Kit Kat Cookie Crumble – Tasty, but a Downgrade from the Original

The problem with a lot of these Kit Kat varieties is that the original Kit Kat is basically perfect, so there’s really nowhere to go but down.  The original still exists and it’s so damn good, which means it’s hard not to wonder what the point is of so many of the new flavours that they keep churning out.

Kit Kat Cookie Crumble

This is less of an issue with out-there varieties like Birthday Cake or Apple Pie, which bring enough of their own unique personality to justify their existence.  But with something like Cookie Crumble — which is tasty, no doubt about it — it kinda just made me crave a standard Kit Kat.

Kit Kat Cookie Crumble

Still, there’s nothing wrong with it.  Featuring chocolate wafers and bits of cookie crumbs, it has a cocoa-infused chocolate cookie flavour that’s fairly satisfying.  The hint of bitterness you get from the cocoa goes nicely with the other flavours in the bar, and while the whole thing is a bit too sweet, it’s pretty tasty.  But it’s not hugely different from a standard Kit Kat, and everything about it that is different is inferior.

3 out of 4

Manufactured by: Nestle
Nutritional info (4 pieces, 40 grams): 200 calories, 10 grams of fat (6 grams of saturated fat, 0.1 grams of trans fat), 5 mg cholesterol, 35 mg of sodium, 25 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fibre, 20 grams of sugar, 3 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Sugars (sugar, glucose syrup), milk ingredients, wheat flour, cocoa butter, unsweetened chocolate, modified palm oil, palm, palm kernel and vegetable oils, cocoa powder, sunflower lecithin, baking soda, salt, sodium carbonate, natural flavour, protease, xylanase, tocopherol, citric acid.

Kit Kat Caramel Crisp – An Overwhelming Punch of Caramel

The smell hits you hard when you open the Kit Kat Caramel Crisp wrapper — caramel, but caramel times a million.  It’s intense.

The flavour is equally intense.  Featuring bits of crispy caramel in a thick milk chocolate coating, the caramel flavour here is unmistakable and overpowering.  There’s also something about it that’s vaguely off; the packaging lists “natural flavour” among the ingredients, and there must be some kind of flavouring going on because normal caramel shouldn’t taste like this.

Kit Kat Caramel Crisp

It’s also intensely sweet.  The nice thing about Kit Kat, normally, is that the wafers do a great job of balancing out the chocolate’s sweetness.  But the outer coating of chocolate here is so thick and so sweet that it completely overwhelms the wafer.  The wafer adds crispiness, but that’s about it.

Kit Kat Caramel Crisp

Also adding texture: the toffee-like crispy caramel bits.  The creamy/crispy contrast here is quite nice; it’s just too bad that the flavour is a bit wonky.

2 out of 4

Manufactured by: Nestle
Nutritional info (4 pieces, 40 grams): 200 calories, 10 grams of fat (6 grams of saturated fat, 0.1 grams of trans fat), 5 mg cholesterol, 45 mg of sodium, 25 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fibre, 21 grams of sugar, 3 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Sugar, milk ingredients, wheat flour, cocoa butter, unsweetened chocolate, modified palm oil, palm, palm kernel and vegetable oils, cocoa powder, sunflower and soy lecithin, natural flavour, salt, baking soda, protease, xylanase, tocopherol, citric acid.

Kit Kat Apple Pie – Nails the Apple Pie Flavour

I’ll admit that I was actually pretty excited to try this one.  I mean, it’s Apple Pie Kit Kat; if you don’t think that’s irresistible then you and me are very different people.

I got a bit less excited when I looked at the ingredients list and noticed that there isn’t anything even remotely resembling an apple in what is ostensibly a candy bar all about apples.

Kit Kat Apple Pie

But then I took a bite and got excited again because holy cow this thing tastes a surprising amount like a slice of apple pie.  Like, it’s weird how much it tastes like apple pie.  It nailed that flavour way more than I thought it would, particularly after perusing the ingredients.

Specifically, it tastes like apple pie a la mode, with a hint of tartness from whatever scientific magic they used to replicate the apple flavour, a subtle hint of cinnamon and other spices, a decent amount of pie crust flavour from the wafers, and a milky creaminess that made me think of pie a la mode.  I’m shocked that this is as good as it is; I enjoyed the hell out of it.

Kit Kat Apple Pie

Between this and the birthday cake variety, Kit Kat is absolutely knocking it out of the park with these novelty flavours that have the potential to be horrible but are actually amazing.

3.5 out of 4

Manufactured by: Hershey
Nutritional info (1 package, 42 grams): 220 calories, 12 grams of fat (7 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), 0 mg of cholesterol, 40 mg of sodium, 27 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fibre, 20 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Sugar, vegetable oil (palm oil, shea oil, sunflower oil, palm kernel oil, and/or safflower oil), wheat flour: skim milk, corn syrup solids, lactose (milk). Contains 2% or less of: chocolate, natural flavor and artificial flavor, lecithin (soy), salt, yeast, baking soda, artificial color (yellow 6 lake, yellow 5 lake, blue 2 lake, red 40 lake), PGPR.

Kit Kat Birthday Cake – Sweet and Delicious

I recently reviewed the Hershey Birthday Cake bar, which I thoroughly enjoyed.  I thought it tasted a heck of a lot like Betty Crocker vanilla frosting, which flashed me back, Ratatouille-style, to a childhood love of Dunkaroos.

Kit Kat Birthday Cake

Well, Kit Kat Birthday Cake is basically that, but in Kit Kat form.  I don’t know if the coating is the exact same stuff (I think the sprinkles might be a bit crunchier), but it tastes very, very similar.

Kit Kat Birthday Cake

I already quite enjoyed it when it was just a bar, but with the addition of Kit Kat wafers?  It’s fantastic.  The wafers add a satisfying crispiness and a do a great job of offsetting the intense sweetness of the frosting-esque exterior.  It takes something tasty and cranks it up from good to great.

3.5 out of 4

Manufactured by: Hershey
Nutritional info (1 package, 42 grams): 220 calories, 12 grams of fat (7 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), 0 mg of cholesterol, 35 mg of sodium, 27 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fibre, 20 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Sugar, vegetable oil (palm oil, shea oil, sunflower oil, palm kernel oil, and/or safflower oil), skim milk, wheat flour, corn syrup solids, lactose (milk), contains 2% or less of chocolate, cornstarch, natural flavor and artificial flavor, lecithin (soy), artificial color (blue 1, blue 2 lake, red 40 lake, yellow 5, yellow 6, yellow 6 lake); PGPR, salt, yeast, carnauba wax, confectioner’s glaze, baking soda.

Kit Kat Matcha Green Tea – Nails the Green Tea Flavour

I’m probably not the best person to review this particular Kit Kat variety.  I’m not sure why I even bought it; I’m just not a fan of green tea, either in beverage or dessert form.  It’s a super popular flavour, and I keep waiting for something to come along to sell me on it.  But this Kit Kat isn’t it.

Kit Kat Matcha Green Tea

It’s fine?  I guess?  There’s something about the bitter, vaguely swampy flavour of green tea that just never clicks with me, but if you like that then I’m sure you’ll like this.  The matcha flavour is surprisingly pronounced, and the sweetness is relatively restrained.

It is what it is — it’s a Kit Kat that tastes like green tea instead of like chocolate.  If that sounds good to you, then this is exactly what you’re hoping it’ll be.

Kit Kat Matcha Green Tea

The only real issue here, outside of my personal distaste for matcha, is that the stuff on its exterior has no relation to chocolate — the bar contains palm and vegetable oils and zero cocoa butter, so it’s not the white chocolate with green tea that you’d expect.  But it’s creamy enough, with very little of the waxiness you’ll find in most mockolate.  If I hadn’t known, I don’t think I would have realized.

2.5 out of 4

Manufactured by: Nestle
Nutritional info (1 bar, 35 grams): 190 calories, 11 grams of fat (8 grams of saturated fat, 0.1 grams of trans fat), 5 mg of cholesterol, 35 mg of sodium, 20 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fibre, 14 grams of sugar, 2 grams of protein.
Ingredients: palm kernel, palm and vegetable oils, modified milk ingredients, sugar, wheat flour, maltodextrin, green tea powder, glucose syrup, soy lecithin, green tea leaves, salt, polyglycerol polyricinoleate, baking soda, calcium carbonate, protease, xylanase, natural flavours.