Kit Kats are the most popular candy treats in Japan...apparently because the name approximates "kitto katsu," which is an expression meaning "good luck." Maybe that is why you'll find more varieties of Kit Kat candy in Japan than anywhere else, including flavors such as baked potato, soy bean, brandy and orange, pumpkin, and apple vinegar.
Kit Kats are not quite as popular in the US. Our #1 candy is the Reese's Peanut Butter cup, which approximates "pinattsubatakappu" in Japan, which is an expression meaning "your chocolate is in my peanut butter!" (I'm guessing, here) Perhaps that is why we rarely see so many unusual flavors on our shores. Now, I'm not asking for any bean or tea Kit Kats to make a US debut any time soon, but what about something more ordinary, such as maple or pineapple? Instead, we've been stuck with chocolate, dark chocolate and white chocolate...with only an occasional limited-time variant such as strawberry or orange.
I was therefore surprised to see this new Red Velvet flavor, which appears to only be found in the miniatures and not the full-sized bars. Upon first glance, however, there is nothing "red velvet" about it. Certainly there is no red coloring, and the texture is that of a regular Kit Kat wafer covered with chocolate--nothing cake like at all. Now, as a red velvet cake is nothing more than chocolate cake colored with red food coloring and topped with a cream cheese frosting, and as a regular Kit Kat is already chocolate flavored, did they really need this?
I asked for help on this one from two people: Jake, my co-worker and junk food padawan, and my father--one of the few people I know who will actually take a bite of something after I say "Eww! This tastes awful! Try this!" Neither Jake nor my Dad were able to identify the supposed flavor of this Kit Kat from smell or sight alone. Both agreed that it had a definite strong sweet smell, but thought it tasted more along the lines of a birthday cake. When I revealed that it was supposed to be Red Velvet, both thought they might sense a faint cream cheese flavor...as I thought I did...but it is hard to say if that flavor is actually there, or our brains are just fooling us after we already know what it is supposed to be. (Sort of like reading the answer on the back of the Trivial Pursuit card before claiming that was what you were going to say.)
So, here you have a sweet-smelling, vanilla birthday cake-tasting Kit Kat bar that may or may not slightly remind you of cream cheese. While it tastes fine, it certainly didn't taste like a Red Velvet cake to any of us. If you are buying it based solely on that premise, you might be disappointed. If, on the other hand, you are buying it because you want to try weird new Kit Kat flavors, you might be better off exporting one of the 200+ varieties only sold in Japan.
RATING: 3 / 5
