Japanese Kit-Kats - Flavour Upon Flavour! - Food-Spotter
There are times when the UK offerings of Kit-Kat are just downright frustrating. The selection that we have on offer isn’t exactly tantalizing once you discover the wide and varied selection available from the far shores over in Japan. The idea of a Dark Chocolate, Mint or Peanut Butter Kit-Kat starts to sound lame in comparison to the Japanese Kit-Kat flavours of Ginger Ale, Blueberry Cheesecake, Matcha Green Tea, Wasabi and Sweet Potato to name a few. Now take into account there are unique flavours specific to certain regions of Japan, you can see that the flavour assortment only gets bigger!
“Ta raas! I got to buy a plane ticket to try a Japanese Kit-Kat?”
Once upon a time, options were limited to:
- Travelling in person
- Having someone bring it back for you as a gift
- Cybercandy (who currently don’t sell Japanese Kit-Kat anymore)
- Online through a site/seller that would miraculously send to the UK
Things have moved on a little since those dark ages and you can actually get hold of a small selection from London based Japan Centre. For those that live far from the capital, all your birthdays have come at once as they also sell a selection of their products online for you to order as well! This includes the Japanese Kit-Kats!
“So many to choose from! Are they nice?”
This is where things get interesting. I think it’s actually more fun hunting and trying these flavours then it is them being a staple to your “Kit-Kat break”. One or two may make the exception though.
Tofu Annin Flavour – Quite simply an almond based Asian dessert and is quite possibly my top pic out of all the Japanese Kat-Kats I’ve tried. It has a nice sweet flavour which has hints of almond with an undertone of a flavour that;s reminiscent to marzipan. Truly a great tasting Kit-Kat developed by a true master in the Nestle lab.
Shizuoka Wasabi Flavour – The Shizuoka Prefecture is home to some of the best Wasabi, but I think this particular flavour Kit-Kat disappoints. Quite simply there wasn’t enough fire in the chocolate bar to really call it Wasabi flavoured. I’m not talking the type of heat that will leave you crying, just a light kick. On the plus side, it has a nice green colour.
Kyoto Matcha Green Tea Flavour – It’s no secret I love my green tea, so this particular flavour was the most anticipated for me. Amongst the sweetness of the chocolate, the subtle taste of the green tea is lost. For the non green tea purists, it will come across as a pleasant flavoured Kit-Kat. My thoughts is that they should up the Matcha content in the ingredients to help the flavour come through a lot stronger.
Strawberry Cheesecake Flavour – Pretty darn nice! Not precisely cheesecake tasting but the strawberry element does come through in the form of a taste that reminds me a little of jam. Oishii!
Kyoto Yatsuhashi-Cinnamon Flavour – If you like kanelbullar, you will probably like this. The taste of the cinnamon isn’t overly strong but it’s strong enough to make you want to eat another bar.
Ginger Ale Flavour – Probably not made anymore, I got to sample this quite a few years back and it was great for all the wrong reasons. It tasted nothing like what it says on the box. They should have renamed it to WD40 flavour because the taste of the Kit-Kat was akin to the smell of the all purpose oil. Brilliant!
Blueberry Cheesecake Flavour - Much like it’s Strawberry cousin, but minus the jam like taste.
Enough reading and gawking, get down to the Japan Centre or online over at Rakuten and buy your batch right NOW!
Have you discovered or tasted other flavours of Japanese Kit-Kat? Comment and share the experience below.