Ingredients · Flavouring

Caramel

Caramel
Sugar, cooked until it browns. Five products carry caramel pieces, and it is the most straightforwardly indulgent thing in the catalogue: it brings butterscotch sweetness and a slight bitterness that gives a dessert tea its edge. Caramel pieces dissolve into the cup rather than steeping, so they sweeten as well as flavour — which means a caramel blend does not usually need sugar added.

What it’s like, and how to use it

The partConfection
KindFlavouring
CaffeineCaffeine-free
TasteButterscotch sweetness with a faint burnt-sugar bitterness behind it

How to use it

In dessert blends. It melts rather than infusing, so give it a stir. Good in a latte-style preparation with milk. It sweetens the cup, so taste before adding sugar.

With food

Apple. Almond and hazelnut. Chocolate. Cream and milk. Coffee. Sea salt. Banana. Pear. Bourbon.

With spices

Vanilla. Cinnamon. Sea salt. Cardamom. Star anise.

With tea

Pu-erh and black tea, the dessert bases. Rooibos. Oolong, especially a roasted one.

Its story

Where it comes from

Not a plant. Caramel is made rather than grown, so there is no origin to state and no lot to confirm.

What happened

Caramelisation is a process of browning sugar, used extensively in cooking for the resulting butter-like flavour and brown colour, and it is worth knowing that it is not the same thing as the Maillard reaction. Maillard needs amino acids — it is what browns a steak or a crust. Caramelisation needs nothing but sugar and heat: it is the thermal breakdown of the sugar itself, and for sucrose it happens at 170°C. The brown comes from three groups of polymers with satisfying names — caramelans, caramelens and caramelins. The flavour comes from volatile compounds released along the way, among them diacetyl, which is known for its intense butter-like taste, and which is why caramel tastes buttery when there is no butter in it at all.

On the shelf with it

Every product it goes into.

Every ingredient in the shop

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