Vosges Bars: Bapchi's Caramel Toffee

When I spied the Vosges Gingerbread Toffee Bars on sale at the Whole Foods in Tenleytown earlier this month, naturally, I inspected the shelf for other bars that were on sale, and quickly scooped up several, including a Bapchi's Caramel Toffee Bar.

As noted on the packaging, Vosges founder and CEO Katrina Markoff named this bar after her grandmother “Bapchi,” who taught her how to cook.

Inside the packaging is a bar based on a 45% cacao deep milk chocolate, which is created by mixing a touch of dark chocolate in with Vosges signature milk chocolate. Taste-wise, this chocolate is blended nearly 50-50 with the other contents of the bar.

Those other contents include sweet butter toffee, walnuts, and pecans, which are finely chopped and evenly sprinkled throughout the bar.

In addition to being well-chopped and evenly distributed to result in a more uniform and pleasing tasting experience, the added ingredients have an outstanding texture, both individually and in contrast to the smooth milk chocolate. The nuts are well toasted and not remotely soggy, and the toffee is crunchy but not tough or brittle. The toffee bits also feature a distinct salt taste and a subtle butter taste, which stand up well to the deep milk chocolate. In this bar, Vosges has done an outstanding job of mixing the salty toffee with a not-too-sweet milk chocolate. I enjoyed this bar quite a bit, and managed to catch a few extra from the shelves of the Tenleytown Whole Foods before the holiday supplies began to dwindle.

Do you like toffee? With or without chocolate?