When I ask you to associate one food with California, what comes to mind?
Excuse my ignorance, but I don’t know. Wine? Fish tacos? I’ve only been to Southern California once and it was a culinary melting pot.
With that ignorance, I decided to roll with Hershey’s “Flavor of California” – the chocolate covered strawberry.
Yeah, strawberries, fine, that makes sense. Delicious California strawberries – the number one food I associate with California. Everybody loves sweet California strawberries!
Now, what if I told you Hershey decided to inject some California strawberry flavor into their world-famous Kit Kat bar? I bet that would interest you, right? Luckily, I’m here to let you know if it works.
As I broke off an awesome smelling stick at took a bite, nothing seemed to differentiate from a normal Kit Kat, but fear not because the strawberry flavor snuck in almost immediately, and man, it was nice!
There isn’t a HUGE strawberry flavor, but that’s exactly why I dug it. They could have easily made it artificial and overbearing, but there’s a delicious, light strawberry flavor that lingers. It’s a perfect mix, acting as almost an inverse of a real chocolate covered strawberry. Once you get through the chocolate shell, the freakishly huge strawberries usually become the dominant flavor.
You’re obviously not gonna get the juicy refreshing element of a real strawberry, but you’re also not gonna get that tartness of the fruit either. I’ve always found that unless you’re eating perfectly in-season California(!) berries, they can be a bit of a buzzkill.
I ate a chocolate covered strawberry for comparison, and maybe I’m just a child with an unrefined palate (I am), but I’ll take the Kit Kat all day, every day.
I haven’t had a ton of chocolate/strawberry flavored candies, but as far as I’m concerned Kit Kat is the new top dog. This is easily better than Strawberry Nut M&M’s.
If I was basing my review on the smell and the taste, I’d consider giving these a perfect score, but I gotta nitpick a bit.
Hershey put out miniature white chocolate strawberry Kit Kats last year that were much cuter, for lack of a better word. We’re probably better off without chemical dyes in our food, but I would’ve really enjoyed it if this was also pink or red, and not typical brown. Japan has like 874 different Kit Kat flavors and they toss some cool colors at ya. Why make these so boring?
While I’m whining, I also expected more off the wall ingredients from Hershey’s “Flavors of America” line. Chocolate covered strawberry is pretty tame, no? Good, but tame. Last year, I reviewed a Texas-style Pay Day with BBQ peanuts and was hoping for more weirdness like that.
So yeah, I can sit here and pine for all the weirdness of Japanese Kit Kats, or petition Hershey for some Philly Cheesesteak-infused Whoppers or something, but that would be a disservice to this sweet flavor of California. Pick these up if you see them.
(Nutrition Facts – 1 package – 210 calories, 11 grams of fat, 7 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, less than 5 milligrams of cholesterol, 30 milligrams of sodium, 27 grams of carbohydrates, less than 1 gram of fiber, 21 grams of sugar, and 3 grams of protein.)
Purchased Price: $1.25
Size: 1.5 oz.
Purchased at: CVS
Rating: 8 out of 10
Pros: Perfect balance of chocolate and strawberry. No artificial taste. Smell amazing. Best chocolate/strawberry candy bar I’ve had to date. Giving me a California food association. Hershey’s “Flavors of America” line in general.
Cons: Boring appearance. Idea is a tad bit lazy. North America’s lack of Kit Kat flavors. The Kit Kat jingle which is now stuck in your head. This dude actually said “Philly cheesesteak Whoppers?”
If you can still get your hands on the Neapolitan M& M’s, I highly recommend them. Maybe the best strawberry chocolate flavor mainstream candy ever, and deserving a spot in the M&M Hall of Fame.
I could go for a Philly Cheesesteak Whopper, if it was from Burger King.
Mild and not artificial tasting has my attention. Hopefully they can bring those coffee Kit Kats here next!
Last year these _were_ pink, and based on how rarely I saw them, they were easily the most popular “Flavor of” around here.
So, this is at least the second Flavor I’ve seen mentioned here, but still no list of the full range?
Also, you can place all blame for the fact that the US has so few Kit-Kat flavors squarely on the Kit-Kat itself. It’s a Nestle brand, but in the US the name is licensed to Hershey. There’s a clause in the contract that stipulates that if the Hershey company is ever sold, the Kit-Kat reverts back to Nestle, who can immediately start rolling out flavors to their heart’s content. Problem is, Kit-Kat is the top seller in the US candy industry, and while people are interested in buying Hershey, nobody wants to buy Hershey Minus Kit-Kat (especially if the company is valued based on having that in their portfolio). So, sales fall through, Hershey keeps Kit-Kat, and Nestle is banned from releasing them here in 50 bazillion flavors like they do in Japan.
Fun fact about the Kit-Kat is that the filling is ground-up Kit-Kat bars, so if they have broken Kit-Kats, they can actually recycle them right into new Kit-Kats.
Anyone know if these are available in Ohio? I’ve been looking and have not found them.