Ritter Sport – Vegan Salted Caramel

As part of Ritter Sport’s new line of vegan flavours, this one intrigued me quite a bit. Not because I like salted caramel, but I was curious what the brand’s take on a vegan caramel would taste like. After my prior experience with Ritter Sport’s vegan flavours, I figured this should be a fairly safe choice. Caramel in it’s purest form is usually just burnt sugar, right? I’m actually not sure whether these bars are widely released yet or not, as I’ve only been able to procure them at specialty and select stores. Understandable when you consider the market for vegan chocolate is naturally not as big as normal dairy chocolate. I however, remain undeterred.

The flavour is very similar to the regular version that has dairy – the only real tell that it isn’t is if you pay attention to the after taste. The regular milk chocolate tends to have a slight dairy after taste to it, but that’s not a thing here. Kind of weird to say but I sort of prefer this. Sometimes the dairy gets a bit cloying and this has a much cleaner finish which I quite appreciate. The salted caramel itself is a whole other thing. The caramel has a distinct sweetness to it, but the salt really enhances the flavour and adds a whole other dimension. It’s got the right balance of sweet and salty, and when combined with the chocolate makes for a very easy bar to snack on. Too easy if you ask me…

Unlike some caramels that are mixed with dairy or butter to give it a different flavour or mouthfeel, you can tell this is pretty much just straight up sugar. There’s no creaminess or hint of milk to it, which honestly works just fine here.

The texture is honestly quite impressive in the sense that it’s basically the same as a milk chocolate. Perhaps not quite as melty (which is a plus in summer months), but it’s close enough that unless you knew it was vegan you would be able to tell it apart on texture alone. The chocolate itself is pretty standard affair, but the salted caramel pieces are nice sizable chunks that add a nice crunch to it. It kind of reminds me of chocolate bar with toffee pieces, except the caramel pieces are softer and don’t end up sticking together or to your teeth like a toffee does.

The only thing that’s stopping me from getting these more often is the price – where I’m from these are at least a dollar more than their normal, dairy and non-vegan counterparts. Given that the normal flavours have so many more options, it’s hard to recommend these over them. That being said, I don’t usually see a salted caramel Ritter Sport flavour, so if nothing else I would recommend people try this out at least once to see if you enjoy it. If I wasn’t as much of a cheapo, I’d get this in a heartbeat.