Everyone has a candy soft spot – hard, chewy, licorice, gummy – and I definitely fall into the chewy camp. I love chewy candies, and obviously, caramels are part of the chewy candy group. So when McCrea’s Candies contacted me and asked if I wanted to sample some of their hand-crafted caramels, I didn’t hesitate to accept. With flavours like Curried Butternut and Basil Cayenne, these are not your run-of-the-mill caramels. These are definitely something special.

Disclosure: I received a sample of caramels from McCrea’s Candies for review purposes. I did not receive any financial compensation for writing this post and the post was not reviewed by the sponsor prior to publication. All opinions expressed are my own. 

Based in Hyde Park (a neighbourhood of Boston), Massachusetts, McCrea’s Candies was founded by Jason McCrea. These slow cooked, small batch caramels are hand-crafted and then slowly churned out by an early 20th century retooled classic wrapping machine built in Springfield, MA that cuts and wraps over one hundred cellophane-wrapped pieces per minute.

When you unwrap a piece of slightly misshapen McCrea caramel, you know instinctively that it’s small-batch and hand-crafted. There’s something very charming in how imperfect they are. But the flavours that each little piece packs is anything by ‘small-batch’. I tried 10 different flavours (they spoiled me) and each one was so intense and unique that it was easy to fall in love with them and hard to pick a favourite.

Here are the 10 flavours I tried (listed in order from my favourite to least favourite) and my own quick thoughts about them.

• Rosemary Truffle Sea Salt – amazing flavour, slightly salty, definitely my favourite of the 10
• Cape Cod Sea Salt – sweet and salty without the crystal crunch
• Black Lava Sea Salt – also sweet and salty, but with a crunch
• Tapped Maple – very caramelly flavour, what I imagine a true caramel should taste like
• Ginger Fusion – intense ginger flavour, reminds me of the Chinese ginger candies my parents like
• Classic Vanilla – traditional caramel flavour, nicely balanced – not too sweet
• Black Roasted Mocha – subtle coffee flavour
• Deep Chocolate – felt like a really good quality dark chocolate fudge
• Single Malt Scotch – clean, light scotch taste, great adult gift idea
• Anisette – strong Anisette flavours, reminded us of traditional Italian pizzelle cookies (which are flavoured with Anisette)

As you can tell, I really liked their salted caramel offerings, but honestly, all their flavours were winners – it just depends on your own preference. I highly recommend you give McCrea’s Candies a try if you enjoy soft, chewy caramels.

Available at many location across the USA (and one location in Canada – in Saskatoon), you can also order their caramels via on their online site at www.mccreascandies.com. You can buy the individually wrapped caramels in a range of sleeve and box sizes (the packaging is really cute, by the way), or opt for a Caramel of the Month Club or a Gift Card for the caramel lover in your life.