Today, in the New York Times, Kim Severson tracks the history of the salted caramel in America from traditional Brittany sweet to Wal-Mart chocolate sampler. It’s a great piece that takes a quirky little trend that we’ve all heard about and uses it to explain the process of food development. And with salted caramel, apparently, two Seattle institutions played a key role in bringing it to the masses: Fran’s Chocolates — primarily for becoming vetted known as Barack Obama’s favorite chocolate — and Starbucks, for launching the salted caramel hot chocolate. What about Oprah? I have to believe she was involved in this somehow.