of hyper fresh, cocoa bean to bar chocolate confections.  You can pre-order highly perishable items like cakes and other desserts up to 5pm the prior Thursday that will be made to order and will be finished Saturday morning before you pick them up!  It sounds pretty dreamy to me!

FBC was invited to the media opening but I was out of town so we sent the trusty Joyce from VanFoodies to check it out for us (check out FBC’s Instagram feed for some photos courtesy of Joyce).  So I was pretty excited when a box of chocolate caramels arrived on my doorstep when I got home from Toronto.

The Chocolate Caramels Collection #14 was so beautiful that I was almost afraid to eat any of them (I got over it… very quickly).  There were four different flavours:

• Salted Coconut
• Hazelnut
• Salted Almond
• Pecan

All four flavours are a smooth, warm,  classic caramel mixed with different nuts and covered with Wild Sweets signature vintage cocoa bean to bar chocolate.  My favourite, as anyone who knows me would probably guess, are the salted coconut and the salted almond – with the almond slightly edging out the coconut.  The hazelnut was my least favourite but that’s just personal preference as I don’t really like the flavour of hazelnut.  The chocolates themselves are so beautifully handcrafted that they would make a gorgeous gift for any chocolate lover, a hostess gift or a “just because” for yourself.

If you need a sure to be loved last minute Christmas gift or just need a pick me up after holiday gift shopping and are in the Vancouver area, check out The Atelier.  The shop will be open additional hours over the holidays and new years (check out their site for full hours).

Don’t live in the Vancouver area?  Hey, don’t worry – you can still try Wild Sweets award winning chocolates.  They ship throughout Canada and the USA!