Posts Tagged ‘kit-kat’
Kit Kat: Limited Kyoto Itokyuemon Uji-Maccha (宇治抹茶)
Wednesday, May 19th, 2010As previously mentioned, I was lucky enough to have a package of Kit Kat sent to me from Japan containing several different flavors. Of these, one was the limited edition Kyoto Prefecture only 宇治抹茶 (Uji-Maccha) that my girlfriend got when she visited the area. I felt very fortunate that I was able to sample a flavor that perhaps I wouldn’t even if I had been in Japan at the time. It wasn’t until I tasted it, that I realised just how fortunate I was.
To be completely (and embarrassingly) honest, I don’t have a lot of background on this particular flavor. I do know that since the Muromachi period (I believe) Uji city has been revered for high quality green tea, and continues even today. The importance of Itokyuemon, as far as I can gleam from the back of the box, is that it is a very famous restaurant in Uji, specialsing in Uji-maccha flavored dishes. After scampering off to their website, yes, that’s what it is and boy do I want to go!
Itokyuemon 宇治抹茶 Kit Kat
I expected these Kit Kat to have a potent maccha flavor to reflect the speciality of the tea itself. The packaging certainly does. This collection of twelve minis is in a box as opposed to the usual bag, and gone is the oversized, terribly red Kit Kat brand. Instead, the horizontal edges of the box are a deep green, tea leaf print while the center is solid black with a black ceramic cup of maccha. The bright green Kit Kat on display bottom right corner. The color combination deep green, black and gold scream a richness, almost saying these Kit Kat are “expensive” (much unlike the traditional packaging) and speaking clearly to their exclusivity. Overall, a very successful package. These jump out from the rest of the candy in the store, as they should. The individual wrapping is a similar color scheme, simple and strong, with the black and green from the box inverted (black on the edges, green in the middle).
The fingers are chocolate in an almost celadon color, I guess you could say. The color is very similar to any maccha flavored drink or dessert (that isn’t, you know, green tea itself) you would find in the States (like Snoqualmie Gourmet Green Tea Ice Cream, plug, plug). The interior wafers are a slightly more yellow color alternately layered with green.
Photos to be reshot in less artificial light
I admit, that the aroma of these Kit Kat was a tad bit disappointing. There was a faint maccha aroma that was greatly overpowered by chocolate. I had hoped and expected the Uji-maccha flavor to be the star.
On the first bite, strangely, there was no chocolate flavor to be found, as a huge rush of green tea overpowered the bar. As a die hard tea fan, I was thrilled. Also thrilling was that the flavor wasn’t some sweet candy-style maccha, but a real, almost earthy flavor. It wasn’t until the after taste that it was even remotely sweet, and there was even a hint of chocolate, as it should be. On the bites where there was less chocolate (and more filling), I was able to clearly taste the wafers and between the wafer layers, there is actual, honest maccha, explaining the overpowering taste, but not the smell.
I’ve not tasted the other green tea or maccha flavored Kit Kat (Sakura-Maccha is next on my list), so I don’t have a frame of reference to compare to other Kit Kat, but with the strength of the maccha flavor in these was a very welcome, and exhilarating experience for this maccha lover.
Flavor: 10/10
Presentation: 6/10
Packaging: 7/10
For its mild sweetness (a big plus in my book) and earnest maccha flavor that was clearly on display (and tastes great as well), this is easily one of my favorite Kit Kat ever. The fingers themselves aptly sell the maccha flavor inside and the packaging is appropriately done for the product, flavor and exclusivity. Overall, I’ll be really sad when I get through this box, knowing this flavor isn’t coming back.
Kit Kat: ミックスジュース「Mixed Juice」
Friday, May 14th, 2010One thing about being marooned in the States is that it becomes increasingly more difficult to sample and enjoy the various flavored Kit Kat from Japan. I’m either at the mercy of local importer/supermarket Uwajimaya, or, as the case is now, they need to be sent to me. Fortunately, a box of nine to ten different flavors of Kit Kat was just sent to me by my wonderful girlfriend, so, I have more Kit Kat to try, eat and enjoy.
One of these flavours was ミックスジュース, or Mixed Juice. Some background on this flavor: Mixed Juice is, to think of it in U.S. terms, fruit punch (though often served like a smoothie). However, Japanese fruit punch is considerably different than fruit punch stateside. Unlike Hawaiian punch (see “fruit drank“), Mixed Juice actually tastes like fruit. The choice of fruit is much different also. Commonly used are strawberries, bananas and peaches.
Moving on to the Kit Kat itself (or the packaging, rather), it has the traditional Kit Kat brand, with simply drawn vector peaches, strawberries and bananas as wells a glass of mixed juice with straw, and a scary doll like girl enjoying a sip of mixed juice. As you might expect, it’s very colorful (ミックスジュース being rainbow colored). It’s nothing special, but plays more for a younger audience and at least gets the point across. You know (or, you hope you know) what flavors will be in the Kit Kat and what it will taste like.
Individually wrapped minis.
I enjoyed the wrapping of the individual mini-fingers quite a bit more. The wrapper is a soft canary color, with one color vector fruit, and two color vector glass of juice. This brand just seemed more together and solid.
Admittedly, the fruit flavored Kit Kat can be a real hit or miss bunch. Some are really good, some are not so good, and some are just bizarre and Nestle will keep making strawberry flavored Kit Kat until they get it right. Honestly, I wasn’t too sure about Mixed Juice. In my experience when they try to mix multiple flavors that don’t really lend themselves to chocolate into a chocolate snack, it’s a bit unfocused and disastrous.
Upon cracking the wrapper, I was greeted with a really pleasant smell reminiscent of fruit cocktail. I don’t know how many people out there eat fruit cocktail, but there was a time and a place where I would eat can after can of fruit cocktail. It was a pleasant surprise.
The fingers are an unnatural tangerine or mango color orange made with white chocolate and definitely smell EXACTLY like fruit cocktail. The interior wafers are sadly, just a solid, plain wafer brown.
When first bit into, the fruit cocktail greeting is still heavily noticeable, but quickly disappears under and overwhelming peach flavors, which is very peachy and quite nice. That initial burst of peach is then replaced with banana at the end, and the white chocolate gives the whole thing a nice banana milk finish (if you’ve ever had the Nesquick banana milk, that is, not the Korean variety). What was absent was definitely the strawberry, except for a SMALL touch of tartness at the end, I guess. Nestle still doesn’t seem to know what to do with strawberry. Regardless, the milky combination of peach and banana was enjoyable and reminds of a smoothie. Not bad by any means. I didn’t miss the strawberries, really. Due to the “chocolate” being white, these small Kit Kat are considerably sweeter than a smoothie. While eating them, I didn’t feel the sweetness too much (to its credit) but after finishing, it definitely felt like I’d gotten enough sugar.
Overall, I enjoyed these as a fruit smoothie Kit Kat.
Flavor: 6/10
Presentation: 4/10
Packaging: 4/10
Kit Kat: ミルクコーヒー「Milk Coffee」
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010First, let’s get one thing straight: I had really high hopes for these particular Kit Kat fingers. Even though I’m not much of a coffee drinker, when I do drink it, I always take it with milk. Just like my tea (I’d take a cuppa over joe any day). More importantly, I have had (and continue to adore) the Royal Milk Tea Kit Kat (review coming soon). In fact, it is without question, my favorite Kit Kat I’ve ever had, so far.
So, I was hoping it would be more of the same, just swapping tea out for coffee.
Before getting into the taste of the fingers, I have to address the packaging. I’m a designer, and these are the things (besides Kit Kat) I obsess about. I usually enjoy receiving a new box of Kit Kat as a gift, in the mail, or arriving at the store to see a new wondrous package waiting for me. The themes, if not good, are usually interesting. This one, not so much. I’ve gotta say, I’m a bit disappointed.
ミルクコーヒー packaging is just a bit too lazy.
The packaging has the traditional Nestlé Kit Kat brand over a red box. In the bottom right corner is a steaming cup of presumably, milk coffee. Great. What is on the rest of the packaging? サクラ／sakura (or cherry blossoms). The box reads (roughly) “that cherry blossoms are on their way.” I guess by the time they arrived Stateside, that’s true, but when released in Japan, not so much.
Nevertheless, I was puzzled as to the connection between milk coffee and cherry blossoms, and I’m not the only one. I had come to the conclusion that perhaps it was just a spring seasonal thing, but my girlfriend promptly suggested “no, they’re just lazy.” Okay, so there you have it. The packaging is “just lazy.”
Moving onto the fingers themselves, they’re a white chocolate bar (with a slight cream color), which unlike some, I think is a good thing. You see, not only do I prefer white chocolate (even though it isn’t even chocolate) to chocolate, but chocolate (even milk) has a distinct flavor whereas white just blends in a bit better, and is a bit sweeter. If these bars were milk chocolate, I’d think of them not as milk coffee, but mocha flavor.
ミルクコーヒー fingers
The smell is quite fragrant and noticeably coffee…with a hitch. Not coffee you might make at home, which tends to be a bit bitter, but coffee at a place like Starbucks which is obnoxiously sweet. So, it’s a really sweet coffee with a vanilla sidekick.
The taste is pretty much the same. The chocolate carries a touch of coffee, but it mostly milky/vanilla-y/white chocolate-y and really, really sweet. The wafer and creme are where the coffee flavor comes in, and because of that comes in as a slightly bitter, refreshing bit of coffee as an after taste.
As you continue to eat, the coffee becomes more noticeable, and begins to mellow out the sweet. By the end of the bar, it really begins to feel like plain ol’ coffee mellowed out with milk as opposed to the other way around. I think the milk ratio is a bit higher than I’d like, however. The end result is a mild cup of coffee, sweetened.
It’s pretty good, but a bit sweet for my tastes.
Flavor: 7/10
Presentation: 4/10
Packaging: 2/10
I liked the idea of Milk Coffee Kit Kat more than the execution. They’re a bit too sweet, missing a balance I liked from the Royal Milk Tea bars, but otherwise exactly as advertised. The presentation of the bars were a bit simple, and the packaging, well, was lazy.
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