New KitKat! Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream!

Today's KitKat Get!

I got my hands on two new exciting flavours of KitKat today! First, Carrot Apple Pie! This one is sort of a mystery because of the packaging, as it's clearly designed to be an Easter edition. In the top right, the text in the Easter egg says, "Your dreams are sure to come true. Get off to a good start this Easter!" Then in the lower left it's telling us to look for the "lucky" Kit Kat which is decorated with an Easter Egg-Bunny. Now, Readers, if you don't read Japanese, you'll have to trust me when I say that the first message is a bit more clever than it sounds because there's a pun in there that's lost in translation. But overall I'd say this is a pretty strange package design in a non-Christian country that pays no attention to the Easter holiday. But hey, whatever it takes to deliver a new delicious Kit Kat is fine with me.

Today's second find is a little bit lighter on the story, but is certainly a wonderful flavour! This one is the Okinawa special edition, Okinawan Purple Yam flavour. I'm sort of puzzled as to how this one made its way to Tokyo, but who am I to argue? Lucky for me!!

Presenting the KitKat sandwich!

Today I decided to take a bike ride over to Ueno for lunch at the Japanese burger franchise, First Kitchen, although eating a burger was not the main goal. The reason for my visit was trying the new KitKat sandwich that's being offered for a limited time at First Kitchen restaurants nationwide!

Without further ado, the KitKat sandwich! It's a simple dessert: an oblong piece of sweet milk bread topped with whipped cream and minced candied orange peel, then folded around a mini size Café KitKat. That's really all there is to it, but it's really very tasty, and has no need to be complicated. The bread is smooth and firm on the outside, but very soft and chewy on the inside. The whipped cream is light and airy. To be honest, I've never been a huge fan of candied orange peel, but the kind in this sandwich is not too sugary and actually I really liked it. Last but not least, the main ingredient, a KitKat! A Café KitKat is a milk chocolate KitKat that's made specifically for dunking in coffee, hot chocolate, warm milk, etc, and as such has a little bit more crunch than the standard variety. All together, these ingredients come together to make a really nice treat!

I really can't say that this is a life-changing dessert experience; First Kitchen is a fast food burger chain after all. It's also probably not likely that I'll keep going back over and over again to eat it, but it certainly is delicious, and a KitKat fan like me would definitely feel a sense of loss had I let the opportunity pass. Great job First Kitchen! It's a great idea that's executed very well!

Thinking of trying one yourself? While you're there, may as well have a meal, right? First Kitchen also has another limited edition sandwich this spring-- the Chicken Nanban (チキン南蛮) burger. It was quite tasty and I definitely recommend it, I got mine with a side of buttered potato (ジャガバター) French Fries.

[Photo of the Day] Almond Feuillantine KitKat!

via Instagram http://ift.tt/1vZdc6q

Wow! These are sooooo delicious! The chocolate has a rich cocoa flavour, and there's a lovely, subtle hint of almond. The chocolate also contains a tiny bit of liqueur to enhance the taste. Instead of the standard KitKat cookie, there's a light, airy, crispy crepe in the middle! Superb!

Kit Kat Pizza!?

Just this morning I posted about Japan's Kit Kat Culture, and then this flyer for a restaurant chain called Napoli Pizza came in the mail this afternoon! What we're looking at here is their "Adults' Dolce Pizza" topped with mangoes and those Toaster Kit Kats I wrote about in my previous post! Wow! Actually it sounds kinda good! This is another fine example of how serious we take our Kit Kat Culture here in Japan! 

Japanese Kit Kat Culture

If you like reading my blog, chances are high that you're somewhat familiar with Japan in general, and the magic of Japanese Kit Kats is nothing new to you. Still, I've personally never written about Japanese Kit Kats before, and it wouldn't be right of me to go on blogging without paying homage to these favorite treats of mine.

Most everyone has eaten, or regularly eats the familiar milk chocolate and white chocolate Kit Kats that are available worldwide. Most everyone also knows that Kit Kat was created by the Swiss company Nestlé. Nestlé Japan, however, seems to have some sort of special arrangement in place since the Kit Kats here come in a huge variety. Flavors like "matcha" (powdered green tea) are already famous globally, and are one of the top-selling souvenirs purchased by visitors from overseas. The green tea variety is already quite mundane here in Japan, however, where the flavours vary by season and by region. Japanese cuisine is very seasonal by nature, so the local Kit Kats follow suit. Some of the flavours I've enjoyed recently include Passionfruit (summer), Almond (autumn), Cayenne Pepper (autumn), Rum Raisin (winter), and two recent offerings-- Orange Peel (spring) and Toaster Kit Kats (spring) which you brown in a toaster oven! Most of these flavours are available nationwide, except for Rum Raisin which is (was) available only in Tokyo. In my humble opinion, however, the Pièce de résistance is the very newest Kit Kat flavour shown in the cover photo of this post. This is the latest edition to the "Sweetness for Adult Tastes" (オトナの甘さ) series-- Raspberry. Raspberry sounds rather plain in comparison to some of the other flavours I mentioned, but this one is so delicious it's shocking. It does not taste like Raspberry candy at all. It tastes more like fresh Raspberry Mousse. Looking closely at the product, it's obviously that there are actually bits of puréed raspberry in the chocolate. The flavour is incredible and to me is the tastiest fruit-flavoured Kit Kat I've eaten up until now. "Where can I buy these?" you may ask. Actually, one of the most reliable places to get them is at duty free shops such as "Tax Free Akihabara" in Narita Airport. Another fool-proof location is the Tokyo Miyage Center (東京みやげセンター) on the lower level of the Tokyo Station shopping area near the Yaesu Entrance. Years ago, special edition Kit Kats were available at almost every convenience store. For some reason, however, convenience stores nowadays rarely have anything other than plain milk chocolate.

Early this year Nestlé took things to the next level by opening a specialty shop in the Ikebukuro (池袋) location of the Seibu Department Store. It's called the Kit Kat Chocolatory. At this shop chocolate-makers sell exclusive and very limited batch Kit Kats that they make by hand every day! These special Kit Kats typically come in three frequently-changing flavours, for example, "Special Cream Cheese" which is one of their current offerings. They sell out very quickly, so Kit Kat lovers better plan on getting there before lunch time. Unfortunately these handmade chocolates come with a "special" price tag as well, but it's not so unreasonable as to make them completely unaffordable. It's worthwhile to treat ourselves once in a while, right?

Word of warning: the Chocolatory sells only hand-made Kit Kats. The other "regular," seasonal varieties are not available there, so it might not be a first choice of locations for buying gifts for friends and family.

 

 

 

Some of the other flavours I've enjoyed:

Dark Chocolate Annin Dofu Zunda Mochi, created in 2011 as a regional variety in the Tohoku Region to show support for the victims of the earthquake and tsunami disaster. This Kat Kat has the flavors of the regional dessert that's famous throughout Tohoku, especially in my wife's hometown, Sendai.