“Have a break, have a KitKat.” When I hear that slogan (or “gimme me a break”), my mind automatically envisions the milk chocolate crispy wafer that melts in your mouth. While Akshay and I were in Japan, we came across an assortment of KitKat flavors we had never heard of! We were so curious to taste the different flavors, that we decided to buy all the ones we found. $150 later, I am sitting here writing about some of our thoughts on these creative flavors! (Akshay’s note: relax, we bought some for family and friends too. Totally justifiable.)
I still can’t believe how many flavors of KitKat there are! In fact, more than 300 flavors exist, including some funky ones like Soy Sauce, European Cheese, and Hot Japanese Chili. Unfortunately, we only hit about 3% of them. I guess we will have to plan another Japan trip in the future dedicated to finding all 300+ flavors!
Anyways, below is a quick review on the KitKat bars we did end up purchasing.
Coffee KitKat: As soon as I unwrapped the chocolate, I got a subtle whiff of coffee. I took a bite, and to be honest, there wasn’t anything surprising or overwhelming about it. I would take my regular dark or milk chocolate KitKat any day. If I’m craving coffee, I’ll just go buy an actual one!
Red bean KitKat: At a first glance, it looks like a white chocolate KitKat bar. However, when I took my first bite, I definitely tasted the red bean. This was by far my favorite, but I think it depends on whether you like or hate red bean. I love red bean and even made it my life mission to find the famous red bean filled fish pastry while I was in Japan.
Almond KitKat: This one reminded me of those Hershey’s chocolate nuggets with pieces of almond in it. We think it may have been dark chocolate, but not one hundred percent sure. Also, I want to point out that the wrappers are in Japanese only, so for some of these, including this one, we had to guess the flavor.
Strawberry Cheesecake KitKat: Again, at first glance, this looks like a white chocolate KitKat bar. I hate cheesecake due to a Costco overload of cheesecake pudding when I was ten years old. (Akshay’s note: this is what lasting mental anguish looks like.) However, he loves cheesecake, so I thought this would be his favorite flavor. When we took our first bite, we tasted the strawberry more than the actual cheesecake. I ended up liking it way more than Akshay did.
Green Tea KitKat: This is a pretty generic flavor. It’s a light green color, and it tastes like green tea. I think this is offered in the US too.
Sake KitKat: As soon as I opened the box, I got a huge whiff of sake. I am not a huge fan, so I was pretty nervous on even tasting it. I’m chewing it as I type. Pretty nasty. I’m literally cringing. Again, I don’t like sake, so I could be very biased. It tastes like alcohol and chocolate, but not in a good way.
Wasabi KitKat: So weird. When unwrapping it, you could almost confuse it for the green tea Kit Kat bar. This one is very very subtle, compared to real wasabi in general. I was able to eat the whole stick without having the urge to spit it out. It’s unique and I recommend at least trying it!
Wine KitKat: I love wine, so I was pretty curious to taste this one. When I opened the wrapper, it smelled almost like red wine! I took my first bite and for a split second it reminded me of raspberry white chocolate. However, a few seconds later, the flavor started to change, and it started to go downhill pretty fast. I don’t know if this or the sake flavor was worse. Either way, I need to figure out how to pawn these off. (Akshay’s note: LOL)
Apple KitKat: Have you ever heard of chocolate covered apple? Exactly. This was pretty disgusting too. I took one whiff and knew it wasn’t going to end well. Compared to the alcohol flavored ones, I would take this in a heartbeat. However, if I was given a choice, this would be on the bottom of my list. It tasted like apple, but I don’t think this fruit meshes well with chocolate. They should consider caramel apple as a future flavor!
All in all, the experience of tasting these flavors was more fun than the actual KitKat themselves. I hope that if you ever plan a trip to Japan, you will also go on a KitKat adventure like we did. They also make great gifts for friends and family!
Irene and I got: Sake, Wasabi, Red Bean, Roasted Soy Bean, Matcha, Apple, Cheescake. She (and her colleagues) did not much like the sake, wasabi, red bean, or roasted soy bean. I, on the other hand, loved them all. More than anything else, I was impressed by how well Kit Kat was able to capture the flavour of each type of Kit Kat. But I’m also a Sake & Wasabi lover.
That’s so funny! I loved the red bean, but everyone else hated it! I wish I could share your appreciation for the other unique flavors! Unfortunately, I’ll be sticking to the pretty basic flavors + red bean :).