Posts Tagged ‘japanese style’

Kit Kat: スパークリンストロベリー「Sparkling Strawberry」

Wednesday, March 17th, 2010

At first my thoughts of “Sparkling Strawberry” was like a disco milkshake. The packaging barely gave anything away as to what exactly a sparkling starwberry is, or how it is different from a regular strawberry (a flavor Kit Kat had done before). The inner wrapper however, showed faint gold rings appearing like bubbles. It made sense, then, that sparkling strawberry was like sparkling cider, or champagne. So, in essence, sparkling strawberry means “strawberry champagne.”

The fingers were obviously a white chocolate that has been colored a deep cotton candy pink. The scent was an obvious strawberry fragrance, but artificially so. It smelled quite a bit like Nesquick strawberry milk (which I am a huge fan of). Apt as how Nestle handles Kit Kat duty in Japan. I wasn’t sure where the champagne would come in at all.

Flavor of the white chocolate all but disappears, adding nothing to the party and giving way to that lovely, artificial strawberry flavor. It’s a bit too fake though, and comes on really sweet at first (thanks to the white chocolate, no doubt), dying off with a bit of a strange bitterness at the end.

It was hard to tell exactly what the wafer is filled with, but I’m assuming it’s more of the same: artificial strawberry and as I continued to eat, the bitter after taste became more apparent. It was really strong. I’ll call it the champagne after taste. Almost like champagne, but really jarring.

I wanted to say I almost felt some carbonation. Not too pleased with that. By the time of my last bite I could tell that, yes, that in fact, there was carbonation in this (though artificially so). I imagine the wafer is filled with Pop Rocks! or something of that nature.

My score: It was a decently sweet strawberry flavor, though a bit artificial (like NesQuick strawberry milk or Strawberry Puffs gummies) that was derailed heavily by the bitter punch at the end that didn’t really match the prior sweetness. The “fizziness” in the wafer (or creme) was a bit odd, though not noticeable enough to really make it sparkle.

The girlfriend says “she liked, but prefers normal Kit Kat…these were a bit too sour” for her.

Flavor: 5/10

Presentation: 5/10

Packaging: 7/10

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Hand-crafted Valentine’s Day.

Friday, March 5th, 2010

I’m not really into the traditional U.S. concepts of what Valentine’s Day is. Moreover, I’m not really into the concepts of what expected gifts should be. Things like Hallmark cards, a box of chocolates – to me – don’t describe an act of affection, but an act of, well, prepackaged holiday tradition (not that there’s anything wrong with that). Traditional just really isn’t my style. I like to make things, do something that describes an earnest feeling, and might recount history shared between two people.

However, there was a bit of dilemma in that this year: my girlfriend is not from the United States. She is here to learn about the United States. And to completely deviate from tradition too greatly probably wasn’t going to be the best option. Furthermore, I completely ran out of enough time and resources to do what I wanted to do (make a 15-20 minute animated short).

So, Plan B (which I realise the hazard in posting this, as she could see it and realise it was, in fact, Plan B that she received). What was Plan B? Plan B was a hand-crafted (or at best, a more thoughtful version of prepackaged traditions) version of V-Day. I hand made four cards that would have anecdotes or personal stories that might only make sense to the two of us, purchased artisan chocolates that had special meaning between the two of us, and cooked her dinner.

Upon request, here is a bit of the process:

Yes, I still use pen and paper to draft out everything...even processes.

(more…)

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