Tag: Hershey’s

REVIEW: Gingerbread Cookie Kit Kat

Julie 10 Comments

Gingerbread Cookie Kit Kat Bag

Have you ever designed an overly-ambitious gingerbread house, complete with stained glass sugar windows and a peppermint cobblestone walkway? Or maybe you’ve sipped a hot gingerbread latte during a break from a long day of errands? At least once you must have exclaimed “Not the gumdrop buttons!” as you plucked the candy accents from a gingerbread man!

If any of the above statements ring true to you, Kit Kat’s limited edition holiday flavor may reinforce gingerbread’s status as the season’s most beloved and nostalgic flavor. Available in miniature size to suit your candy dish, Gingerbread Cookie Kit Kats feature a gingerbread-flavored crème coating its classic crispy wafer.

Gingerbread Cookie Kit Kat Wrapper

To achieve their characteristic taste, gingerbread cookies usually require molasses and a mixture of ginger, cinnamon, allspice, and cloves—among other spices, depending on the recipe. That might sound like pumpkin spice warmed over, but it’s all about the different ratios. I trust my measuring spoons and my memory of elementary school math to distinguish my pie and chai spices from my gingerbread spice, but I was curious if Kit Kat could achieve a successful flavor balance in such a small confection.

Gingerbread Cookie Kit Kat Creme

Opening the bag, I caught a soft whiff of maple. The Kit Kat itself, covered in a caramel-colored crème coating, smelled like brown sugar. At this point, my spicy sense was not tingling.

The flavor, however, is fully gingerbread. The coating has white crème sweetness at its base, which reminded me of a gingerbread house’s royal icing spackle or the wee details on a gingerbread man. The crème combines a mellow mixture of warm spices with notes of brown sugar in the background. At the very end of the bite, I tasted a slight kick of ginger that lingered for a few moments in the aftertaste.

Gingerbread Cookie Kit Kat Wafers

Checking the ingredients list, I saw no hint of specific spices, just “natural and artificial flavors.” The candy’s realistic flavor — ginger hint especially — can mean only one thing: Kit Kat’s food scientists are becoming too powerful.

Kit Kat nails its limited edition flavors more often than not, but Gingerbread Cookie Kit Kats are especially hard to find fault with. The spice flavor is realistic without being overwhelming. The sweetness is multidimensional, and the crispy wafer completes the simple, delightful bite. It may be my favorite seasonal Kit Kat flavor yet.

In fact, I enjoyed this so much that its flavor actually evoked a Proustian moment, an involuntary memory triggered by a sensory experience. After my second or third, a particular iced gingerbread cookie that was once a staple of my childhood resurfaced in my memory. Even though I haven’t thought of that cookie in years, the memory inspires me to break out the recipe for the holidays this year. In case my measuring spoons or math skills fail, I’ll keep a stash of Gingerbread Cookie Kit Kats nearby.

DISCLAIMER: I received a free sample from Hershey’s, which did not influence my review.

Purchased Price: FREE
Size: 8.4 oz (238 g) bag
Purchase at: Provided by Hershey’s
Rating: 9 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (per 4 pieces) 170 calories, 9 grams of fat, 6 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 30 milligrams of sodium, 21 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 16 grams of sugar, and 2 grams of protein.

REVIEW: Hershey’s Oat Made Chocolate Bars

Julie 2 Comments

Hershey s Oat Made Chocolate Bars Wrappers

What are Hershey’s Oat Made Chocolate Bars?

Hershey’s new Oat Made line is the company’s first venture into plant-based chocolate. Made with oat milk instead of dairy, Oat Made bars are vegan, non-GMO, and made with Rainforest Alliance certified cocoa.

Two varieties are available: Classic Dark and Extra Creamy Almond & Sea Salt.

How are they?

When I first heard about Hershey’s Oat Made line, I was fascinated by its credentials. As an aspiring candy historian, I want my finger on the pulse of everything new in the world of chocolate. Also, I enjoy experimenting with milk alternatives not out of personal dietary need, but simply curiosity and awareness of friends and family who do have these needs. The presence of oat milk – a favorite dairy alternative – in chocolate seemed too interesting to ignore.

Hershey s Oat Made Chocolate Bars Dark

First, the Classic Dark bar is a convincing duplicate of its dairy-infused cousin. The flavor perfectly balances bitter and sweet. Breaking the bar into squares yields a satisfying snap – often a sign of higher quantities of cocoa butter – but this firm bite easily transitions into a smooth texture without the chalkiness dark chocolate can sometimes have. The bar is definitely on par with comparable products from higher-priced brands like Lindt or Ghiradelli.

Hershey s Oat Made Chocolate Bars Creamy 1

The Extra Creamy Almond & Sea Salt bar is meant to mimic milk chocolate, and while it doesn’t taste much like the classic Hershey’s milk chocolate, I mean this in the best possible way. The bar smells and tastes of cocoa powder, resulting in a richer and more authentic chocolate flavor without the mild tang characteristic of classic Hershey’s.

Hershey s Oat Made Chocolate Bars Creamy 2

“Extra Creamy” is a bit of a misnomer, because as the bar melts, a gritty texture emerges. The bar contains a generous amount of almond pieces, which provide a hint of salt and a satisfying crunch that distracts from the grittiness.

Anything else you need to know?

Both bars are part of a limited test release from now through June 2022. They will be available in select stores across the United States. I haven’t seen them in the wild, but as of this writing you can order them from Target.com.

Conclusion:

Whether you are searching to satisfy a dietary need or just trying to expand your confectionary horizons, Hershey’s Oat Made chocolate bars are satisfying options with the potential for additional innovation. Especially for the price point, either variety’s rich flavor would contribute nicely to a s’more.

Purchased Price: $1.99 each
Size: 1.55 oz (43 g)
Purchased at: Target.com
Rating: 8 out of 10 (Classic Dark), 7 out of 10 (Extra Creamy Almond & Sea Salt)
Nutrition Facts: Classic Dark – 210 calories, 16 grams of fat, 10 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 0 milligrams of sodium, 22 grams of carbohydrates, 5 grams of fiber, 13 grams of sugar, and 4 grams of protein. Extra Creamy Almond & Sea Salt – 230 calories, 16 grams of fat, 9 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 30 milligrams of sodium, 24 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fiber, 16 grams of sugar, and 3 grams of protein.

REVIEW: Chewy Chips Ahoy Hershey’s Fudge Filled Cookies

Vin 9 Comments

Chips Ahoy Hershey s Fudge Filled Cookies Package

What are Chewy Chips Ahoy Hershey’s Fudge Filled Cookies?

Love Chewy Chips Ahoy but wish they were like 7% better? Well, have I got a cookie for you!

How are they?

I guess the main problem – if you wanna call it a problem – is that these are essentially just Chewy Chips Ahoy with a bit more chocolate.

Chips Ahoy Hershey s Fudge Filled Cookies Filling

As the name suggests, there’s a thin layer of Hershey’s chocolate fudge in the center of each cookie. While it tastes distinctly Hershey in isolation, the cookie really wasn’t much different than normal.

I think my main hang-up is that I still have no clue if the chips were also Hershey’s or the same chocolate Nabisco has always used.

Chips Ahoy Hershey s Fudge Filled Cookies Sleeves

While I definitely tasted Hershey, there wasn’t much variance from the fudge center to the chips. Either they were also Hershey without the bag mentioning it, or my brain was playing tricks on me. Or maybe its regular chocolate just isn’t that far off from Hershey, making this release kinda pointless?

Either way, I like Chewy Chips Ahoy, and I like Hershey’s chocolate, so I can’t really complain.

Anything else you need to know?

Ok, just a little…

Chips Ahoy Hershey s Fudge Filled Cookies Gooey

I don’t necessarily know what I expected from that word “fudge” here, but it’s just a gritty, chocolate layer of mush. I suppose that passes as “fudge” in a mass-produced cookie. It just felt like they took five or six more chips and smushed them in the middle of the cookie. The package gave me the impression it would be gooier.

The package also recommended eating these with ice cream, but I went the other way and popped a few in the microwave. It “gooed” up the center a bit, but unfortunately didn’t change the experience too much.

Conclusion:

Chips Ahoy Hershey s Fudge Filled Cookies Split

Look, I like Chewy Chips Ahoy, so I liked these. I also like saying, “Chewy Chips Ahoy,” and think it should replace “cellar door” as the most beautiful combination of words.

In the end, the Hershey of it all didn’t make these unique. By the time I was five cookies in, I just thought I was eating “Extra Chocolatey” Chewy Chips Ahoy, but I guess the keywords there are “five cookies in.” These went down ridiculously fast. They’re two biters at most. I ate the entire package in a single night. Take that how you will.

Chips Ahoy Hershey s Fudge Filled Cookies Empty

Purchased Price: $2.69
Size: 9.6 oz.
Purchased at: Shop Rite
Rating: 6 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2 Cookies) 150 calories, 7 grams of fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 3 grams of saturated fat, 0 mg of cholesterol, 105 milligrams of sodium, 20 grams of total carbohydrates, 11 grams of total sugars, less than 1 gram of fiber, 1 gram of protein.

REVIEW: Mystery Flavor Twizzlers

Vin 25 Comments

Mystery Flavor Twizzlers Package

What are Mystery Flavor Twizzlers?

Uh, I have no idea. That’s kinda the point.

How are they?

I think this may be the most successful “Mystery” flavor gimmick of all time, because these Twizzlers taste like… nothing. I’m mystified. The mystery is how anyone could possibly come away from these with an idea of what they just tasted.

I’m gonna try to explain, but I’m not sure I’ll be successful.

Mystery Flavor Twizzlers Closeup

There are really no clues on the boring packaging to go off of, so let’s start with what we know, these probably aren’t a flavor that Twizzlers has done before. Just going off the purpley-brown color rules out Strawberry, Cherry, Chocolate, Grape, and Raspberry. I can’t help but feel like a standard fruit wouldn’t be worthy of a mystery flavor anyway.

The smell, which is infinitely stronger than the taste, reminded me of something familiar. I ultimately decided it was Hawaiian Punch.

Tastewise? Man, these just taste like bad Twizzlers.

Twizzlers don’t really bash you over the head with flavor as it is, they just taste like twisted leathery plastic more than anything. If I was blindfolded, I would think I was eating a regular red Twizzler from a bad batch. I tried really hard to concentrate, but my brain just kept thinking, “Oh, this is a Twizzler!”

They’re not sweet, they’re not especially fruity, and there’s just nothing distinct about them.

This could be fruit punch, but it literally packs zero punch, and I don’t think that’s unique enough to base a Mystery Flavor campaign around. Fruit Punch isn’t exciting, and this was, frankly, more like a fruit slap. Nah, it was more of a “poke,” to be honest.

Perhaps I was swayed by the color, but I thought maybe it could be a soda-based flavor. Perhaps cola or Dr Pepper? Ya know what, my final guess is Cherry Cola.

Mystery Flavor Twizzlers Package Closeup

Anything else you need to know?

Nope, scratch that, Wikipedia claims Twizzlers briefly had a Cherry Cola flavor in 2006. Unless this is a rehash of that, I guess I’m just gonna stick with Fruit Punch Poke.

I honestly feel like this could be a prank, with the flavor being “nothing.” That would actually be hilarious.

I’m not kidding. I waited a week to write this review because I wanted to keep eating these while my taste buds were fresh. They always tasted like a sugarless red Twizzler with ZERO aftertaste.

Conclusion:

Mystery Flavor Twizzlers Question

So, like all great mysteries, this one ends… with zero resolution?!

Twizzlers were a perfect brand to try the mystery thing – they’re literally twists! I don’t know how they failed so miserably.

Please try these and help me understand what the heck I’ve been eating. I’ll revisit them after every guess because I’m definitely gonna have these lying around for a while. At least I’ll have some environmentally safe drinking straws to sip cherry cola through if I could actually manage to tug-o-war another one out of the sticky bag.

Purchased Price: $1.98
Size: 16 oz bag
Purchased at: Walmart
Rating: 4 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (3 Pieces) 120 calories, 0.5 grams of fat, 0 gram of trans fat, 0 gram of saturated fat, 70 milligrams of sodium, 27 grams of total carbohydrates, 14 grams of sugar, 0 grams of fiber, and 1 gram of protein.

REVIEW: Reese’s Crunchy Peanut Bar

Julie 8 Comments

Reese s Crunchy Peanut Bar Wrapper

Some new Reese’s products are announced with great fanfare —- social media announcements, television commercials, or (as I like to imagine) a red carpet dotted with Reese’s Pieces to lead the way to the closest candy aisle. Other products seem to surprise us, one day gracing shelves with an air of nonchalance that makes you think they’ve been around for years.

For me, at least, the Reese’s Crunchy Peanut Bar falls into the latter category. After all, it seems like a simple idea and consists of everything Reese’s does best: chocolate, peanut butter, peanut butter creme, and, of course, crunchy peanuts. When I first saw the bar in stores, I wondered if it was the Cheshire Cat of Reese’s products, disappearing and re-appearing to play tricks on my mind, until social media confirmed its brand-new status.

Reese s Crunchy Peanut Bar Coating

Despite its unassuming entrance into the Walmart checkout and, therefore, my growing sugar stash, one thing about the bar isn’t unassuming: its size. This King Size packet contains one hefty bar, which comprises three servings of Reese’s goodness and measures about 3/4 of an inch in thickness.

Reese s Crunchy Peanut Bar Split

The combination of flavors in Reese’s Crunchy Peanut Bar is a sweet-and-salty lover’s dream. Inside the standard chocolate coating are a substantial layer of peanut butter and lots of roughly chopped peanuts, densely packed and held together by peanut butter and creme. The peanuts are the dominant force, providing a nice hit of salt that plays beautifully with the other components. The bar has a greater peanut-to-filling ratio than any crunchy-filled peanut butter cup I’ve tried and maybe even enough peanuts to make a PayDay feel insecure.

Although the wrapper lists peanut butter and peanut butter creme as separate components, they taste similar and are initially hard to distinguish. The visible layers of soft peanut butter filling are deliciously sweet with a lighter, smoother texture than your standard Reese’s filling.

Reese s Crunchy Peanut Bar Crumble

Meanwhile, the subtle peanut butter creme seems closer to a peanut butter-flavored version of the “white creme” (oil-based white chocolate substitute) that we all know. Delicate layers of hardened creme are remarkable more in function than taste, acting as a binding agent to hold the peanuts in place. Because of this, the bar crumbled apart easily, like a dessert bark, and sometimes felt like an odd choice. At times, I wished for more of a creamy element to add some moisture, especially when the loose peanut crumbles felt like trail mix in my mouth.

If you are a believer in the peanut butter war that pits Team Crunchy against Team Creamy, the Reese’s Crunchy Peanut Bar is definitely a victory for Team Crunchy. As a member of Team I Shouldn’t Have to Choose, I enjoyed this new product, but found it easy to detect small flaws due to its simplicity. Peanut fans will revel in Reese’s latest release, while others yearning for more daring or complex flavors might find that, among other options, this bar fades into the background.

Purchased Price: $1.48
Size: 3.2 oz (90 g)
Purchased at: Walmart
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (per 1/3 bar) 170 calories, 12 grams of fat, 5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 70 milligrams of sodium, 12 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fiber, 9 grams of sugar, and 5 grams of protein.