October 25th: Kit Kat Senses Caramel Cream

Kcal 165 Fat 9.5g Carbs 18.2g

Back at the beginning of September Nestle announced to the trade that they would be overhauling it's Kit Kat Senses bar by introducing a "new caramel filling to replace the existing hazelnut flavour" (Review of that bar HERE). When I read this I immediatedly thought this all sounded remarkably like the action they took last year to remove the Kit Kat Chunky Peanut and replace it with the Kit Kat Chunky Caramel. The reasoning provided by Nestle for this latest switch is that they believe that "the popularity of caramel flavours among women will open Kit Kat Senses Caramel Cream to a wider female fan base, and accelerate the £33m sales that the brand has achieved since launching in 2008". After a few weeks of searching I finally found this new Kit Kat Senses Caramel Cream on sale in my local convenience store for £0.49.

This new Caramel Cream variant came in a 30.7g size and came described as 'crisp wafer finger with a caramel flavoured creamy topping, covered in milk chocolate'. First impressions of the wrapper were very positive and I loved the new matted foil material which I thought gave the pack great standard with it's golden, orangey colour scheme. Out of the packet the chocolate finger piece looked no different to the original Kit Kat Senses bar, though when bitten in to the filling was noticeably more gold tinted in colour. Taking in the smells on offer from the bar I was instanlty reminded of my experience with the Chunky Caramel, with a promising set of burnt sugar caramel notes proving an appetising prospect.

Whatever I have said about the quality of some of the poorer Kit Kat flavour combinations in the past, one thing I have never criticised is the deliciousness of the classic milk chocolate and wafer constituents. Although both of these elements came substantially less portioned in the Senses bar, the synergy of the milky sweet chocolate and biscuit flavours was still very much there and delivered with the usual crisp wafer and smooth melting chocolate textures. So how good was the 'new' caramel cream filling!? Well as you could have guessed it wasn't 'new' in any sense - it was just simply the same paste like, overly sweet substance used for the Kit Kat Caramel Chunky. Unfortunately making matters slightly worse than with that bar, the wafer and chocolate elements were obviously less dillutive of the sugar focused flavours of the creme due to them being significantly lesser portioned. Resultingly this meant that the taste quickly became very one dimensional and throat searingly sweet after only a few of the five blocks.

Overall you are probably thinking that I'm going to say I was disappointed by this bar, but the truth is that I totally expected to be writing a review such as this one. Back in 2009 and when we all learnt the Kit Kat Chunky Peanut would be replaced by the Caramel variant, hopes were high that it would reach the high standard sets by the very same bar available in Australia (See HERE). When that bar arrived in the UK, I and many others felt very underwhelmed (miffed more like!) by the quality of the caramel filling, which by most accounts was considered pretty poor. Now, although it retained all the attributes I disliked from the Chunky bar format, at least this time it wasn't such a nasty surprise. To be totally frank I didn't enjoy this new Senses Caramel Cream and I probably wouldn't buy it again. One thing that does frustrate me somewhat is that Nestle have reduced the variety that their range offers again by cutting out a hazelnut flavour option for what is simply just another poorer caramel alternative. Let me throw the question to you guys ... What do you all think of this latest change to the Senses range?

6.9 out of 10