Three Whittaker’s limited edition banana caramel chocolate bars with yellow banana graphics on the wrappers are displayed against a bright yellow and green patterned background.
Insert banana pun headline here

KaiJuly 15, 2025

The new Whittaker’s Banana Caramel block, reviewed

Three Whittaker’s limited edition banana caramel chocolate bars with yellow banana graphics on the wrappers are displayed against a bright yellow and green patterned background.
Insert banana pun headline here

After another ‘discovered before announcement’ launch, Whittaker’s new Banana Caramel block is now on sale. A bunch of people deliver their verdicts.

When combined, “gooey” and “banana” are two words that should logically equal “yuck”, and yet… the filling in this new choc offering is pretty yum. Whittaker’s knows how to do milk chocolate and it knows how to do caramel, so chucking a bit of banana flavour in there is not going to derail the experience. Do I prefer this to Whittaker’s Creamy Caramel? No. Would I give it a place in Mad’s top 10? Nah. Would I eat several more rows of it if I had the chance? Most likely. Also, the packaging is charming. / Alice Neville

When I first saw this flavour, I thought it would be Whittaker’s take on banoffee pie, so I was excited to try. I didn’t love the first bite, the banana flavouring tasted fine and wasn’t super artificial (thankfully), but overall I thought it was too sweet. The aftertaste wasn’t too bad because at this point, the richness of creamy milk balanced it all out. Would I pick this block up again? Probably not. / Jin Fellet

Collage showing Perky Nana bars, a Cadbury Dairy Milk Snack chocolate, and a banana cream pie, each image above a yellow question mark on a green background.
It tastes like… all of these, maybe?

I really like caramel chocolate. Whittaker’s Creamy Caramel is, I think, my favourite of their standard offerings, followed by Dark Salted Caramel. This bar was yum, it tasted like a banana milkshake with syrup and no actual bananas. Like my colleagues who have recently returned from holiday, the packaging has a tropical glow. I was glad to break off a piece, gaze out at the Auckland rain, and imagine the sand between my toes. / Ben Fagan

Is it just me, or does this flavour have a scarcity buzz that recent Whittaker’s flavours have lacked? Do I just like it better than the mango and hot cross bun flavours? Am I just nostalgic for the peak era of fruit cream chocolate before a lot of chocolate became a bit shit? I bought the last block of this new flavour at my local New World and felt like Charlie Bucket. I briefly flashing back to the simpler times of 2014 when we all went bananas for some chocolate milk, and wondered if our collective mojo might be rising. A few hours later, and I think that’s a long bow to draw, but it’s the best new flavour from Whittaker’s in a while. It’s not too sweet, the filling is smooth, and it reminded me of a cross between a Perky Nana and the old Cadbury Snack block. These are flavours that naturally belong together, which is a welcome departure from spinning up freaky “fun” flavours just to sell more units. The packaging is gorgeous – part Palm Beach, part White Lotus opening credits. Would eat again. / Anna Rawhiti-Connell

A person with short blond hair, wearing a dark jacket, sits outside holding a package of Barnana organic chewy banana bites. The background appears weathered and urban.
I got a golden ticket

Even if this tasted horrible I’d probably still like it because the wrapper looks so nice. That’s marketing baby! The good news is it’s not horrible but it also doesn’t unseat many of the classic Whittaker’s flavours on my personal choc ranking, so maybe I won’t be making a funky feature wall out of Banana Caramel wrappers after all. If they make a wrapper like this for the Coconut Block however I am in biiiig trouble. / Calum Henderson

My sister was right, this slaps. Fake banana flavours for me are OK, I am partial to a banana milkshake so this kind of felt really right, slightly nostalgic even. Also the wrapper, full Curious George vibes, loved it. Also, off topic from bananas, the new peanut caramel brittle flavour is by far the most superior flavour of all Whittaker’s chocolate. / Bec Murphy

This flavour is the beautiful offspring of two niche Cadbury novelty bars – a Perky Nana and a Pinky. First of all, it tastes like banana. I love banoffee pie so am predisposed to enjoy this flavour and I did. It’s certainly not a “settle in for a long snack session” kind of flavour but I would be happy to see it brought out at someone’s house. Whittaker’s has been avoiding straying from their classic gold packaging the last few years which makes me think this one really won’t stick around but I’ll be enjoying it while it’s here. Thought experiment from someone who prefers a “bits” flavour over a “liquid flavour”: imagine a banana-flavoured milk chocolate with biscuit and crunchy caramel bits throughout.

Whittaker’s next flavour prediction: sweet and salty popcorn. / Mad Chapman

Keep going!
A pair of giant chuck taylor sneakers hang from two standalone billboards
I can’t stop thinking about this ad

OPINIONMediaJuly 12, 2025

The Weekend: I can’t stop thinking about this ad

A pair of giant chuck taylor sneakers hang from two standalone billboards
I can’t stop thinking about this ad

Madeleine Chapman reflects on the week that was.

It’s either a sign I’m scraping the bottom of the vibes barrel or a sign that I’m choosing to find joy in unexpected places but last weekend I found myself utterly captivated, impressed and moved(?!) by a billboard.

To be clear, I have high standards for creative consumerism. I hate that we all just have to accept we’ll be surrounded by ads all the time, and therefore feel personally insulted when it feels like that privilege – the privilege corporations have in demanding our attention – is taken for granted. When I see a grotesque and lazy Grimace ad, I will complain about it. Yesterday I saw someone opt, at the last minute, to wait for another bus because their one had the garish police wrap on it. I applauded that stranger.

Nothing signals a recession like advertising agencies phoning it in or pitching (likely out of necessity) the most low-effort campaigns imaginable. Digital billboards mean I see six meh ads at the traffic lights instead of one. My expectations for some creative flair on a sign are nil. And then last week, as I waited at the Newton Road offramp lights, I saw this:

A pair of giant chuck taylor sneakers hang from two standalone billboards
Picturing five men lifting a giant Chuck (Photo: Abel)

That’s it. Just an ad for a medicinal cannabis clinic. I have no need for medicinal cannabis and won’t be buying any now but I laughed out loud when I saw this and then yelled “good ad!” in the car like a child.

It’s a grabby billboard that takes a quietly understood visual and makes a point with it. And it looks cool. Technically the campaign is about destigmatising cannabis use for medicinal purposes but ultimately it’s an ad and an effective one at that.

But what moved me was the real-life presence of it. It’s tangible and has to have been man-made. If I have to look at a big ad, it’s mildly comforting to know that someone actually put it there. People all over the world still talk about the New Zealand ads for Kill Bill from 20 years ago.

A billboard for the movie Kill Bill on the side of a building. Fake blook is spraying across the billboard and onto a car parked nearby
A classic of the genre

AI is unavoidable at this point, and so many creative outputs (read: ads but also art, music, literature) feel either written by AI, designed with AI or at least deployed with little human touch. Giant screens that can be edited with the push of a button are cost-effective but never make me think about real people – even though there are very real people putting ads out in the world.

I looked at those giant Chucks and wondered how they were made, what they were made of, how they were transported and how they were installed. For the first time in years I saw an ad and immediately thought fondly of the real human effort behind it. Is that inspiring or depressing? I’m still not sure.

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Madeleine Chapman
— Editor

The stories Spinoff readers spent the most time with this week

Feedback of the week

“Could we all please collectively take a moment to pause and appreciate the guy rocking the marijuana shirt in the back row of the fourth/bottom photo?”

“Bloody wonderful article, Oscar.

My dads blind- started in his 30’s, like his mum. It’s always been far away future for me until it wasn’t – on the cusp on 30 and suddenly I can’t see shit.

Weird, lonely experience – thanks for making it less so.”