ZOMG, Candy!

Globe-trotting Neil (it’s so unfair how easy it is to travel between European countries!) has another across the pond review for you. ~Rosa

As promised, I have some posts up my sleeve. While waiting for dinner to cook tonight, I thought I’d simultaneously have a snack and feel productive by writing this. I pulled out a Nestle Kit Kat I picked up on a recent trip to London: Kit Kat Chunky Caramel Duo.

The package promised “Crisp wafer pieces with a caramel creamy topping (20%), covered in milk chocolate (60%).” Well, that’s sort of what I got.

The milk chocolate looked fairly standard - a bit beat up from my travel, for sure. The bars themselves are fairly thick. The two side by side are about the width of my wrist, which, let’s be honest, is not that impressive.

Eating it was sadly also not that impressive. The caramel just didn’t come through at ALL. It’s like the “creamy topping” had at some point just dried up to match the consistency of the wafer. No caramel flavor or contrasting texture.

Though it’s been in my cupboard since January, the label says it’s good through July, so it shouldn’t have gone stale in that time. I’m inclined to think it just wasn’t that caramelly to start with.

I set aside the second chunk for another time. It will probably be after dinner, sure, but I don’t see myself tracking this down in future travel. An O for the Duo.

The Oh Henry bar is an old school classic that’s been around since the 1920′s. In my experience, they’re pretty low profile – I see them in the candy aisle and in occasional fun size mixes, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen advertisements for them.

They were labelled as “peanutty, caramel, fudge bars in milk chocolate.” There were two bars in the package.

The bars were solid, dense little logs. The fudge and caramel insides were chewy but not sticky and quite grainy. That combination of caramel-flavored fudge packed a powerful sugar rush wallop.

Half peanuts dispersed throughout the bar added a light crunch to the texture and a strong nuttiness that did little to dispel the sweetness. The chocolate had a mild cocoa flavor that was totally overwhelmed by the fudge center.

While the make-up of the bar sounded promising, it was entirely too sweet for my taste. A glass of milk helped with the cloying sweetness, so an O – but it just barely escaped getting a — rating.

I got this Uji Matcha Kit Kat as a free sample from Tsunami.hk. Uji Matcha is a specific blend of green tea, and it’s one of the many flavors of Japanese Kit Kats.

The Kit Kat fingers were pea green colored. Even though I’ve reviewed quite a few matcha chocolates on this blog, I still find their coloring to be shocking.

They tasted creamy with a light herbal undertone and had an almost bitter lingering finish. They had no chocolate flavor – it was all tea and dairy.

I liked the crisp crunch of the cookies, but I’m not a big fan of tea in general, and matcha-flavored chocolates just really ain’t my thing. An O.

These Kit Kat Framboise were free samples from Tsunami.hk. I love trying different varieties of Japanese Kit Kats! I’m also amused that these Japanese Kit Kats were named in French – framboise means raspberry.

Everything about this Kit Kat was pretty. The pink polka dots and ribbon on the outer box made it look like a little present, and the inner wrappers were pleasantly retro with their pink polka dots and chocolate brown tips.

The fingers themselves were pretty as well. The wrapper’s color combination of pink and chocolate brown was echoed in the actual chocolate: the creme filling between the wafers was pale pink.

It smelled pretty artificial, but thankfully, that scent didn’t detract from the Kit Kat’s taste. It had a strongly bright berry flavor with slightly seedy raspberry notes. The flavor packed enough of a punch to stand up to the creamy, dusky milk chocolate.

The wafers were crunchy and toasty and provided a nice contrast that highlighted the fruity chocolate. I loved this and wish it was available in the U.S. An OMG.

Butterfinger Snackerz are a relatively new addition to the Butterfinger lineup. I got mine as a free sample as part of a gift bag from the National Confectioners Association.

The front of the wrapper called them, “crispy bite-size candies with a smooth Butterfinger-flavored center, ” while the back anointed them, “crispy, chocolatey bite-sized treats with a smooth Butterfinger candy-flavored center then topped with a peanut-buttery drizzle.”

Why am I sharing both descriptions? Because the back is far more telling than the front – the keywords “chocolatey” and “peanut-buttery” indicate the presence of neither real chocolate nor real peanut butter. Hooray!

The Snackerz are about thumbnail sized. They had a hollow “peanut butter” schmear in the cetner which was surrounded by a candy crisp shell, all dipped in “chocolate” and prettily striped with more “peanut butter.”

The candy crisp had a great textural crunch, like superthin shards of toffee, and a light peanut flavor. There was a nice saltiness to balance the sweetness of the confection.

The chocolate, however, was less impressive. It had a muted cocoa flavor that was practically non-existent. That’s what you get when you make your “chocolate” from palm oil!

I think this would be awesome if it were mixed into ice cream or baked into cookies (as long as the texture could be preserved through baking), but on their own, they’re rather meh thanks to the lack of true chocolate flavor. An O.

I thought it would be nice to close off nearly two weeks’ worth of Neil’s guest reviews with a review of some Dutch candy that he gave me. Presenting Nestle’s Galak Pop Ri.

As best as I can tell, Nestle Galak is the white chocolate umbrella brand, while Pop Ri indicates the presence of puffed rice bits. Galak comes in other forms, including a delectable sounding Speculoos.

The bar came segmented, with a little Nestle logo imprinted on each. When I snapped off a chunk, the break was dry.

The white chocolate lacked creaminess. It tasted sweet and fruity and was surprisingly bright for white chocolate. Unlike other white chocolates, this lacked any vanilla flavor.

The puffed rice bits were great: crunchy and crisp. It was basically like a Nestle Crunch White but with a much higher chocolate to crisp ratio.

As you can see in the above photo, there was a pretty hefty layer of chocolate floating above a single layer of rice crisps. If I remember correctly, the American Crunch White features rice crisps evenly distributed throughout the entirety of a thin bar.

I enjoyed the bar, but I’m not a big white chocolate person. When I do eat it, I prefer it to be creamy, which this lacked. An O.

As promised, here’s my review of the Wasabi flavored Japanese Kit Kat from my globetrotting friends Nana and Justin. My review of the Sweet Potato version that they also sent along posted on Wednesday.

These also came individually wrapped, two to a package, and were a pale green. The famous Kit Kat wafers were dry and crispy and covered in wasabi tinted white chocolate. They smelled neutrally sweet.

The chocolate tasted first of sweet, milky cream. Then a light horseradish kick came through. All of that kick was totally through the olfactory system – when I pinched my nose, it wasn’t noticeable.

There wasn’t any noticeable chocolate flavor, just creaminess with a slight spiciness. It had just the right amount of kick to make it weirdly addictive and intriguing. Any more would have been overwhelming, while any less couldn’t have been noticed.

I give this an OM. It earned the extra M through sheer novelty, but I truly enjoyed the confection. Nana was less of a fan.

I have about a half dozen of each weird flavor to give away. My way of passing on Nana and Justin’s generosity! For a chance to win some Wasabi and Sweet Potato Kit Kats of your own, leave a comment on the ZOMG, Candy!’s Facebook discussion page for a chance to win at least one of each. I’ll randomly select three winners on February 11th, midnight EST, so get your comments in before then!

My friends Nana and Justin have been living and blogging abroad for the last few years. They’ve been a generous source of awesome foreign candy.

Their latest gift was several Japanese Kit Kats in Wasabi and Sweet Potato flavor. I’ll cover Sweet Potato today; Wasabi will be reviewed on Friday. And stay tuned for giveaway news, as Nana and Justin sent me more than I could ever eat!

I love how the tear-away notch on the right of the wrapper is mirrored by an extra triangle on the left. Each individually wrapped package had two prettily pale yellow fingers that had to be characteristically snapped apart.

I was both excited and nervous about trying these. Excited because I love sweet potatoes in just about any form (steamed, roasted, french fried, etc). Nervous because the sweet potato and sesame version that I tried a couple of years ago wasn’t great, though that also didn’t taste much like sweet potato.

Lack of sweet potato flavor was definitely not an issue with this Kit Kat. The flavor was totally spot on – starchy and sweet, with some root vegetable earthiness. It tasted just like a real sweet potato.

Unfortunately, though the flavor was exact, it was really off-putting when combined with the dairy, buttery creaminess of the Kit Kat chocolate. I got totally weirded out and couldn’t handle it. A –.

Come back Friday for the wasabi-flavored Kit Kat review and details on how you can try to win some Japanese Kit Kats for yourself! And you can find Nana and Justin’s take on their website.

This Kit Kat Milk Coffee came courtesy of my roommate’s boyfriend, Steve. I’m not sure how Steve got his hands on it, but I’m so thankful that he thought of sharing it with me!

I can’t read any of the Japanese text on the packaging – if any readers know, feel free to leave a translation in the comments! I think the cherry blossom in the bottom left corner means that it’s a Limited Edition/seasonal flavor.

Like all the Japanese Kit Kats that I’ve had, these came in two individually wrapped sets of two fingers each. More packaging makes it less environmentally friendly, but it does help with portion control.

I probably would’ve eaten my way through all four fingers if they hadn’t come separately packaged (tangent: what a weird sentence out of context). That would’ve been bad, as it would have meant no sharing.

This Kit Kat was made from white chocolate. I’m usually not that big on white chocolate, but this was a pretty tasty white chocolate. It tasted fresh, creamy, and milky.

From the looks and taste of it, the coffee flavor was stashed in the cream that sat within the wafers. It tasted deep and crazy roasty, like a fresh brewed pot of coffee.

There was a light bitterness to coffee, but that only added to the genuine flavor. The coffee taste lingered in the finish, long after the chocolate had melted and the airy, crisp wafers had been crunched away.

I loved this bar, with its great mix of textures and solid coffee flavor. An OMG from me. If you want other takes on it, check out what Jim and Jen had to say!

Leave it to the Japanese to decide that Ginger Ale would make a good Kit Kat flavor. I’d read reviews of Ginger Ale Kit Kats on other sites, but it sounded so weird that I still really wanted to try one for myself. Lucky for me, there was one in my free sample box from Tsunami.hk.

The Kit Kat was a yellow-ish white chocolate. It smelled exactly like soda, though I thought the scent was more citrusy than gingery. I’d say more like Sprite or Fresca than ginger ale.

The bars’ outer white chocolate coating was super soft and melted in my fingers. It tasted of overly sweet white chocolate with a hint of citrus.

Most of the “ginger ale” flavor lay in the cream filling sandwiched between the crisp wafers. It tasted weirdly sour and effervescent. Every once in a while, there was a sharply piquant crystal of sour lime flavor.

I wasn’t a fan of the combination of white chocolate and citrus and effervescence. The whole thing had an awful finish that I found off-putting.

Flavor-wise, I thought it merits a –. But I am glad I got to try it. It’s definitely a taste experience!