The Salty Battle

Not too long ago, I posted this picture of my craft salted caramel ice cream collection to Twitter (if you have yet to check it out, my Twitter name is @Seconds4Shirley). So here's my take after almost finishing all four pints:

Pictured: (from Left to Right then Top) 
1. Sweet Rose Creamery Salted Caramel 
2. Talenti Gelato Sea Salt Caramel 
3. Carmela Salted Caramel 
4. Scoops Westside Salty Caramel

Description: 

Colors from light to dark: 4, 3, 2, 1

Creaminess from least to most: 3, 4, 1, 2

Flavor intensity from least to most: 4, 3, 1, 2

Cost (by pint) from least expensive to most: 4, 2, 1 and 3 tied though Carmela's pints are 2 for $15, which is a sweet deal!

Use of egg: egg yolks. Carmela uses organic eggs from Papetti's. Sweet Rose uses local eggs from Chino Valley Ranchers. I was unable to reach anyone via telephone at Scoops but am somewhat certain their salty caramel ice cream contains eggs. According to its label, Talenti also uses egg yolks, though the source is unidentified. 

Taste: 

1. Sweet Rose: smooth and creamy texture, intense caramel flavor, fragrant, and indubitably solid as a caramel ice cream. The wholesomeness of the ingredients really shine through with each bite and can be enjoyed alone or with another scoop of ice cream that is complementary to its flavors. In store, you will find that they offer sea salt as one of their toppings; I highly recommend that you take advantage of this because the sea salt really brings out its flavors.

2. Talenti Gelato: gelato in general is extremely creamy and concentrated in flavor and this is definitely a signature gelato. Scent-wise, none are as comparable; Talenti's Sea Salt Caramel smells like a freshly baked caramel pastry. Though I am a big fan of foods with intense flavors, I did find this to be extremely sweet and does not have as much salt in its flavor content and tastes more like a caramel-gingerbread gelato than a salted caramel gelato. Talenti is definitely a calorie-saver in that sense because you don't need to eat a lot of it to be satisfied. Delicious nevertheless.

3. Carmela: Carmela's ice cream is certainly a little bit icier in texture than the two aforementioned. However, it definitely hits the spot if you're looking for a truly SALTED caramel ice cream. The caramel is fragrant and the depth of the caramel flavor is just right. The iciness in this case is actually quite refreshing for the summer. No toppings needed, I can eat the entire pint in one sitting...you'd probably have to pry it out of my hands. The best surprise: there are teeny tiny chunks of caramel lingering on your tongue with each bite!

4. Scoops: I'm uncertain of the ingredients in their ice cream but something about their salty caramel really stands out among the others. The flavor is lighter than the others and tastes of vanilla with hints of caramel. Although I do get the caramel taste in the ice cream, I don't really get much of the saltiness and thus would probably use this ice cream as a delicious complement with another (much more intense) ice cream flavor. 

The salted caramel winner? By an extremely close race, Carmela. 

Reason? Because I love surprises. 

Happy summer, everyone!