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.

Morinaga Hi-Chew Pom Juice ハイチュウポンジュース

If I was English I would take offence at this Hi-chew and the juice it originates from. Living in Australia, I often hear English people referred to as "poms" - a derogatory term. It's mostly said in good humour but most of my English friends think it's rude and take offence.

So bearing that in mind, I would never offer them a piece of this Pom Hi-chew. In Japanese this is pronounced "pon juice", but when Japanese is converted to English, it becomes "Pom", because Pom is short for Pomelo - a citrus fruit native to South East Asia, that is used to make the juice.

Each piece of candy is a light orange colour with white in the middle. Biting into this reminds me of Hi-C, that generic orange juice concentrate you can buy at the supermarket.


It's really a nice taste. Sweet like Hi-C juice with a light orange flavour. This is chewy and from the texture and taste, really close to gum. It's the kind of texture and taste than any gum manufacturer could make.

I really like this, and I recommend it to you. It has a flavour that is easy to like. :)

Meiji Kinoko no Yama Melt-in-the-mouth Milk Caramel きのこの山口どけミルクキャラメル

One of my long-time favourite snacks from Japan is Kinoko no Yama (meaning mushroom mountain in Japanese).

I don't always get to try the very numerous new flavours that Meiji comes out with but I always try. I was pleasantly surprised to find this amongst the goodies in a care pack from Japan.

The website that is made for this snack is very cute and is animated. The characters who are shaped like the snack itself talks to you in speech bubbles and takes you on a trip into his home where you can get information about their mobile site, watch the new commercial, hear Kinotake-san play his guitar and sing the song, read about his profile, read the mail magazine, see party ideas and loads more.


When I opened the box of Kinoko no Yama I realised there was alot more in the box than I had expected. It was pretty full. The smell that wafted out was a creamy milky caramel scent that made me think of a cake shop.

The mushroom is made up of a pretzel stick stem and a chocolate top. The chocolate top is quite thick, so I usually eat these by crunching down on them to get an even mixture of pretzel and chocolate as the pretzel is quite plain to eat by itself if you suck off the chocolate first.

The chocolate is a light coffee coloured white chocolate. I could really taste the cream in these and secondly the caramel. The chocolate melts quickly and really is melt-in-the-mouth (but not in your hand).

The caramel flavour is not overwhelming, it tastes more towards butterscotch than actual caramel. The pretzel is crunchy and when blended with the chocolate seems to take on a real buttery flavour.

I really enjoyed these and thoroughly recommend them. Even though the chocolate is white, it's not too sweet like some other white chocolate snacks and it has a definite dessert-style flavour.

Glico Almond Caramel グリコアーモンドキャラメル

Last November I reviewed Glico Caramel Hearts and now I'm back with another version - Almond Caramel Hearts.

This is an 82 gram pack of 22 individually wrapped caramel hearts with small bits of almond embedded in them.


As I didn't really like the original Glico caramels I didn't hold up much hope for these.

I'm happy to say I was pleasantly surprised.

The caramel is the same shape and size as the original flavour. The difference with these is that they are very soft on the outside and start to melt immediately after I put it in my mouth. The original version was chewy but the almond caramel is less sticky and more pliable. It also has more of a caramel flavour and texture. While chewing the caramel I noticed quite a fudge-like texture too.

The almond is not overpowering, the bits are small enough so they give a hint of roasted almond without overshadowing the caramel experience. If you suck on the caramel rather than chewing it, you tend to get more of the almond flavour.

I'm pleased to note there is nothing that tastes like coconut or lemon peel in these!

I really enjoyed these and if I would definitely recommend them! :)

Cheetos x Tirol Coffee Nougat チートすｘチロルコーヒヌガー味コーンスナック

This was released as the same time as the Kinako Cheetos x Tirol and is the same kind of thing except with a coffee nougat covering instead of kinako.

The thing that struck me when I opened the packet is it looks like someone did a doo-doo in the bag. Not only is it the right colour, but looks similar in shape too. Did I just gross you out? Do Japanese people not think of these things? Sorry.

Luckily they don't smell too bad, mostly a strong coffee scent. Once again the Cheetos are just plain, not cheese flavour and they are nice and crunchy.


The chocolate nougat coating is quite thin, so the Cheetos peeks through in certain places. I'm not really sure why it's called coffee nougat as there is no real nougat in essence. They probably just made a fancy name to up the interest, but really it is just coffee chocolate on a cheetos.

The coffee flavour is not strong enough, or the chocolate is not thick enough, so after the first bite the chocolate is gone and the plain pretzel is all you can taste. I'm abit disappointed about this one, the Kinako version was definitely much better.

This is not going to satisfy coffee lovers or nougat lovers. Better to buy the Kinako version.

Kabaya Rilakkuma Butter Pretzels カバヤリラックマプレッツェルバター味

Here's one for the cool Japanese character fans (like me). Rilakkuma or リラックマ in Japanese is a bear who loves relaxing. Rila comes from "relax", and kuma is the word for bear in Japanese. This character and many other cute characters are the product of a company called San-X (who are also responsible for Tare Panda, Mamegoma, Kogepan, and Afroken amongst others). How do I know this? Well, I have been a fan for many years, and this website is one of my favourites. I can just see the anti-cute lovers rolling their eyes right about now.

Anyway, Rilakkuma has become a favourite with Japan-lovers, Otaku, and of course, children. Kabaya has had much success teaming their products up with the Rilakkuma character and especially around Valentine's day these type of character gifts are very popular. They also have a Rilakkuma Kit Kat, and chocolate biscuits.

The box itself is very cute and has many images of the characters on all sides. On one side is bookmark that you can cut out and use. I suppose if you got creative you could cut out all the images and paste them onto a card or whatever activity you wanted to use them for.


The pretzels themselves are the regular butter flavour. They come in a sealed foil pack with 32 grams of pretzels (approximately 30 sticks). The packaging is also the image of cute!

The pretzel sticks smell like buttery popcorn and taste like a nice fresh breadstick with butter. The butter has some sweetness to it, and it really is quite nice.

These are a good snack to carry around with you because the pack is flat enough to not take up too much room. I can imagine lots of kids and OL's snacking on these on the way to and from home/school/work.

I'm giving these a thumbs up. Cute and light, what more could you want? :)

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.

Meiji Porte Hokkaido Creamy Whip Filling ポルテこだわり北海道クリーム

This was another gift from a friend in Japan, and it's something I have never seen before. The fact that it's got Hokkaido cream inside excites me because I love Hokkaido everything. Especially dairy.

Porte are small, individually wrapped biscuits for want of a better word. It has a dense chocolate biscuit base and a creamy white whipped marshmallow on top, covered in a thin layer of chocolate and coated in cocoa powder.

Heaven in a box.


Biting in I get the bitterness of the cocoa powder followed by the crunch of the biscuit base and the soft creamy marshmallow. The flavour is absolutely divine and is like eating a cloud, that's how soft it is. There is a beautiful vanilla icecream like flavour in the whip.

Yumm. Who could stop at one? Not me. There is nothing more I can say about these except they are totemo oishii, divine, beautiful, delicious and excellence. Pure excellence.

Whoever dreamed these up needs a raise!

Of course these are recommended!! Go!! Buy!! :)

Kanro Pure Gummy Sour Plum カンロピュレグミ梅

I've never really been a gummy person, up until recently. I'm more of a jube person. A friend of mine sent me these in a care package and I was abit taken aback. A) because it's "ume" flavour, Japanese sour plum, something I'm not too keen on, and B) the package says "gummy" but it looks more like a jube.

Only one way to find out though. And I'd hesitated enough, so I decided to give them a whirl today. The packet is something I would expect from Japan. Bright pink and compact. Very cute. The gummy (I want to say jube here) is also very cute- light pink and in the shape of a heart.

Ooohhh is that sour. But not as sour as Shigekix, and after a few seconds the sour sugar melts off and leaves me with a flat jube-like candy that is soft enough to chew. The candy underneath still has some sourness but there is also sweetness.


I feel these are closer to what Aussies would call a jube, so I can say I DO like these! They are not as soft and rubbery as gummy I have previously experienced. I really like the texture.

These are quite addictive. The sour punch at the beginning is really good, and then it dies down abit and becomes a regular soft candy. Yum! These might just have turned me into an "ume" liker instead of a hater, too.

I would love to see a grape version of Pure gummy!

Yes, I wholeheartedly recommend these to you. Thorougly enjoyable and addictive. You might need to get a couple of packs at one time... P.S - Yasu didn't get any because I at the WHOLE LOT! :)

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.