Of all the junk food I review, Kit Kat has the widest variety of flavors...yes, even more than Oreo or Pop Tarts. Unfortunately, the vast majority of these varieties are never seen outside of Japan, so your only hope of trying one is to find them at World Market (or pester a co-worker to bring them back the next time he travels to Tokyo, as I used to do!).
So while the Japanese have their Green Tea, Edamame and Soy Sauce Kit Kats, Americans are stuck with milk chocolate, dark chocolate, and white chocolate. Fortunately, every now and then the powers that be at Nestle decide to throw us a bone and release a limited edition flavor on these shores. None of them end up becoming permanent flavors, though, no matter how seemingly innocuous they might be...such as mint (dark chocolate), orange or strawberry (both white chocolate).
I doubt that the limited edition Apple Pie Kit Kat is in any danger of becoming a permanent flavor here, however. I do like the bright yellow wrapper (as opposed to the standard red), the apple scent and the very first bite...but that's where my likes end.
The Apple Pie flavor showed promise, because the heart of a Kit Kat is a crispy wafer which could at least potentially mimic the crust of a pie. But it doesn't seem that the wafer tastes any different than usual--instead, the waxy white chocolate coating is the source of the flavor. And while at least they didn't make the mistake of using milk or dark chocolate, the apple flavoring just doesn't go very well with white chocolate. If eating the Dove White Chocolate Caramel Apple candy from last fall was akin to chewing on an apple-scented candle, eating this Apple Pie Kit Kat is akin to munching on potpourri...inside of apple-scented candle.
It seems to me that Nestle, as with a lot of manufacturers of irresponsible calorie junk foods, are only focused on the new flavor they plan to introduce...without ever considering if that flavor works well with the texture of the underlying product. And that really does make a difference. Licorice, for example, might be great as a stand-alone candy (or even an ice cream, in small doses), but would it work as an Oreo cookie? Or as a Twinkie? Not at all. When the texture works, as with the apple pie Oreo cookie, the artificial flavor gets more of a free pass. When it doesn't, as with this Kit Kat, it only draws more attention to how artificial the flavor really is.
RATING: 2 / 5
