Kit Kat Caramel Duo

Nestle's last Kit Kat variety  from October of last year was an epic fail, so you can imagine I approached this new variety with some trepidation. Visions of mockolate and 'white confectionery' aren't far from my mind, and with a pack that describes the product as 'Wafer Fingers Covered with a Smooth Milk Chocolate base & Creamy Caramel Flavoured Choc Top', I wasn't all that reassured. At least the base is chocolate, and I love caramel, so it can't be all that bad - right?

The packaging is made with the new matte-finish foil wrapper that seems to be the range these days. It still has the bright red, easily-reconisable background and bit Kit-Kat logo, but the bottom right corner of the bar includes a tan-coloured swathe dedicated to the new flavour. Often the packaging will also include an illustration of the flavour - for example, a picture of a strawberry on a strawberry-flavoured product. There's no such guide here. I know caramel can be difficult to illustrate, but that tan swathe could be representing leather for all I know!

Our 45g bar is in the classic four-fingers shape, with the foot or base of each finger made from a layer of milk chocolate, while the rest of each finger has been coated in 'caramel flavoured choc'. The caramel area is a nice tan colour, perhaps a touch lighter than I would expect for a caramel product, and is matte with no discernible gloss at all. My bar is a weeny bit heat damaged though, so that may have contributed. The bar as a whole seems quite heat sensitive too - I couldn't even hold a finger for five seconds without it beginning to melt.

The caramel coating smells suspiciously like caramel milkshake flavouring: it's sweet, and I get a hint of spices there as well (?). It's a little bit like fudge, too. Not bad! The milk chocolate base isn't as nice though; it smells bland, like poor quality Easter chocolate.

In a regular chocolate Kit-Kat, between the layers of wafer you would find a chocolate-based smooth product. Although I can't tell what it is, Nestle appear to have replaced the chocolate with a tan-coloured product inside, presumably to add to the flavour.

The wafers in my Kit-Kat were lovely and fresh and added a good crunch. But then it's downhill from there. The flavour is somewhat boring; the caramel is strong enough to dominate the milk chocolate base, but overall is weaker than the scent it gives off. Although I don't drink coffee, the weak caramel flavour is about what I would expect to find in a caramel-flavoured coffee product - the flavour is there but doesn't do a whole lot else. I don't know what I was expecting, but I'm disappointed. This is not a product that stands on its own. It's okay. There are many other nicer products out there I could have spent my $2 on.

A serve is two fingers (half the packet). This product contains milk, soy and wheat, and is made on equipment that processes products containing peanuts and tree nuts. This product was made in Australia.