Nestlé Kit Kat: Chunky (double caramel)

Product name: Nestlé Kit Kat: Chunky (double caramel)
Calories: 109 for half a 42g bar (218 per bar)
Country of origin: Bulgaria

I’ve been looking out for this Nestlé Kit Kat: Chunky (double caramel) for a couple of weeks but was unsuccessful in the shops I’d visited. Thankfully, my colleague was able to locate it in a newsagent, although she refused payment so I don’t know how much it set her back!

I had been wondering why there’d been no advertising campaign around this variety but, on reading the gold-themed wrapper, I realised it had been imported by Nestlé Singapore so figured this was the reason.

The bar felt noticeably lighter and less, well...chunky, than the other varieties I’ve reviewed. It turned out that all the UK versions are 48g – it’s amazing what a difference those extra 6g made! The image on the wrapper showed that there was something else different about this bar, though, since it was split into two milk chocolate covered ‘chunks topped with contrasting fillings’: one contained smooth caramel and the other was crunchy with caramel pieces (the bar contained 3% caramel flakes overall). I was vaguely aware of this multi-flavour concept existing overseas but this was the first time I’d come across it in reality so I couldn’t wait to try it.

Still containing no artificial flavours, colours or preservatives, the chocolate looked a tiny bit paler than that used on the traditional Chunky. There was a nice, deep dent to make it easy to split the sections apart, although I did think it was silly that a portion was only supposed to be one half. The smooth side’s caramel had a lovely, gooey appearance, whilst the crunchy filling was a much milkier colour and contained lots of dark flecks. These toppings produced a really sweet scent that was more like caramel than chocolate but, if I hadn’t know that’s what it was, I’m not sure I would have made the connection.

I tried the runny side first and found that the thick, smooth caramel was properly soft and gooey. Its flavour contrasted really nicely against the chocolate and wafer and gave an overall feel of brown sugar.

I expected to prefer the crunchy side and thought it would be like a textured version of the old Kit Kat: Chunky (caramel). In reality, it was a lot sweeter than the other side of the bar, but not quite as enjoyable in comparison. However, it still tasted good, with the tiny pieces providing a buttery toffee flavour and a brittle-like texture that blended with the crispy wafer beneath.

In terms of the Chunky’s basic features, I found the smaller size was noticeable but, thankfully, the chocolate still felt pretty chunky. However, one thing that wasn’t quite as enjoyable was the wafer’s texture which was a little chewy in places. Whether this was down to a different recipe or just having softened from being in contact with the toppings, I’m not sure, but this was only a minor issue for me anyway.

Eating this bar was certainly a pleasurable experience and, whilst I preferred the smooth side, I could happily eat a whole bar of either flavour. I think Nestlé UK need to get more adventurous!

Appearance: 8/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 8/10
Texture: 8/10
Overall score: 7.75/10

Своzе ХРУПКАВА ЦАРЕВИЦА

Product name: Своzе ХРУПКАВА ЦАРЕВИЦА
Purchase details: £0.59 for a 90g bar (99p Stores)
Calories: 133 per 25g serving (477 per bar)
Country of origin: Bulgaria

Well, this is a first – a review of a product I can’t pronounce. In fact, I had to rely on Microsoft’s ‘Symbol’ function just to write it! If it helps, though, the word ‘Своzе’ came up on my till receipt as ‘Svoge’ which is a town in Bulgaria, so I’m guessing that’s how you say the brand name.

Anyway, this bar’s red wrapper caught my eye, along with the imagery of what looked like Sugar Puffs. Thinking it would be something similar to Kinder Chocolate: With cereals, I had a closer look and discovered it was actually ‘milk chocolate with crunchy, salty corn snacks (13%)’. I quite like experimenting with sweet and savoury and, seeing the bar was a Mondelez International product, I thought it would be worth a try despite its cheap price (it was actually cheaper than I expected when I got it to the till – who knew you could get things for under £0.99 in 99p Stores?!).

Apart from the translation label on the back of the wrapper, all the writing on the packaging consisted of special characters, so I’m indebted to Google Translate for the little extra information I managed to obtain. The product name (‘ХРУПКАВА ЦАРЕВИЦА’) meant ‘crispy corn’ and the writing in the blue box (‘ИЗНЕНАДВАЩ НОВ ВКУС’) translated as ‘surprising new taste’. I then decided to quit whilst I was ahead in terms of language!

The slab of chocolate was divided into 15 pieces that featured a crown design. The plentiful corn pieces were visible through the base of the bar (and a little through the top!) and, combined with their hardness when it came to cutting through them, reminded me a bit of golden unpopped popcorn kernels. Inside, though, they just looked like cereal.

The bar emitted a really basic chocolate scent which didn’t have a lot to it. Unfortunately, this was also true of the taste which wasn’t particularly sweet or milky. The chocolate also had a really grainy melt and, bearing in mind the corn pieces were painful when left behind in the mouth, it just wasn’t worth consuming the bar in this way.

On the plus side, the extremely crispy corn pieces rescued this product. Initially, they tasted like salted popcorn, but then the flavour was far more in keeping with Doritos Cool Original. This interesting element distracted from the cheap-tasting chocolate, and the bar was perfectly enjoyable to chew as there was a lot going on texturally. The thinness of the chocolate contributed to this as it made the corn an even bigger feature than it might otherwise have been.

Due to its low cost, I didn’t have high expectations of this product, but I did quite like the way the saltiness blended with the chocolate. I thought I’d end up comparing the concept to Cadbury Crunchums but the execution of this bar was pretty different.

If you stumble upon Своzе ХРУПКАВА ЦАРЕВИЦА, I’d recommend you giving it a try for novelty’s sake, but I very much doubt it would become a regular purchase!

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 6.5/10
Taste: 6.5/10
Texture: 7/10
Overall score: 6.88/10