Butterscotch (made with brown sugar and more butter than in caramel, with a pinch of sea salt) was reported today as a favourite flavour of Canadian women (a flavour largely unavailable to many Americans).
“The sun shone in like butterscotch/and stuck to all my senses”–Joni Mitchell, “Chelsea Morning”
Caramel is made with heated granulated white sugar, milk or cream, with butter more lightly used than in butterscotch.
Appropriately, while the Canadian Mitchell sings the praises of butterscotch, the American Suzanne Vega, similarly, pines for caramel and adds one more potentially sense-stirring flavour:
“It would do/to dream of caramel/to think of cinnamon/and long for you.”–“Caramel” by Suzanne Vega