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When did the idea of putting sea salt on chocolate and caramel originate, and why is it so popular? —May S., St. Louis
I've asked myself the same question, as the phenomenon seems to have gone from unheard-of to ubiquitous in a relatively short period of time. But as it turns out, it's not new, and there are good reasons for its existence.
As any cook knows, salt is a fascinating and necessary substance, one that can enhance other flavors pretty much across the entire food spectrum. And the combination of salty mixed with sweet is nothing new—think salty-sweet nuts, pralines, turtles, turtle sundaes...
According to this article in The Chocolate Journalist, “adding salt intensifies the body's ability to taste sweetness in sugar. When added to chocolate, salt manages to alert sensors in our intestines and on our tongue that normally don't alert sugar. Pretty much a second sugar detector.”
The acceptance of sea salt as a chocolate/caramel add-in (and add-on) took just over a decade, according to this article in The New York Times. In the late 1990s, Parisian pastry chef Pierre Hermé sprinkled chocolate with fleur de sel. By 2000, pastry chefs at top New York restaurants were topping chocolate caramel tarts and molten chocolate cakes with it, as well as incorporating it into ice cream. In 2003–2004, the product appeared in major food magazines and specialty food shows. Williams-Sonoma began selling fleur de sel caramels in 2007. Häagen-Dazs introduced a reserve brand of salted caramel ice cream in April 2008. Later that year, Starbucks began selling salted caramel hot chocolate (which became an unexpected and instant hit), and in early 2009, the flavor was included in a box of Walmart store–branded chocolate truffles. And there you have it: Unheard-of to mainstream in just over a decade.
Americans have been obsessed with the flavor ever since: virtually every ice cream maker worth its sea salt has incorporated the flavor. Same goes for confectioners, chocolate chip cookie bakers, and chocolate bark makers.
According to this article from The Chocolate Journalist, when chocolatiers add salt to their creations, “they can do it for two reasons: to make the chocolate taste "pop" and to actually taste the salt in the chocolate.”
We asked two local chocolatiers to weigh in on the phenomenon. One uses salt on some confections, and another has dabbled with it.
Courtesy of Kakao
Sea salt, dark chocolate covered caramels at Kakao
Brian Pelletier, Kakao Chocolate: "Whoever first came up with the idea to put salt on chocolate, especially chocolate with caramel, was brilliant. Whenever you have a lot of one flavor or one type of flavor, you can often add just a bit of a different flavor to boost the first one even more. We do that all the time by adding citric acid (sour) to our pâtes de fruits (sweet) to bump up the fruit flavor, and nearly every great cocktail has a dash of bitters to accentuate the sweetness and/or tartness of the drink. And so it goes with that little bit of salt, making the chocolate taste even better."
Courtesy of Honeymoon Chocolates
The bars at Honeymoon Chocolates are sweetened with raw, local honey.
Cam Loyet, Honeymoon Chocolates: "The idea of using salt to enhance chocolate's flavor and appeal is rampant in our industry. It has a similar heightening effect on cacao that parallels the addition of coffee to cacao. Added salt allows chocolate makers to present further dimensions of taste—further representing the origin in a roundabout fashion. We currently do not have a bar with salt but have used Himalayan Pink Salt on our Peach Cobbler bar and have had a lot of interest in a sea salt and honey caramel bar. I'm unsure if we will release one soon, but keep an eye out for limited run flavors hitting our factory shelves soon."
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