KitKat Yaki Imo

So as the cool evenings get decidely chillier, thoughts turn to winter delicacies – like yaki imo, or roasted sweet potato.  Well, not my thoughts, actually.  Can’t bear the things myself.

The yakiimo-man still does the rounds in our town with his little yakiimo cart (seen in the picture), calling out across the evening to any prospective buyers.  And I enjoy this nugget of culture, which is slowly dying out.

Potatoes of any description have never really set my heart racing, and sweet potatoes are a recent introduction to my rather resistant palate.  Sweetness and potatoes… no thanks.

But these KitKats are apparently quite evocative of the real thing, so yakiimo afficionados should enjoy.

KitKat Sports Drink

Sounds like a weird concept, doesn’t it.  And which particular sports drink, you might be wondering.

Well, in Japan, ’sports drink’ is not as general a term as it might sound – it basically means ‘grapefruit flavour’.  Pocari Sweat, Aquarius and countless others are all ’sports drinks’, and they all taste pretty much identical.  They’re sweet, cloudy, and grapefruit flavour.

The best I can say for it is that it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting it to be.

KitKat Tiramisu

The edition released in February must have been a success, because here’s a big bagful of Tiramisu KitKats. But like what came before, it’s… white chocolate.

The perfect Tiramisu KitKat has been done already. And it was of course milk chocolate. And Chunky, to boot.

If you’re one of those philistines that thinks white chocolate is an acceptable substitute for the real thing, well, we’ll have words later. Meanwhile, enjoy.

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KitKat Espresso Coffee

Well these appeared out of nowhere.  No word before or since from Nestlé about these.  And the packaging seems to have been knocked together in someone’s lunch hour.  It’s almost apologetic.  Like this was a mistake.

Because when all’s said and done, it’s a white KitKat.

Heaven’s above.  Is this a joke?  It’s coffee flavour!  More evidence, if any more were needed, that they’re all crackheads in the Ideas Dept. at Nestlé Japan.  No sane group of salarymen could have created this heinous chimera, this experimental atrocity.

Look at the box – the oversized espresso cup at the bottom attempting to distract your attention from the hideous white chocolate poking its head in from the other corner!

Two things that are very dear to my heart, if you hadn’t noticed, are coffee and chocolate.

So this is a fail.

KitKat Salt Vanilla

Nearly typed ‘Salt and Vinegar’…  and that wouldn’t really have seemed any more outlandish, would it.

Not dreadful, but don’t know if it reminds me that much of the illustrated vanilla ice-cream (which I’m not in the habit of sprinkling salt on anyway), but it’s a better vanilla than previous efforts.

Then again, there have been so many dodgy flavours recently, I think my ability to give a fair and balanced review is diminishing.

But it’s still white chocolate.  Alas.  I think if I look back at this post in a year I probably won’t remember these at all.

KitKat Custard Pudding

There was a time before プリン (custard pudding / creme caramel) flavoured KitKat.  And in that void, I longed for The Committee to get their backsides into gear and sort one out.  And then one day, they did.  And I thought… meh.

And this is more of the same, white (well, yellow) chocolate, so really sweet. If you must, I’d recommend buying the smaller bag.

KitKat Peach

Two kinds of peach in one bag, and they are distinct flavours.

I started with the pink one. White chocolate, but never mind. Delicate peach fragrance, and gentle flavour, but too sweet at the end, even for this sweet-tooth.

And then on to the other… which was bright orange, and correspondingly sweet, like drinking undiluted nectarine cordial. So if you like that sort of thing, you’ll be happy. Can’t say as I do, though. So I wasn’t.

KitKat Tiramisu & Maccha Tiramisu

Presumably these single fingers are market testers, like the recent strawberry and blueberry cheesecake ones, to be followed later by more substantial packs.

The Maccha (powdered green tea) Tiramisu is quite subtle and creamy, like a maccha latte.  The Tiramisu has a rich coffee and cocoa aroma.  Both are sublime, choosing a favourite will simply come down to whether you’re a tea or a coffee person.

KitKat Valentine Lemon

“Give half to someone important”

Break the pack in half along the perforation on the back, eat one of the KitKats, tear half the package off, and reseal it (you can see the helpful folds in the front) before giving it to someone special. With a space inside for a Valentine’s message, anonymous or otherwise.

Lemon with white chocolate. Not at all bad. You wouldn’t want another one though.  And nor should you.  Who would you share a second Valentine’s KitKat with, after all?

KitKat Cheesecake

Of the strawberry and blueberry varieties.  Smells of cheese, doesn’t much taste of cheesecake.  And it’s overly sweet white chocolate.

I’m never gonna get excited about a cheesecake KitKat until they bring back the Lemon.