You’ll see Swiss conglomerate Nestle’s Milkybars in England just about everywhere. In the U.S., they’re much harder to find – even the Nestle USA website doesn’t list them anywhere. So when I saw one in World Market the other day, I snagged it. Even though I’m not a huge white chocolate fan, I’m curious to try this candy that’s so popular across the pond.

In keeping with recent trends to make foods with fewer suspect ingredients, Nestle makes a big fuss about the “all natural ingredients” in this candy, even explaining the ingredients in little parenthetical remarks. “Whole cow’s milk (that’s been dried).” Okay… thanks. Skeptics will reply that “milk” and “sugar” don’t reveal the whole story, since cows injected with antibiotics or sugar cane plants sprayed with pesticides lead to measurably unnatural byproducts (this is why organic foods can be safer and better tasting), but at least the artificial flavorings and colors are absent from the Milkybar, right?

Yeah, fine, but how about the taste?

Read More »

The Mars Bar is the candy ship that launched an empire. Though not the first candy bar, it was the first of its kind in the U.K.. In 1932 Forrest Mars decided to introduce his own version of the popular American Milky Way bar to those east of the Atlantic.

It seems odd that the Brits needed a hand from Americans when it came to chocolate, but at the time of development, most chocolate in Britain only manifested itself in solid blocks while the Americans were playing around with fillings, including nougat and caramel, which are the two components that are embedded beneath the milk chocolate coat of the Mars Bar.

Read More »

According to the Nestle UK website, the Nestle Drifter bar has two slogans: “Too much chew for one bar” and “Chewier than the average chocolate bar”. I would like to propose one more: “The chew that stays with you”. Seriously. This thing is everlasting. It refuses to die. It’s a bit of a Zombie Twix, if you will.

The bar itself is delicious: crispy wafers, light Nestle chocolate, and gobs of caramel, but the construction of the bar leaves something to be desired, causing the Drifter to stick around long after the shiny purple wrapper has been emptied. As soon as I put the Drifter into my mouth, the caramel instantly separated from the rest of the bar and found its way into the deepest crevices of my molars, where, I believe, it still remains to this day. Perhaps this is a bonus for some people: eat one on a Monday and enjoy it all week long! But after about an hour of trying to unhinge my jaw, I decided that one Drifter was enough for me.

Still, there’s an upside: I can probably eat as much candy as I want from here on out and never worry about losing my teeth. The Drifter has them locked in caramel goodness: they aren’t going anywhere.

• Nestle Drifter Website

Buy Nestle Drifter online:

• at Brit Super Store
• at The Tudor House

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, Nestle’s strategy of diversifying it’s KitKat brand has fallen flat on its face, to the tune of an 18% drop in overall sales. Nestle, who released 12 different KitKat varieties in the UK, has canceled all but 2, Tiramisu and Caramel, which were the 2 best performing of the 12.

The company blames brand dilution and over saturation, and the executive in charge of the varieties has been fired. Nestle also set up a consumer hotline to field calls and hear what consumers thought of the new flavors, where most responded with “It was nice to try them once, but I’m not sure I’ll buy them again.” Which I often find myself saying when trying some obscure limited edition flavor of a long established brand. They said that they will continue to make minor changes in the brand, but nothing drastic as releasing 12 different flavors. They have since launched a Peanut Butter Chunky Kat bar.

Also, in the article is a line where they mention that the Caramel KitKat will be coming out in America sometime this year…so keep you eyes peeled for that – it sounds great!

We have reviewed a number of wacky KitKat varieties here at Candy Addict – here are reviews of Coffee, Extra Creamy, Noir, Wine, Strawberry, Maple Syrup, and Milkshake KitKats.

• WSJ article in the Post-Gazette
• WSJ article in MoneyWeb
• More KitKat coverage at Candy Addict
• KitKats at Wikipedia

candy, sweets, kitkat, kit kat, limited edition, uk, foreign, nestle, nestle’s, british, great britain, caramel, wine, coffee

You may remember that we just posted about a Wonka golden ticket contest a few days ago, but now there is news of yet another one. This time the contest is for the UK only, and the prize doesn’t include anything as glorious as designing your own limited edition candy. You do, however, win a spot on the next season of the UK edition of Big Brother.

Concealed within 100 Kit Kat bars is Golden Ticket that is worth a chance at a spot on Big Brother. The actual participant will be choosen from that pool of 100 golden ticket winners. The contest runs from May 18th at 10:30 until June 2nd at 10:20 pm. So all our UK readers should head to one of the 40,000 participating retail locations and stock up on KitKats.

• Reuters story on the contest [via TvSquad]
• Teaser video/promo
• UK KitKat