Fall is in full swing. People are feeling the festivity of the upcoming Halloween and Thanksgiving holidays, and I’m relishing this time of year! Not only do I love seeing tree leaves metamorphose into bursts of gold, orange, and red whilst getting nestled into my turtleneck sweaters, but I lovvve discovering all the new seasonal products vegan food retailers are releasing. It’s almost like Christmas came early 😍
For example, Dandies released vegan pumpkin marshmallows, Califia Farms has new vegan nog & peppermint mocha beverages, and now…my all-time favorite vegan caramels, Cocomels by JJ’s Sweets, has released Mexican Hot Chocolate caramels! (They also have two other seasonal flavors, coconut palm sugar and harvest spice, but I’m a chocolate girl 😉.)
Normally, I’m not a big fan of certain flavors infused into chocolate; I don’t care for chocolate-orange combinations, I’d be fine if I never ate chocolate mint anything, and I’m not a big fan of the chocolate-covered strawberry. Will I eat these chocolate confections? Yes. But my world would still revolve quite happily without them, too.
Normally, I don’t love Mexican hot chocolate. I often find the addition of these traditional spices are too overwhelming for me personally and fail to strike a delicate balance with the sweetness of the chocolate. That being said…these caramels nail it.
The cinnamon and ancho chili don’t overpower these sweet, coconut milk-based caramels, and the warmth of the spices creep up delicately the more you chew, finally leaving a hint of heat at the finish. Man oh man, I couldn’t believe how much I loved this product! To make sure it was a winner, I even passed a few around to my meat-loving co-workers and they were blown away. One guy even asked me if I could make him a batch, ha ha! I confessed to him the caramels were a purchased product and, sadly, I can’t just whip them up in my kitchen.
I guess we all will just have to buy them. 😉
