Bonnie: I’ve often been asked, “How do you select the products that you feature?”

Some FeaturedBites are found at our doorstep; others we find at trade shows, hear about from our site visitors or receive as gifts from friends or from companies for attending their events. The last is how we found Good Karmal caramels.

My gift for attending a showing of what was new at OXO was one of their Good Grips POP Storage Containers filled with candy. I figured they were regular, stick-to-your-teeth chewy caramels, so the container sat on my table until the boys were visiting, tried them and told me I had to try them. One bite of these creamy caramels and I was hooked. They don’t stick to your teeth; they just  melt in your mouth. Literally.

Good Karmal caramels are hand-crafted, made without any additives or preservatives and with (depending on the flavor) brown sugar, corn syrup, cream, coffee chipotle, butter, sugar, whole milk, unsweetened chocolate, vanilla and salt.

Watch out, as they’re addictive. I had friends over for dinner and had a bowlful on the counter. Once they began eating them, they kept grabbing mindlessly for another… and then another…

I suggest giving this affordable luxury as a holiday gift – something delicious that others may not spend the money on for themselves. The publicist tells me that they are best when eaten within a month and just kept at room temperature. But don’t even think about that, as they won’t last that long once one is eaten.

Bryan: The most amazing part about this product is how it really snuck up on us. In most of our FeaturedBites write-ups, the product choice is well thought out; one of us will hear about a great food or gadget, we’ll get some samples, we’ll discuss and review. Still, in such scenarios only a handful of products actually get to be called FeaturedBites. With Good Karmals, they took a unique shortcut, almost Trojan horsing their way onto the Bite of the Best roster. We had just received some really neat OXO vacuum containers (review to come); intriguingly tucked inside were small caramels, showing off the container’s flavor-sealing capability. “Great container, but where did these caramels come from,” we asked ourselves. They are good!

It was a mystery. “OXO doesn’t make any food,” I said. “Do they?” “No, I’m sure of it, they don’t.” “So who made the caramels?” Bonnie’s research and a few emails later and we were on to Good Karmal. I like this find. It almost feels like we’re scouts for a baseball team who caught a glimpse of a kid throwing 90 mph at a county fair.

Good Karmals are creamy, buttery, salty, sweet, delicious. There are a number of options, but the Sea Salt variety is its big hitter; crystals atop the vanilla make for a lip-smacking good candy. It’s just a great piece of caramel, and a different dessert treat than my normal grab-for chocolate.

Additional flavor options include Vanilla, Pomegranate (literally just added to their lineup), Green Apple, Chocolate Sea Salt, Espresso and Chipotle. Good Karmal began in 2002 with the hope of creating a unique, sweet gift. The caramel is enough to delight the senses, but there is more to Good Karmal, positioning itself to do as Mahatma Gandhi said, “Be the change we wish to see in the world.” Each caramel is wrapped with words of wisdom, like fortune-cookie sayings, but less trite and without lottery numbers.

I’d love to say we were first, but apparently Oprah featured Good Karmal on her annual “Oprah’s Favorite Things” episode. Sorry, I don’t watch Oprah, but she’s spot on here. Good Karmals are made fresh from all-natural ingredients, without any additives or preservatives. They’re fantastic.

Eric: I always considered caramel, an amalgamation of sugar, corn syrup (sugar) and, sometimes, cream, to be the topping on an ice-cream sundae, or the hard, sucking candy found at the bottom of a grandmother’s purse; neither option truly inspiring. But when I tripped over a piece of Good Karmal (and I mean literally; I stumbled over a piece on the floor), I found true inspiration.

Put aside the fact that each piece is all-natural and handmade, and that the mantra of the company is to “sweeten the world one bite at a time” (pause for over-dramatized smile). These little bites have helped to reshape my perception of caramel. Not only are they the fortune cookie of the sweets aisle, they are inspiring in both taste and message. As one of their quotes — this one from Abraham Lincoln — states: “Whatever you are, be a good one.”