The Chocolate Box — See’s Piece by Piece #9 - Sticky Business
Milk Chocolate Vanilla Caramel Patties
Ooey and gooey, caramel makes a great candy. All that chewing makes it easy to slow down and really enjoy your treat. Wrap a great caramel in good chocolate and you really have something. What you have is a See’s Candies’ Milk Pattie. (That’s how See’s spells “patty.”)
Tasting Report
Description: This photo seems to be about actual-size. These thin disks are nothing but caramel and chocolate coating. The uninitiated might think they are mint patties, but don’t be deceived. The patties come two to a brown paper cup when you buy them at the See’s stores. They are piece number 46 on the See’s website (which also has information on mail order and store locations.)
Taste: The See’s signature caramel seems to be a warm and wonderful, slightly butterscotch taste with vanilla notes. These patties benefit from that great heritage. The caramel is a bit more of the chewy rather than creamy style, with no graininess and no off, “burnt” or chemical notes. While it is sweet, it is not tooth-achingly so. The milk chocolate enhances the candy’s sweetness without making it too sweet and blends nicely with the caramel. Don’t worry about your milk pattie being a dud!
See’s Trivia: See’s purchases its chocolate in 52,000 pound batches from the Guittard Chocolate Company. At See’s request, Guittard “ages” the chocolate for months prior to delivery. According to See’s, this makes the taste “smoother” and “rounder.”
Ingredients: Milk Pattie: Milk chocolate coating (sugar, milk, cocoa butter, chocolate, soy lecithin, vanillin), cream, sugar, corn syrup, butter, vanilla and salt.
Well Fed Network Rating: Compared to other See’s Candies, I would rate this a 8.5. It’s a straightforward kind of candy, with nothing very fancy about it, but it tastes great. Pro: Wonderful caramel. Con: Watch out for your fillings.
We’re big fans of See’s at our house. We get the discount coupons at Costco and buy a pound or two every few months. My favorites? Scothmallows, California Crunch, and Nougat. My favorite See’s candy of all time? About 12 -15 years ago, See’s made a fabulous candy called a Malt Nougat. After 2 or 3 years, it disappeared. No sales associate could tell me why. I wrote to the company 3 different times, 3 totally different letters, and only got form letters in reply. I asked how many I would have to order to get the company to make them again (I thought I would sell them as a fund-raising activity for a school or charity. No reply.
So I am wondering if you, as a sweet things blogger, know of anyone who makes a Malt Nougat? They were milk-choclate-coated, with a vanilla malt nougat filling with bits of slightly crunchy malt. I used to put the box (an entire pound of only malt nougats) on a stack of books under my desk lamp, so they would ever so slightly melt. Pure bliss. And: oh lost!