Nestle Archives - Page 4 of 7

August 23, 2020January 10, 2021 Michael

Kit Kat Matcha Green Tea – Nails the Green Tea Flavour

Candy Bars

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.

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.

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.

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.

July 29, 2020January 10, 2021 Michael

Kit Kat – An Absolute Classic

Candy Bars

After reviewing (and being delighted by) a bunch of Kit Kat variants, I figured it was probably time to write about the original.

I was under the impression that Kit Kat had gone down in quality; the last couple of times I’ve eaten it, I’ve been underwhelmed.

Well, either I was wrong or the quality has gone right back up, because this one was absolutely delicious. Top-notch stuff.

Everything here just works. In particular, the ratio of chocolate to wafer is spot on; there’s enough chocolate to give you a satisfying chocolatey hit, but you also get a good amount of crispiness from the wafers. It’s a great balance, and as I’ve mentioned in previous Kit Kat reviews, the wheaty wafers do a great job of offsetting some of the sweetness of the chocolate.

I mean, it’s a Kit Kat; it’s not the most exciting thing at the store, but if you haven’t had it in a while, I think you might be surprised. The chocolate is pretty decent, the wafers are nice and crispy, and it’s not too sweet. It’s not gourmet, but for a mass-market candy bar made by one of the huge candy companies, it really doesn’t get much better than this.

Manufactured by: Nestle
Nutritional info (1 bar, 45 grams): 230 calories, 12 grams of fat (7 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), 5 mg cholesterol, 35 mg sodium, 29 grams of carbohydrates, 22 grams of sugar, 0 grams of fibre, 3 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Milk chocolate (sugar, milk ingredients, cocoa butter, cocoa mass, whey powder, lactose, soya lecithin, polyglycerol polyricinoleate, natural flavour), wheat flour, sugar, modified palm oil, cocoa, sodium bicarbonate, soya lecithin, yeast, natural flavour.

July 8, 2020January 10, 2021 Michael

Kit Kat White & Milk – A Delicious Blend of White and Milk Chocolate

Candy Bars

White chocolate can be a bit of a crapshoot. It’s a lot harder to get right than milk or dark chocolate; it has a tendency to be overly sweet, and in the absence of cocoa, it can be a bit one-note in its flavour.

The white chocolate here, however, is quite tasty, and blending it with milk chocolate thoroughly resolves the one-note issue.

This particular bar is basically a standard Kit Kat, but with some of the milk chocolate replaced with white. It’s way better than I was expecting it to be.

The presence of milder white chocolate actually emphasizes the wheaty flavour you get from the wafers, which does a great job of balancing out the overall sweetness of the bar. It’s delightful.

And the white chocolate is great — it has a nice creamy flavour, and is complimented quite nicely by the milk chocolate. It’s kinda like eating a standard Kit Kat, but then dipping the bars in whipped cream. The chocolate flavour is mellower, but not necessarily in a bad way.

Manufactured by: Nestle
Nutritional info (2 fingers, 21 grams): 110 calories, 5 grams of fat (3 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat), 5 mg cholesterol, 25 mg sodium, 13 grams of carbohydrates, 11 grams of sugar, 0 grams of fibre, 1 gram of protein.
Ingredients: Sugar, modified milk ingredients, wheat flour, cocoa butter, palm, palm kernel, coconut and vegetable oils, cocoa mass, sunflower and soy lecithin, yeast, sodium bicarbonate, salt, natural flavours.

June 7, 2020January 10, 2021 Michael

Kit Kat Hazelnut Crunch – A Sweet Combo of Chocolate and Hazelnut

Candy Bars

Like Kit Kat Senses, Kit Kat Hazelnut Crunch kind of feels like Nestle’s attempt to do their own version of a Ferrero product. This one isn’t quite as blatant, but with its combo of milk chocolate, hazelnut pieces, and crispy wafers, it’s hard not to think of a Ferrero Rocher.

But then there’s no creamy filling, so maybe I’m just seeing connections where there are none. Ferrero certainly can’t lay claim to the chocolate/hazelnut combo.

Kit Kat Hazelnut Crunch is tasty enough, but if I had the choice between this and a Ferrero Rocher, I’d pick the latter ten times out of ten. It’s no comparison.

The main issue is the intense level of sweetness, which kinda bulldozes all of the bar’s other flavours. The taste of the chocolate and hazelnut are certainly there, but they’re in the background.

A standard Kit Kat is balanced out somewhat by the wheatiness of the wafers, but the chocolate version here isn’t quite able to perform that function.

Still, the snappy chocolate has a nice creamy texture, and the hazelnut bits add a decent amount of crunch. Between that and the crispy wafers, the texture here is quite satisfying. And it’s nearly impossible to go wrong with chocolate and hazelnut; making a candy bar with that combo is almost like cheating. You’d have to work pretty hard to mess it up.

Manufactured by: Nestle
Nutritional info (4 fingers, 40 grams): 210 calories, 12 grams of fat (6 grams of saturated fat, 0.1 grams of trans fat), 5 mg cholesterol, 30 mg sodium, 23 grams of carbohydrates, 19 grams of sugar, 1 gram of fibre.
Ingredients: Sugar, milk ingredients, cocoa butter, wheat flour, unsweetened chocolate, hazelnuts, modified palm oil, palm, palm kernel and vegetable oils, cocoa powder, sunflower lecithin, natural favour, baking soda, protease, xylanase, tocopherol, citric acid.

May 24, 2020January 10, 2021 Michael

Les Reclettes de L’Atalier: Raisins, Almonds & Hazelnuts – Creamy, Crunchy, and Chewy

Candy Bars, Chocolate

You know that a company is trying very hard to make their candy seem gourmet when they pull out the French. Les Reclettes de L’Atalier; oh la la. Well that must be fancy.

Aside from the pretentious name, this is basically a Cadbury Fruit & Nut bar, but with the addition of hazelnuts.

It’s good (sorry — I mean c’est bon). If you like Fruit & Nut, it’s a safe bet you’ll like this; the flavour of the chocolate is actually quite similar, and the addition of hazelnuts is a welcome one.

I mean, the chewy/crunchy/creamy combo is always going to be great, and the quality of the chocolate is pretty decent. It’s sweeter than it needs to be (the addition of more sweetness thanks to the raisins doesn’t help), but the nicely toasted nuts do a decent job of balancing it out. It’s not going to blow anyone’s mind, but if you’re looking for a decent quality piece of chocolate, you could certainly do worse.

Manufactured by: Nestle
Nutritional info (3 segments, 42 grams): 230 calories, 13 grams of fat (7 grams of saturated fat, 0.1 grams of trans fat), 10 mg of cholesterol, 25 mg of sodium, 23 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fibre, 21 grams of sugar, 4 grams of protein.
Ingredients: Sugar, milk ingredients, cocoa butter, unsweetened chocolate, raisins, almonds, hazelnuts, sunflower lecithin, vegetable oil, natural vanilla flavour.