Kit Kat Passionfruit キットカット 大人の甘さ こだわりパッションフルーツ

As I was leaving Japan to come home, Nestle released a new Kit Kat flavour. It was a surprise, mostly because the flavour is so mundane. A fruity flavour for summer but something I would expect to see at home in Australia, not in Japan.

However, I was happy to be able to grab a share pack of 12 minis for ¥298 to take home as souvenirs for my friends, who were delighted to try it and all raved about the flavour. I wish I had brought more than one bag home with me!

The Kit Kat itself is a creamy yellow colour and smells strongly of passionfruit from the chocolate coating which is smooth and soft. Biting into the Kit Kat finger the chocolate is sweet, and the wafers are crispy but the cream inside is tart and makes an interesting combination when mixed. 

 

I can see why my friends raved about this. I like the tart and the sweet together, and as well as that at the very end there is an unexpected creaminess. This Kit Kat is delectable and really lends itself to being more like a dessert than a snack. 

It is really more sophisticated than previous flavours, and I could imagine it more as an elegant dessert for adults. I really do like this, and luckily I have 3 minis left so I can keep them all to myself!

If you haven't already tried this I recommend that you do! But make sure that you keep it hidden so no one steals it! ;)

Nestle Kit Kat Green Tea (Matcha) キットカット 大人の甘さ 抹茶

It's been a while since I have reviewed a Kit Kat, probably at least a couple of years. It's good to be getting back into reviewing Kit Kat though as I've never lost my interest in the weird and wacky flavours that Japan keeps putting out.

It seems since the disaster of March 2011 (I hate saying that as my son was born the same month and year), that Nestle have been releasing less Kit Kat flavours than they did before. I know you can still get regional versions but when I went to Japan recently I really struggled to find anything other than regular, white, and green tea.

Japan seems to have renamed their Kit Kat to be "大人" (adult) flavour, or sweetness at an acceptable level for adults. I am not sure why this is, but they have a lot of advertising featuring office ladies or "OL's" so maybe they are aiming more towards weight conscious women?

This is a share pack of 12 individually wrapped minis which is great for me as I have been able to give lots away as souvenirs after coming home from Japan. This flavour was released in both a share pack and a single pack edition. In Japan, the share pack of 12 Kit Kat retails for around ¥298 which is how much I paid for this bag at Mega Donkey (a large discount retailer).

The one thing I noticed about this Kit Kat is that the chocolate coating is very mousse-like and it melts very easily. We are in the throes of Winter here and it's around 18 degrees during the day, but even with the heater on low this little mini melted. 

  

The outer chocolate is green tea green and smells strongly of matcha. Biting into it I get a very strong hit of matcha from the soft green chocolate. The matcha cream inside the crispy wafer also tastes very strongly of tea but with a sweetness. Right at the end there is a familiar bitterness from the matcha.

This Kit Kat was a hit with me. It was very authentic to the taste of real matcha and the soft outer chocolate, even though it melted easily, was delicious. I also enjoyed the crispy texture of the wafers inside. Unfortunately for me it was over too soon, so I might need the whole bag of minis to myself! 

I would recommend trying these if you like matcha or if you want to try a really authentic Japanese flavour paired in a Kit Kat.

Kit Kat Cola & Lemon Squash キットカット コーラ味とレモンスカッシュ味

Wow, long time no Kit Kat review! I've had this box sitting in the fridge since last year and it still hasn't expired, in fact it won't expire until May, but I thought I better get around to it now before bubs arrives, because then I definitely probably won't have any time to.

This Kit Kat is a duo flavour, Cola, and Lemon Squash. It contains two individually wrapped packs, one containing two sticks of Cola and the other containing two sticks of Lemon Squash.

The Cola is a light brown chocolate, similar to the colour of actual Cola drink and it smells like a flat Cola. Biting into it at first is a flat Cola flavour but inside the wafers there is some fizziness which makes it taste and feel like a real Cola drink. I really love the fizzy sensation, it's quite fun and the chocolate is not too sweet, in fact the fizzy factor is the dominating flavour.

The Lemon Squash is white chocolate which smells like lemon cheesecake. Biting into it the flavour is quite tart, like a lemon tart, and the chocolate is quite sweet. There feels like there are some small granules inside the wafers, and these have quite a sour flavour which give it a real kick. This flavour is too sweet to really be considered as a lemon squash but I do like the flavour overall, because I'm a fan of the sour-sweet combo and lemon cheesecake flavour.

In all, I though this was a good effort from Nestle. Two distinct flavours in the one box and both are really enjoyable. Wish I bought more of these!


This Kit Kat got a mediocre review from Jen's Kit Kat blog, and got the thumbs up from My Kit Kats.

Brand: Nestle Calories per box: 100 Website: http://www.nestle.co.jp

Nestle Mixed Juice Kit Kat ミックスジュース キットカット

The colour of this Kit Kat is a bit surprising. It's the same colour as the cheese on a McDonald's cheeseburger. I kid you not.

It's a bright yellow orange, that I guess is representative of juice, but it still reminds me of cheeseburger. The bar encompasses the flavours of Peach, Banana, and Strawberry. I've never actually tried that combination together in a juice but I'm sure it would go together well.

The bar smells very much like banana from the outside. Biting into it however, is another story. It's kind of weird but I get a taste like tomato ketchup. There is also a very strong chemical taste which ends up being banana. There are some very fake peach notes. The peach in this kit kat is very similar in flavour to the Peach in the Tirol Mix Pack. I don't like it as much in the kit kat as I did in the Tirol. There are only very vague hint of the strawberry, a little bit of tartness here and there, but mostly overtaken by very sweet peach and chemical tasting banana.

I'm usually a fan of the fruitier kit kats, but I can't say that about this one. It's just too sweet and the fruit components really taste fake.

Brand: Nestle Calories per mini bar: 69 Website: http://www.breaktown.com/ Buy it now at napaJapan

Framboise Kit Kat フランボワーズ味 キットカット

I was delighted when I received this box in a parcel from Jason @ napaJapan. It's been a long time since I've reviewed a Kit Kat here on Tasty Japan and I was beginning to yearn to try another one soon.

Framboise - a flavour I don't come upon very often, I didn't even know how to pronounce it. On the box it is spelled out as furanbowaazu. Wikipedia states the pronounciation as franbwaz, which is French for Raspberry. The picture on the box is of a cake with cream and raspberries.

I had the box open while I have been typing this and the smell is divine. It smells like a cake shop. If the kit kat tastes anything like it smells, then this will be a winner!

As usual there are 4 sticks, 2 packs of 2. The wrapping paper is pink with light pink circles and it looks very French. Very stylish.

The chocolate on the outside of the kit kat is milk chocolate, but it has a slight raspberry flavour. When I bit into the kit kat it had a very strong flavour in the middle, like yoghurt and cheese mixed together, it is very creamy. There is also a small sourness from the raspberry powder, but it combines together with the yoghurt to create a very nice dessert experience. The chocolate on the outside is so creamy and goes so well with the flavours inside. It's delicious.

I would recommend trying this Kit Kat, it's something just a little bit special. I have a feeling there will be more flavours that are from well known sweets as there is a little logo on the box that says "sweets concept". So keep your eye out for more desserts into kit kat's in the future.

Brand: Nestle Calories per box: 97 Website: http://www.breaktown.com/ Buy it now at napaJapan

Royal Milk Tea Kit Kat ロイヤルミルクティー味キットカット

I've been a tea drinker since I was young. As in 2 or 3 years young. My mum's side of the family came over from England way back when so it kind of runs in the family. And by tea I mean English Breakfast Tea. With milk.

The first time I ever went to Japan I was introduced to their version of it - royal milk tea - by my father in law. It was love at first taste. The Japanese version is definitely sweeter and it seems to have a secret ingredient, maybe some spices thrown in for good measure.

Living in Australia, Japanese royal milk tea is one of the things I miss the most. It's always the first thing I buy when I arrive in Japan.

So, I was overjoyed to hear that Nestle had made a royal milk tea Kit Kat. I received this box as a gift from a friend which I thought was quite fitting as food from friends always taste better, right?


This box is typically English in design, it has the red tartan in the background and the English guards walking across the bottom of the box. I wonder if the Queen has tried this Kit Kat? I wonder if Nestle Japan sent her a box of it for free?

The two packets of fingers inside the box have a blue tartan on the outside of the packaging. What is the significance of that I wondered. So I googled. Then I realised that tartan is particularly associated with Scotland, and the colours are related to different clans. There are over 4000 different tartans, all belonging to different clans.

Moving on. :)

The chocolate is white chocolate coloured a light beige colour. It smells sweet and floral.



Biting in, there is a definite creaminess, it's very milky. At the back of my tongue I taste the sweet floral notes that I recognise from royal milk tea. The sense of tea is very vague. It's almost there, but not.

The chocolate is not overly sweet like I expected. It's cool on my tongue and really creamy more than anything else. I'm disappointed because there is no sense of the spices or tea flavour that make up a bottle of royal milk tea. It falls short of the mark.

Maybe it's not a good idea to send the Queen one of these. She would probably be very miffed.

Why is it that Nestle Japan can superbly do a Ginger Ale Kit Kat but they fall flat on Royal Milk Tea? It would seem the latter would be easier to recreate. Oh well. I'm hoping if Nestle recycle this flavour, the next time around will be better.

My advice: wait for the next incarnation.

Ginger Ale Kit Kat ジンジャーエールキットカット

Ginger Ale, or Ginger Beer as us Aussies refer to it as, is one of my favourite drinks. I've always loved the strong taste of ginger combined with the pop and fizz of the soda.

I'm actually really surprised that Nestle Japan chose it as a Kit Kat flavour. Out of all the possible flavours that Japan loves, I never considered this to be one. I know they sell Canada Dry in Japan, so it's not totally foreign to Japanese people, and they have also done Ramune (lemonade) flavour in the past, so a beverage Kit Kat is not so weird, I guess.

This Kit Kat is really something else. I mean, it's not what I expected. When I opened the packet I got a really strong smell of ginger and then a smell of sweetness like when you open a bottle of soda. Sweet fizz, I guess you could say.


The chocolate is very soft, again, I've noticed this lately with the Kit Kat's I have been buying. They all seem to have a mousse-like chocolate coating that is thick, soft, and melts very easily.

The chocolate has a bite, and has a taste at the beginning that reminds me of a Cola flavour Chup-a-chup. Then, in the middle of the wafers is a hot ginger tang, that tastes cool on my tongue. Chewing the Kit Kat abit more, a pudding-like flavour emerges. It reminds me abit like egg nog, in that it has some nutmeg and it seems very much like an egg custard. The cola flavour emerges again, then the cool hot ginger tang, and then ends on a nutmeg, egg nog-like flavour again.


I don't really get much sense of ginger ale. To me it was very much like weak cola (yes I know it sounds weird) with some ginger notes, and a big serving of eggnog or pudding on the side.

Despite the way it tastes, I actually quite like it, because it's quite different. I don't suppose they tried to make it taste like egg nog and cola, but it doesn't matter because I love both. I think if they made singular versions of each it would be great.

The hotness of the ginger is left behind on the back of my throat and tongue, just a slight burning sensation, after I ate two fingers. So there is an element much the same as Ginger Ale, but it's more in the after-taste than the immediate taste.

I would recommend this to you if you like trying flavours that are abit out there. I wouldn't go out of my way to buy this again, but I will eat the rest of the pack.

You can buy this now at napaJapan Candy & Bento store.

Miso Kit Kat みそ味キットカット

I've been on a bit of a health kick lately, since the new year, and one of the products I've warmed to is Miso. It's not a flavour that is popular in our house. Yasu has never liked it, and I've never really been a fan, until now.

I found quite a few recipes where miso, combined with sugar and mirin, make eating miso alot more pleasurable.

So when I found Miso Kit Kat I knew that I had to try it!

This Kit Kat is a premium release, and comes in a box of 12 individually wrapped minis. The chocolate coating on the outside is a light golden coloured white chocolate.


The smell of the outside of the Kit Kat is a very diluted miso scent. The white chocolate coating is buttery, has hints of sweetness and a balance of salt. There is some miso flavour between the wafers, but only a hint. It is not really as full flavoured as I hoped it would be.

This ends up tasting like the Shoyu kit kat, abit maple flavoured. I don't know why that happens. This flavour had the potential to be so good, especially as it's such an iconic Japanese flavour.

It was definitely a let-down. Don't get me wrong, it tastes nice, sweet, and salty, but more like a maple syrup bar than a miso one. In fact if I had not know it was Miso, I would never have guessed.

I would probably say, don't waste your money on this one. If you want to try it just once, you can buy the mini bars individually from napaJapan.

Wasabi Kit Kat わさびキットカット

I've been wondering for quite some time when Nestle would release a Wasabi Kit Kat. I mean when most people think of Japan they think of Sushi and then... Wasabi. So, Nestle, thanks but sheesh you really took your time! (This is actually a regional specialty of Kanto and Shizuoka so it's not available everywhere unfortunately.)

I'm not a big lover of Wasabi, I never eat it with my sushi, and I don't use it on anything else except in a mayo mixture for steak. It's purely out of curiousity that I wanted to try a Wasabi Kit Kat.

The Kit Kat itself is white chocolate but with a light green hue, I guess as close to the real Wasabi colour as is possible. It doesn't really smell like anything but sweet white chocolate.


The texture of the white chocolate is the same as in the sweet potato Kit Kat's, very soft, crumbly and almost like a mousse whip.

Biting into the stick there is the familiar burn on my tongue and at the back of my throat. It seems to be coming from the cream inside the wafers, and I get a cool feeling in my nose like menthol, just like the real thing.

I like this Kit Kat because it's true to the Wasabi experience but also true to the Kit Kat experience. As in, it's got the hot elements that Wasabi has without being too strong, with a sweet kickback from the white chocolate.

I thought this was a winner and lived up to my expectations, if not more. I actually didn't think the Wasabi would be as strong as this, so there you go. I thought Yasu would also like this as he loves Wasabi but he told me he hated it and he thought it was strange. So maybe this one's only for Japan Lovers?

Who knows, but it's definitely worth a try if you come across it!

Sweet Potato Kit Kat's さつまいもと紅いもキットカット

Yasu and I are big fans of potato. That includes sweet potato. I often make potato and sweet potato bakes, potato salad, sweet potato chips, and sweet potato mash.

So, when I saw that there were two new Kit Kat's that were sweet potato flavoured, I had to try them.

In Australia we have something that looks like the Okinawan Sweet Potato, the only difference is that it is white in the middle where the beni-imo is purple throughout.

Satsuma-imo, or the regular Japanese sweet potato is very popular, and in winter in Japan they have street vendors that go around the neighbourhood selling baked sweet potato's, so this sweet potato often elicits fond memories of childhood, akin to how Aussie kids think of Mr Whippy. It's also the main ingredient in daigaku-imo (also another Kit Kat of times gone by).

The satsuma-imo Kit Kat has had a few incarnations but this is the first time I will be trying it officially for my blog.


紅いも

It's actually lighter in colour than I thought it would be. On the package there is a picture of what looks like beni-imo piped into a little rosette, the colour is a dark purple so I thought the chocolate would also be that colour. The chocolate on this Kit Kat is a light lilac colour and has a funny texture. I can't really describe it except to say its very soft and crumbly and reminds me of the outside of Ohagi.


The smell is very familiar to me, pretty much the same as a red sweet potato here. The chocolate on the outside is soft and very sweet. The sweet potato flavour comes through immediately. I like the soft texture. The wafers lend abit of saltiness to the flavour which I really like, though it is not the exact flavour of a beni-imo. It is nice though, delicate is the word that comes to mind about this one.


さつまいも

This is a golden yellow colour and has the same Ohagi texture as the beni-imo Kit Kat. It smells quite earthy, a little bit buttery, but nothing really enticing. Like the beni-imo the texture is soft, which I like. The flavour is really hard to pin down, it doesn't have alot of the flavour of a satsumai-mo, I get a flavour that reminds me of white wine, butter, some sweetness, abit of salt, and some creaminess, but nothing really exact. I've had satsuma-imo in Japan and it didn't taste anything like this. Unfortunately for me, I felt this was way off the mark. It really had the texture but unfortunately no real characteristics of the flavour.


Yasu and I both liked the beni-imo the best. We felt that the flavour was very true to the vegetable and the texture made us feel like we were eating a real one. I'm thinking about buying a bag of the beni-imo, and I'd definitely recommend it to you to try.

I wouldn't buy the satsuma-imo again though, that was pretty disappointing. Though some may like it. :)

Togarashi Kit Kat 唐辛子キットカットリットルボールズ

There is a plethora of interesting Kit Kat flavours in Japan. Some that are normal to Japanese people like melon or sweet potato, seem downright weird in other countries.

Whereas confectionary like chilli chocolate is quite normal here, or chilli beer for that matter. So, a chilli Kit Kat does not seem so out of the ordinary to me. That said, I've never sampled chilli chocolate or chilli beer because I can't stand spicy food. I never eat anything with chilli in it.

So it's just karma that I now have to sample chilli Kit Kat balls then isn't it?

This Kit Kat comes in an interesting form. Little balls; more like maltesers than an actual Kit Kat until you bite into them and see the wafer. Mine came over from Japan in the heat of a Perth summer and melted, so now they are little squares instead! But never mind, I'm pretty sure they taste the same.


The chocolate still smells the same, sweet and chocolately, like Nestle chocolate does. Biting into the ball there is the sweet chocolate taste and loud crunch of wafer and then... a spicy hotness exploding onto my tongue and around my mouth.

Okay, it's not really that bad. For someone who can't take any spice, it's actually not that bad. It's not as bad as I thought it would be. It's spicy, it's hot, but it doesn't get any hotter. On swallowing, my throat does get quite hot too, but it doesn't make my eyes water or my nose run.

I tried eating four of these at one time, and it was a little bit hotter, but it still didn't make my orifaces water. It was a couple of levels hotter, but I could stand it.

I like this Kit Kat. I LIKE THIS KIT KAT. Never thought I would say that! But I do. I like the sweetness of the chocolate and the hotness of the chilli inside. I can imagine for real chilli lovers these would not be hot enough though...but I think because of that they are not limited to adult tastes so that is one thing in their favour. These are actually quite addictive and I have to admit to scoffing the whole pack by myself.

The picture on the packet is a little scary, I must admit. But it's not actually like that in real life. Sure, you can see a few pink dots, but nowhere near as many, and as neatly as the half a little ball on the packet.


Oh and if you suck all the chocolate off and then sort of crush the wafer in your mouth, you won't taste the chilli until the very end. It's kind of a delayed experience. I personally like biting down though.

I would definitely buy these again, for my worst enemy! And for my friends too :) They are pretty good!! I recommend you try them because hey, they're a novelty item, there are big bragging rights that go hand in hand with eating this Kit Kat; plus they taste pretty good!

Yasu's Rating: They were too hot for me (and I like kimchi and spicy things). I didn't like these at all.

Kit Kat Kinako Ohagi きなこおはぎ味

Yes, another Kit Kat review, I couldn't help myself. I'm still intrigued by the unique flavours that Kit Kat always bring out. I was drawn to the box because of the traditional design, the green and yellow, and Japanese reeds. Being a lover of Traditional Japan, taste or not, this was a Kit Kat I had to buy.

Just in case you don't know:

Kinako is Japanese soybean flour and is commonly used in Japanese cuisine. Soybeans are toasted, and ground down into the flour.

Ohagi is a sweet that is made in Autumn, and is named after the bush clover that flowers in Autumn. It is made with sweet rice on the outside and an azuki (red bean) paste in the middle.

In the case of Kinako Ohagi, a dusting of Kinako powder is added to the outside of the sweet rice, giving it the appearance of a small brown ball.

Right, now we've got that out of the way, I have to say I wasn't expecting to like this. Some people say that Kinako tastes like peanut paste, and I was hoping it was true. I'd never tasted it before today and I have to say I was abit apprehensive.

But....wow! Yes, it does taste like peanut paste, in fact more of a peanut cream because it's sweet more than salty. The milk chocolate on the outside, really smells like roasted peanuts. I'm really glad they made it wilk milk chocolate instead of white too, because it has a very earthy smell.

The milk chocolate is sweet and tastes like peanuts where the cream in the wafers taste very sweet like peanut cream. Towards the end there is a bitter, long-roasted taste, that really sets the scene for the toasted sesame flavour that emerges near the end. MMMmm this is delicious!!

I can imagine this going down very well with a nice cup of real green tea. Although there is no azuki in this chocolate, it doesn't really matter, as you do get the feeling you've been transported back to ancient Japan. I was surprised to look down and see I was still wearing jeans and not a yukata after eating this!

Full of Vegetables Kit Kat 充実野菜キットカット

This Kit Kat was released on the 24th of August and I only just saw it today in Ito Yokado for ¥105.

The Japanese characters 充実野菜 (or Juujitsu Yasai) means "full of vegetables", and has the same name of the same drink by Itoen.

The ingredient lists boasts apple, carrot, grape, lemon, celery, capsicum, asparagus, chinese cabbage, kale, parsley, cabbage, herbs, radish, and spinach. The back of the box states that the vegetable powder is in the cream between the wafers, and the apple and carrot flavour is in the chocolate coating.

The colour of the white chocolate is a bright orange colour that reminds me of McDonald's fake cheese. The smell of apple wafts up from the chocolate.

Biting into the Kit Kat finger, there is a sweet flavour of apple immediately, but it gives way to a weird chemical flavour that reminds me of something burnt. I can't really detect any carrot flavour in the chocolate, and there is no real sense of vegetables in the cream between the wafers.

I guess for some people this would be a relief, as the actual juice by Itoen is rather strong. For me however I am a little disappointed as I expected the taste the vegetable patch and all I can taste is the apple orchard. Apple is really the only flavour here besides a few chemical overtones.

I really think this would have been better with milk chocolate as the white chocolate is too sweet for a snack that is meant to showcase a health drink. Unless you liked previous versions of the apple kit kat then I wouldn't recommend buying this. It should be called 'full of apples' rather than vegetables.