Strawberry Dark Chocolate Kit-Kat Bar
The Kit-Kat Duos have become a trio. First we had Dark Chocolate Mint, then Mocha Chocolate, and now Strawberry and Dark Chocolate. The first fruity addition to the line-up.
If the other flavors are any indication, this is going to be a winner...but strawberry can be hit or miss with Kit-Kat. Will this taste authentic, like the other two? Or will it taste too fake?
American Kit-Kats are finally getting a steady stream of creativity and innovation!
Previously, all my fun Kit-Kat reviews came from flavors that were sold overseas, like wasabi or bakeable Sweet Potato, but in the last four years we've had a healthy amount of American flavors. Seasonal offerings, like pumpkin pie, red velvet, and raspberry, a few local-flavors (like California Strawberry), and now stand alone packs of Apple Pie, Birthday Cake, and these Duos.
The mint Duo came out over a year ago, and I guess it was successful, because it's stuck around and now the line is expanding with this new mocha flavor. So, why not check both out and see what they have to offer?
Lemon Crisp Kit-Kat - Walgreens
Hi everyone! I disappeared again. (Sorry!) In my defense, my one-year pandemi-versary is coming up and reflecting on the past year has put my head in a weird place. I am still surrounded by candy and things I want to post about, but editing the photos and typing posts requires a level of focus that I just don't have right now. I'm trying to schedule a bunch of reviews over the weekend to fix all that, but in the meantime, there's a new Kit-Kat in town!
These fancy Japanese Kit-Kat bars were a gift from my awesome co-worker Nicole. (Thanks, Nicole!)
A friend of hers recently traveled to Japan and came back with some goodies that she, so graciously, shared with me. We have four different varieties: Iyokan Mandarin Orange, Sake, Strawberry Tiramisu, and the classic, Matcha, along with a few adorably packaged Geisha candies.
Let's kick things off with those Kit-Kats!
I trick-or-treated-myself to clearance candy. A LOT of clearance candy. Even by my standards.
Originally I wanted to find some pillows and décor, but it was slim pickin's. That's what you get when Christmas items roll out on October 1st. (RIP Thanksgiving, you're problematic, but I love your food.)
Upon reflection, Christmas isn't to blame. (Although I will make angry Instagram Reels about winter products encroaching upon my spooky season.) No matter what seasonal-flavor you subscribe to, it's all the same consumerism, and our consumer-clock is completely out of whack.
Back to school sales were popping up as early as June, when some kids were still in school. Halloween was rolling out in July. Christmas by the end of September. Forget Daylight Savings, this is what needs adjusting! Sticking with a Christmas metaphor, we're opening our gifts too early. By the time the actual event rolls around, we're celebration-fatigued and the magic is gone.
How do we get it back? At some point, will we skew so far that we loop back into appropriate seasonal time frames? Like when something is so lame it's cool? Probably not. And I definitely can't control when the Pumpkin Spice Lattes or Mariah Carey anthems hit the masses.
Spotting skeletons on shelves in July is bittersweet. I'm spooky-season through-and-through but I also love summer, and if I want the "good" Halloween stuff, I need to grab it before the end of August or I'll have nothing come October! The justified fear of missing out because I didn't conform to accelerated consumption stops me from attempting a more appropriate self-imposed timeline.
I am but one little blogger in a sea of nonsense on the internet, and I am screaming into the void, "let us savor our seasons!" But I don't know how to make it stop.
Dramatics aside...here's what I bought on the clearance racks this year.
I'm a hypocrite. I called these boring, and reminded the general foodie-public that this flavor has been available in Japan for years, but I bought them anyway. In my defense, it's been a tough week.
Remember how I managed to kneel in poison ivy last week while cleaning up my yard? Well hold on to your hats, because this week I discovered poison sumac with (nearly) my entire body. I look like I have greyscale! I had never seen poison sumac before this week and even though I was wearing thick gloves while working in the yard, I still managed to get it...pretty much everywhere. Including the right side of my face. (Call me Princess Shireen.) It's been an itchy, miserable week, and while buying every variation of calamine lotion CVS had to offer, I noticed that their "Flavor of" candies were on sale. It was a buy one get one 50% off deal, so decided to treat myself to some sweets thinking they might take my mind off the itch. (Spoiler alert. It isn't working.)
I hope you guys had a great weekend. Mine was filled with permits, variances, and car shopping, with a little Fruit Ninja VR mixed in for good measure, but there is a light at the end of my short sale home-buying tunnel! It's so close I can taste it! Or maybe that's just the Kit-Kat's...
Where are all the ghoulish goods? I feel like I usually have a decent pile of new Halloween-y treats to review each year, but this time around I only have these Kit-Kats, and the Franken-cup Reeses. (Which are arguably just the same as normal Reese's anyway.) Other than these two, it's just a sea of seasonal repeats.
Other brands may be lacking the spooky spirit, but Kit-Kat is picking up the slack! For fall 2020 they've released normal Kit-Kat bars in Halloween packaging, white-chocolate orange-colored bars, pumpkin pie flavored bars, glow in the dark wrappers, AND these Halloween-specific Witch's Brew ones. While most of them are just re-packagings/coloring of year-round goodies, I still appreciate the effort. Let's dig in!
I got my hands on one of the fancy limited edition Kit-Kat bars from Japan. This flavor was released in the winter back in Japan, but it just became available in the states.
Remember those Vanilla Bean Kit-Kat bars I reviewed a few weeks ago? They were in the same endcap as these and I just couldn't resist. Sure, fancy flavored Kit-Kat bars are all the rage on the internet (and the foodie community), but I've never seen a flavored Crunch bar before, so I had to have it.
I know I said I wasn't going to jump into the winter stuff...but these were ALSO on clearance, so let's pit Halloween against Christmas and see who comes out on top!
I'll let Halloween go first, because it's my favorite,and it's obviously the superior holiday.
On today's Candyology 101 Cybele and I are having a break with the classic Kit-Kat Bar! This is one of my childhood favorites and I eat it in a very particular way! Tune in to find out how and be sure to share your preferred method of Kit-Kat munching in the comments below.
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© Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.netLike Sometimes Foodie's Facebook page to keep up with all my foodie adventures!
We already know my stance on cake-flavored candy (spoiler alert: I think it's a scam), but when it comes to red velvet cake, things get a bit complicated.
Garish red-food-coloring aside, Red velvet cake is known for it's fine, velvety, texture and usual pairing with cream cheese frosting. (Food Snob Fact: It used to be served with ermine frosting, but most Americans use cream cheese these days.) Now, can you really cram chocolate cake, with a velvety texture, and cream cheese icing into a crispy, crunchy white chocolate confection like Kit-Kat? Sounds like a stretch, but we shall see...
When I first started blogging, I would find out about a new product and purposefully go out to several stores just to find it. Hitting up three Targets in a day to find exclusive limited edition m&m's or different flavors of Peeps. It was fun while it lasted, but I don't do that anymore. I just go about my day, run errands, and if I happen to see stuff while I'm out and about, I'll get it. That's what happened here. I saw this flavor released on Instagram, what feels like ages ago, and then I spotted it at CVS in a Key Lime Kit-Kat display box while buying Neosporin. (Living that glamourous cat-owner life.) By now, Blueberry Muffin Kit-Kats have been released, which means Fruity Cereal is old news,but it's still Rock n Roll to me. I'm still excited to give this a try.
Apple Pie Kit-Kat - Wawa
Not only is this item made with white crème, but it's also apple-flavored, but there is no mention of apple anywhere in the ingredients. (Other than a vague, "Natural and Artificial Flavors.") Maybe I should have saved this for October, because this is the stuff of my foodie nightmares.
I blame those novelty white-"chocolate" lollipops from the 90's for my hatred of white candy confections, that and you know..., the fact that most of them taste terrible. I have vivid memories of them being everywhere as a kid. They came in every color and shape imaginable: ballet slippers, turkeys, Easter bunnies, etc. They Pavlov'd me into an irrational reaction of disgust whenever I see white chocolate confections to this day.
Then there's apple. I like real apples, and sour apple flavoring, but there's something about fake-apple, especially when it's emulating baked goods, that makes me feel like I'm eating a scented candle or air freshener.
So, why did I buy this? Well, I've been hunting down the new Voo-Dew at Wawa and other convenience stores, with no luck, but every shop had a display for the Birthday Cake flavored Kit-Kats...that was filled with these instead. After a few failed stops, and no Voo-Dew, I got annoyed with being empty-handed, so I finally caved and picked one of these up (and a jalapeno-cheese stuffed pretzel), hoping it might be so bad that I would write a funny, and slightly mean, review...
Today in, "things that promise to taste like other things", we have a Chocolate Frosted Donut Kit-Kat bar. Unlike the cocoa Pop-Tarts, which were bought out of mild curiosity and a love of all things marshmallow, this was purchased out of anger. Kit-Kat still gets my money regardless of my intentions, so I guess the score is still:
marketing departments: 1
random food reviewer: 0
But I am confident that this confectionary covered wafer bar will NOT taste like fried dough covered in chocolate icing. How could this possibly taste like a chocolate frosted donut?
I'm a hypocrite. I rant about "birthday cake" flavoring being a scam, which I 100% stand by, and yet? I. Just. Keep. Buying. It.
After I searched for, "birthday cake," on my blog, and saw how many results came up, I realized how intense my hypocrisy has been. Why keep buying a product that infuriates me?
But, after looking at the results? They prove my theory to be true.
Any cake, any flavor, can be a, "birthday cake." Some of these products are chocolate with chocolate frosting, some vanilla, with vanilla frosting, sometimes a mix of the two...the only thing that stays consistent is sprinkles. Every single one of these "birthday" items has sprinkles, either actual ones, or implied specks of rainbow colors. And I am expecting this to be more of the same.
Reese's Franken-Cup - CVS
Historically, Reese's tends to play it safe seasonally, focusing more on shapes, like pumpkins and bats, instead of wacky seasonal flavors. At first that seems kind of lame, why not try something new? But, would I really want Reese's to make something like, pumpkin spiced peanut butter cups? Or something along the lines of Zombie Skittles? That's going to be a "no," from me, dawg.
So while this may seem boring at first, I appreciate it's practicality and how the subtle color change acts as an homage to a classic horror icon, Frankenstein's Monster, and his notoriously flat-head, but, does the colored confectionary bottom change the overall Reese's experience for the better? Or worse? We shall see...
I freaking love lime, and I also love putting a dent in my foodie backlog, so today we have a triple dose of citrus. (No need to worry about scurvy!) Three lime products, one a returning classic, compared to two limited edition releases. Which is best and how do they rate on a scale of 1-10 in terms of lime-y-ness? We shall see!
No-frills products are the way to go, especially when it comes to pantry staples, but there are some exceptions to the rule, like candy bars. It's really tempting to grab store branded sweets when filling your candy bowl, but are they worth it?
I grabbed candy from Target's house brand, Trader Joe's house brand, and the real deal, who will come out on top?
