Zelico – The Caramel Hokkaido Fresh Cream

Hokkaido has made a name for itself by being the self-proclaimed king of fresh cream and melons when it comes to Japanese products. While I have indeed had some products from Hokkaido that are indeed very tasty, I also take it with a grain of salt because it seems to be so common now, and we all know how companies manipulate us with buzz words and catchphrases.

So unsurprisingly, caramels are on the list of items that use fresh Hokkaido cream. Something I’ve also noticed with a lot of these products is the same motif of a cow, blue skies and green pastures. I wonder if there’s a rule somewhere that you have to market it that way.

These caramels are little rectangles, not too different from the chewable caramels you find everywhere else. Perhaps due to manufacturing, or tradition, they tend to be rectangles or squares over here in the western hemisphere. They also tend to be very sweet which is making me a bit cautious right now. I mean, you expect that given that caramel is basically just sugar, but there’s proportions and other things you can do to balance that flavour out.

Texture is pretty typical for caramels, it starts off a bit hard but once it warms up in your mouth its sort of melts away into a chewy, soft mess of caramel that has a smooth but sticky texture to it. Unlike some other caramels I’ve had, this one finishes pretty smooth and doesn’t have much grit to it which tells me they mixed it well. As with all caramels though, this is sticky, so be warned. Best have some floss nearby.

The flavour of these caramels is similar to most other caramels – it’s sweet and has the distinct burnt sugar flavour, with the burnt nodes largely softened by the creamy dairy flavour notes from the milk or fresh cream as they call it. The flavour ends up being a fairly typical caramel flavour that’s sweet, a little reminiscent of maple syrup and brown sugar, and finishes with a smooth milk or creamy quality.

I’m not much of a caramel connoisseur, so maybe I’m not the best person to be judging these. From a lay persons perspective though, these are honestly not bad and while they aren’t anything remarkable or spectacular, they do a good enough job that I wouldn’t mind getting these every so often.