Kit Kat Sweet Potato

As if Kit Kats couldn't get any better

The Attraction:

Kit Kat...ding! Kit Kat new imported flavor....ding, ding! Kit Kat imported sweet potato flavor...ding, ding, ding!

The Review:
As far as I'm concerned, Kit Kat already has street cred with me. I've tried a larger Kit Kat with peanut butter and Kit Kat Green Tea and although I liked one more than the other, neither was a disappointment. I've seen a few other flavors of Kit Kat and passed on them, primarily because of cost, (about $8.00 a bag!) but when I saw these new sweet potato flavored ones, I just could not imagine what on earth this thing would taste like. Well, yes, sweet potato, of course, but within the context of Kit Kat, I had no clue how it would be incorporated into that brand. Let's not dilly dally anymore, shall we?

I open the bag and find these small, individually wrapped packs of Kit Kats. They are about half the size of a regular Kit Kat. I pay $8 a bag and get half the size? Do most people that buy these charge them on a credit card or do they just take gold bouillon?

I unwrap the "mini" Kit Kat and smell a familiar sweet smell that I can't quite pinpoint. Is it custard? Taro? Oh, I guess it's sweet potato. Hehe

I take a bite and the sweetness is intense, but then the source of the smell comes bearing down upon you like a freight train. It's not just sweet potato, it's a baked sweet potato like just out of the oven! Actually, it's more like a baked sweet potato on steroids because it's stronger than any sweet potato I've ever had. Take the sweetest baked sweet potato you've ever had and multiple that times 4. That's what this flavor was like. It's as subtle as Donald Trump during a political debate.

Quadruple the cost, half the size.

Got to love capitalism 

The Sweet:

Miraculously captures the essence and flavor of a baked sweet potato.

The Bitter:
It's pretty sweet, but the bigger crime is the cost. At $8 a bag, you might have to sell some internal organs to support this habit.

Was that worth it?

Conclusion:
In addition to Kit Kat introducing this new and interesting flavor, they also encourage you to stick one in the oven to really recreate the baked potato experience. Talking about going all the way with something.

I must say, I'm pretty floored as to how spot-on their flavor recreation was and I would encourage everyone to try it because it's so accurate, but for the price point, I don't know if I could consistently afford to put this sucker in my cart. Maybe if my supermarket took lay-away, but I digress.

I wouldn't be honest if I said price wasn't a concern, but I could potentially work past that. However when you tack on the over the top sweetness along with the pain in my wallet, well that's 1-2 combination that would send this snack down for the count for good.

Video of the Week
With Star Wars: The Force Awakens just released this past weekend, how come we not acknowledge it somehow? Over at Vice, they went to a NY Jedi School to attend a lightsaber class. Yes, that's what I said, a lightsaber class. Surprisingly, there are some attractive women in this class, so fellas, who needs Tinder when you can swipe right into this class?

Jedi School AKA, the singles dating pool

Kit Kat Chunky Peanut Butter

Red, White, Blue and Peanut Butter?

The Attraction:
While taking a tour at the grocery market last week, there were several boxes that had hand handwritten words written on them; "Imported from England". This Kit Kat bar was in one of the boxes. Need I say more.

The Review
My fondness for peanut butter has been well documented ( Peanut Butter Moon Pie, Peanut Butter and Strawberry Biscuits, Reese's Nutrageous) so it was a natural fit to jump on the opportunity to try a peanut butter flavored version of a Kit Kat. Although it's at the larger "Chunky" size, it was still worthwhile for me to pick up one of these. I've tried variations of Kit Kats before ( White Chocolate Kit Kat) which I enjoyed and other peanut butter variations of classics (Snickers Peanut Butter) with mixed results. Where will this fall on the scale?

At the unwrapping, I noticed that the bar is cleverly shaped as a giant version of a singular stick of a Kit Kat, Cool! I dig in without wasting another moment. Same crunch as a Kit Kat bar, just, umm...larger? Well, anyway, slowly the peanut butter flavor comes through. The peanut butter itself isn't as sweet as what you might find in a Reese's offering. It comes off as slightly salty actually. Interesting, I keep digging in still with an uncertainty as to what I think about it. I'll need to ponder on this a but more.

Now that's a Chunky Kit Kat bar!

The Sweet:
The familiar Kit Kat formula works even at the "Chunky" size. The peanut butter adds a slightly salty twist on an old favorite.

I feel like I put a Kit Kat bar in a copier at blew it up 10x the size

The Bitter:
I think this product would have worked better at the conventional Kit Kat size. Although I did enjoy this chocolate bar, I think the smaller bars would have provided more of an opportunity to savor the flavor of the peanut butter in the bar. Speaking of peanut butter, the flavor could have been a bit more pronounced as well.

Conclusion:
Though hardly an item that I would go rush out and get another one of, it does a decent job of putting a peanut butter spin on a classic chocolate bar. It wasn't bad, but it barely made enough of an impression to move the needle. For me, the Kit Kat Chunky Peanut Butter bar is like being in Times Square for New Year's Eve; once you've done in once in your lifetime, there really isn't a need to do it again. I can't but help to have a "been there, done that" attitude towards this item should I come across it again on the market shelves.

Video of the Week
Alright, I got nothing this week. I will share this video of the Chrvrches new single off the Hunger Games Soundtrack. Wasn't sure at first, now I'm digging it big time.

"Chvrches - Dead Air" 

White Chocolate Kit Kat

Can they possibly mess this up?

The Attraction:
Who doesn't love Kit Kats? I can remember eating them from way back since I was a kid. It doesn't hurt that I like white chocolate as well. Do I even really need to do a review? I already did a review of the green tea variety. This might be a subconscious excuse to buy it. Well, let's see if there's a happy ending here...(no, not that kind)

The Review
It's all too familiar; just with a different color package. Peel open the wrapper, snap a stick off and slide it out. Can't tell you how many times I've done that in my life. Take a bite and it's exactly as advertised; it's a Kit Kat wafer covered with white chocolate, but wait; something else is different about this Kit Kat....the white chocolate isn't as sweet as most white chocolate bars. It's a good move. Although part of me closely associates that almost "sore throat" sweetness of white chocolate, Hershey's dialed it back a few. The results are you feel inclined to have more, but really, it's near impossible for me not to polish off a Kit Kat bar as it is.

I'm like an albino, but better tasting...what?

The Sweet:
It's a freakin' Kit Kat! Hershey's was smart enough to tone down the sweetness of the white chocolate. Even though white chocolate tends to be sweeter than milk chocolate, the white chocolate used here is more reserved and not as over the top. The result; your taste buds aren't sent into overload and therefore...you can eat more Kit Kats!Brilliant!

I'm drooling just looking at this

The Bitter:
Not everyone is a fan of white chocolate and if your not, I don't think you'll love this. It isn't as overwhelmingly sweet as some other white chocolate products that I've had, which is a huge plus, but it's white chocolate nevertheless.

Conclusion:
I don't think they can ever really mess this up, unless they go off the rails and pick some crazy flavor like mango. (if they did, I would still try it anyway). I really enjoyed how Hershey's didn't overwhelm us with the sugary sweetness of the white chocolate covering.

If I was at the candy store and I had only $1 in my hand and I had to choose between the "classic" Kit Kat and the White Chocolate variety...I would pick the classic 4 out of 5 times....but boy would look forward to that 5th time.

Video of the Week
I originally had another video planned, but I was hypnotized after watching this fan named "Dancing Kevin" go off during a Blue Jackets ice hockey game in Ohio. He needs to loosen up a little bit. Learn how to let his hair down....umm, on second thought...

Meanwhile, in Columbus, Ohio

Green Tea Kit Kat

I've seen these floating around in many Asian markets around town as of late. Although I was curious, the import aspects of them made them pricey (a bag for about $12!) so despite my civic duty to report back on the more interesting snacks I've come across, I decided to pass until they became more affordable. Little did I know, fate would hand deliver these to me.

The Attraction:
One day I went into work and found this pack waiting for me on my desk. The intern that worked in our department was leaving after serving his term and decided to get us all a pack as a thank you gift. Had I known he would be showering us with snacks, I would have pushed for a full time hire. (Not totally true, but not completely false). It's no secret that I am fond of sampling regional variations of snack items that I've come to love (Oreos, potato chips, etc.), so it was a natural fit for me.

The Review
I was so excited to finally have a chance to taste this new flavor! Better yet, to sample it without shelling out a king's randsom for it. Let this serve as a notice to snack companies abroad; when and should you release a new flavor or even just a new snack in general, offer samples to the public! Who wants to commit to buying a huge box of something not knowing if you'll like it or not! Even if it wasn't a price issue, there's the "waste" issue. I still have a box of Kellogg's Special K serial in my pantry from over a year ago when my Mom gave me it thinking I would like it. Too boring to eat, too wasteful to throw out. Now what do I do? I digress...

I take the pack home after work so I can thoughtfully access the product in privacy. One of the first things I notice is how the packaging seems "taller" than the typical Kit Kat package. Can it be that instead of the standard 4 sticks per pack of Kit Kat they released the green tea flavored version with 5-6 sticks! My head was going to explode....I felt like I found money! Well, I should have known it was too good to be true; the sticks were wrapped in packs of 2 and turned sideways. They were about 75% the length of a US Kit Kat stick. That times 3 packs made them less then 4 whole conventional Kit Kat sticks you would get in a US package of Kit Kats! Let me get this straight, you pay an arm and 2 legs AND you get less product!? Someone has to die for this.....

The Sweet:
After I let the wave of outrage pass, I opened the wrapper and indulged. For a moment, I forgot what I was upset about; the smoothness of the chocolate with the flavor of green tea washed over me. I know it sounds like a cliche, but it felt like it was right out of a cheesy romance novel or better yet a bubble bath advertisement, yet that's how it felt. All was forgotten and forgiven at the moment. The green tea chocolate seems to be made from a white chocolate base and then flavored with the essence of green tea. Missing is the sometimes bitter after taste associated with green tea...and that's a good thing. I wanted to save a pack so I can have it one more time before I completed this review....it never made it.

The Bitter:
Price, price, price! I jumped on Amazon just now and it looks like you can now get a bag for about $6, but you may have to wait for a month to get them to your doorstep. The other big gripe, portion sizes. It seems like Nestle only offer these in the smaller sizes that I noted earlier. If there's one thing that annoys the mess out of me is the small portion size vs. the cost. It's reminiscence of a boutique product....and I hate that.

Conclusion:
As a product, Green Tea flavored Kit Kat works and works big. Flavor-wise, other than if you have a strong distaste for white chocolate in general, it's a wonderfully done item. Not too sweet, the flavor works just right where the green tea doesn't overwhelm you. Hard to find a complaint there. Where there are areas to improve upon is the pricing and sizing. Perhaps I'm just spoiled by having the accessibility to a $1 Kit Kat whenever I want and feeling irked at the idea of ponying up more than double that for a smaller portion of essentially the same product. Well, maybe that's the thing; it has the same name, same signature Kit Kat crunch, but they seem worlds apart. Whereas the traditional Kit Kat seemingly has a very "earthy" vibe, the green tea version rings of exotic-ness and has a refined air to it. A refinement that will make your taste buds sing and hopefully lessen the sting in your wallet.

Video of the Week
I'm going to start posting links to videos that may be of interest. (at the minimum to me).
This week's video features a gal in Korea that apparently can eat huge sums of food and documents it all live.

*Thanks to my pal Grace for introducing me to this freak of nature

I have a bunch of mixed emotions about this; she's cute, which is a plus, but she can eat more than me, which I'm not quite sure is a turn-on or turn-off just yet. She still manages to eat lady-like even though she eats as much as a linebacker. Imagine going out with a girl that ate like this on the first date. Her plumbing must get a crazy workout.