neon epiphany

This entry is totally for David, who is constantly reminding me that he’s been waiting for me to get around to these.

So I’ve finally found the Men’s Pocky of KitKats — now with less gender stereotyping! “Otona no amasa” means “adult sweetness,” which will probably never, ever get less awkward to type. It at least definitely takes the prize for naughtiest-sounding flavor to date. One’s got a white chocolate coating, the other dark chocolate, but the common element is that between the wafers there are layers of dark chocolate cookie. It’s actually texturally very pleasant! I don’t remember the Cookies+ flavors well enough to compare, but I seem to recall they were a similar kind of thing.

The dark variety is very nice — not as bitter as the Semisweet flavor. Just a nice dark chocolate coating, but paired with the cookie layers the effect is of a very subdued sweetness and two distinct but harmonious chocolate flavors.

The coating of the white, on the other hand, seems to be the same as the standard white chocolate KitKat. However, it also pairs well with the cookie filling to create an overall, nicely balanced sweetness. I thought it was interesting to compare this flavor with the recently-sampled Cookies & Cream; despite my expectations, the coatings really didn’t have much in common other than color. That other flavor also had cookie crumbs mixed into the coating, which was a nice effect, while this one pretty much evoked straight cocoa butter rather than something more dairy-like.

And may I just say the way that the cookie part crunches in the mouth is really satisfying? Funny how a little thing like that makes these tiny bars seem so much more substantial.

Nestle seems to consider these flavors to be a thing, since I’ve seen them in all sorts of packaging: a standard box containing four full-size bars, a slightly larger box containing six mini bars, and a large bag containing twenty-six mini bars (all wrapped in pairs). Maybe these flavors will stick around for the long haul? I hope so.

Maybe in a related note, you might be able to find these locally, more easily than usual. I’ve seen them at all three Uwajimaya locations in the Seattle area, which usually don’t get any interesting KitKat flavors. So keep an eye out.

Happy, David? ♥

More KitKats.

The tease is here saved for posterity, because navigating Facebooks past is a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad experience.

Picture, caption, picture, caption seems to be what this blog is becoming, lately. I guess if you don’t join tumblr, tumblr joins you. Apparently!

I know, I know, ALL THE KITKATS!

Sometimes, I start typing an entry and all that shows up on the screen is “OMG. OMG. OMG.”

Two weeks ago, my friend Dom sent me a photo from Japan of some store’s giant KitKat display and the caption “Try to contain yourself.” He offered to get me a box of something and I honestly picked one because it looked like it had a picture of Pedobear on it.

An hour later, I got this message:

“Sweet Jesus, the hotcakes flavor is AMAZING. It might be the best candy bar I’ve had anywhere ever. I got an assortment of flavors, but I wish I’d just gotten five boxes of these. It will take every ounce of restraint I have, but I’ll make sure these survive the trip home and send you a couple.”

Bless his soul, because today the mailbox contained possibly the most adorable candy packaging I’ve ever seen. Also, not Pedobear.

So, Rilakkuma is a San-X character who loves hotcakes and relaxing. I imagine that means he likes Suntory whiskey too, but that’s not explicitly stated on his wikipedia entry. The box is an hexagonal solid made of corrugated cardboard, much thicker than any other KitKat box I’ve run across. Originally it contained twelve wrapped sets of two standard issue mini bars. I wonder if they’ve ever made a Tarepanda-themed KitKat flavor? Please say the answer is yes.

The entire thing is infused with cuteness. Example:

Flavorwise, they’re really, really good! Opening the foil you get a big whiff of butter and pancake syrup. I’m not sure I’d go so far as to describe it as maple, but it does have the caramelized flavor of a dark syrup. Flavor-wise, it’s spot on. The white chocolate-based coating is very sweet, as usual, but it fits with the flavor this time. I might be imagining things, but I think they’ve cut the sweetness in the wafer section, because it evokes hotcake batter very well (and contrasts nicely with the coating). Also, butter! I’ve been wanting to try a buttery KitKat for a long time, ever since reading about baked potato KitKats (omg, someone please hook a sister up!). All I can say is: I approve.

Sorry this didn’t materialize as the promised Adult Sweetness* entry. I just couldn’t wait.

Also! Yesterday was the seven year anniversary of my very first KitKat entry. Light a candle, okay?

* that will never feel less weird to type.

More KitKats.

Half of the take from Candyland this weekend:

So now we have yet another KitKat form factor. The box describes these as “mini mini” bars, and there are six wrapped pairs inside. Let me illustrate the difference between these and the fairly common “mini” bars, which you can usually find boxed in sets of three or bagged in larger quantities. Here, the brown, “adult sweetness” dark bars are mini, and the pink strawberry tarte bars are mini mini.

Wrapped:

Unwrapped:

(If you want to compare against your standard full-size bar, those tend to run between 100 - 110 kcals per pair)

This is maybe the sixth different shape of Japanese KitKat I’ve run across. If there’s interest, I can maybe do a photo comparison of all of them together! I think I may have them all at hand.

At any rate, the first thing to notice is the “Le Patissier Takagi” logo in the upper right of the box. The last time I saw that was on the yummy Wine and Noir flavors from 2005. Takagi-san is a premier confectioner in Tokyo and it looks like Nestle is happily continuing its association with him. I really, really loved Wine, so I was super excited, even if this was the millionth strawberry flavor they’ve done.

Well, that familiarity did play against it a little. I mean, there’s only so many ways you can do such a familiar flavor, but this managed to be pretty tasty nonetheless. The white chocolate base held a nice, rounded strawberry flavor and a vanilla-y, custard-y finish. I was still hoping for more complexity, or maybe a textural thing between the wafers to hint at a tartlet shell, but couldn’t detect any. Oh, well — still, I enjoyed it.

Next up: sakura matcha latte! And I still haven’t dug into the Motherlode yet.

More KitKats.

These two boxes came from a friend of a friend, who got them in Japan. I’ve never seen packages like these before, with six individually-wrapped petit-sized bars (about half of a regular stick) in each. I like how … cheerful? they look.

The first impression you get with these is a strong flavor of fake strawberry. The yummy kind of fake strawberry, if you know what I’m talking about — pretty much exactly like strawberry Pocky. Once you get past that there’s a nice second stage of pleasant hazelnut cream, between the wafers. If you’ve had hazelnut Quadratini cookies, you’ve got the idea. Someone said, “it tastes like a terrible peanut butter and jam sandwich.” Which is true, it would be a bad sandwich! But for a bite-sized candy, it’s pretty good.

These were really, really good! Almost the opposite of what you’d expect (from the flavor and from the fact these are Japanese KitKats), they weren’t too sweet, and tasted exactly like a good Oreo-type sandwich cookie. There are bits of cookie mixed directly into the white chocolate coating, which makes for a nice textural effect. Really, enough said, they’re great!

More KitKats.

Seen at Renton Uwajimaya:

“Crunchy ramen noodle, onion, garlic and soy sauce flavors blended into premium 53% dark chocolate.”

Oh look, they’re online.

… my one regret is not having bought one. For science.

Because of the motherlode, I have quite the backlog of KitKats to get through. So without further ado:

So. I absolutely love tea-flavored KitKats, and I love floral flavors as well, so I was really excited to try this one! Unfortunately, this ended up not referring to the hoped-for sakura flower, but the fruit. Still! Not a bad thing.

I had some regular matcha KitKats left, so I had both flavors at once as a kind of control. In the plain matcha, the grassy character of the tea is smooth but readily apparent. In the sakura matcha, the grassiness is cut substantially by a kind of generic fruity flavor, presumbly cherry. It’s actually nicely balanced, but far less memorable — still, you’d never mistake it for a regular white chocolate KitKat, which is good.

Also! I also updated my review of the tiramisu KitKats from back in July with the following addendum:

I have to revise my opinion here, having had another chance to try the tiramisu. There may have been something off about my palate that day, but it now tastes very authentic to me. It may help that in the intervening months I’ve developed a taste for coffee, which helps, but I think it was the liquor flavor that I found off-putting the first time, and this time it was fine.

So! With the caveat that your appreciation may wax and wane with the seasons, I now have to change my verdict on tiramisu to a “recommend.”

More KitKats.

I was at Uwajimaya, and… uh, what?

You may notice that I occasionally insert new stories into the backlog. The last few years I’ve spent mostly microblogging and leaving neon epiphany neglected, and that makes me sad. I’m patching in the holes with some of the more amusing or substantial entries, but only a few.

First dump, in case you’re curious:

• in re: butterdecorator82
• alpha flight
• sanguine
• better research
• influentials
• men, men, men
• high crimes
• gut check

YOU GUYS.

I totally hit the KitKat motherlode, thanks to a secret Santa! Received a nice package from Japan containing sixteen separate flavors, including fourteen in a limited collector’s box of various regional limited editions that were released over the past few years. SO MUCH LOVE. This is image heavy because I haven’t had a chance to taste any of them yet*, and I already have enough problems with my diet with the holidays and all.

Rest assured, though. To be continued.

Oh, and merry Christmas, everyone!

*this is kind of a lie, because this set contains previously-covered flavors: zunda mochi, wasabi, and annin tofu.

Read about more KitKats.

A surprise, today. These came directly from Japan, and arrived a little worse for the wear, so I don’t know how accurate the textural notes will be. Anyway! Zunda mochi is a regional snack made of sticky rice balls (mochi) covered with mashed-up young soybeans. You know, candy.

The color of the bars was a pale green, darker than the wasabi bars and lighter than matcha. Flavor-wise, these were definitely nicer than the pumpkin cheesecake KitKats from the weekend; sweet, but not too much so, and there was a subtle, but present earthy flavor which I attribute to soy.

The white chocolate itself had somewhat melted and rehardened, so again, take this with a grain of salt, but there seemed to be a complexity of texture that makes me think maybe the tiny mochi balls which were placed in between the wafers in previous mochi-based KitKats were mixed into the chocolate coating this time. Either way, it was a nice touch.

Read about more KitKats.

Wandering around Uwajimaya today looking for Italian chestnuts and Buddha’s Hand citron, I found a bag of these KitKats. So cute! So surprise, you get a blog entry!

So my favorite Pocky flavor ever is pumpkin, so I was super happy to see these. First of all, you have to notice the adorable packaging! The Pocky was cute too — I didn’t even really know Halloween was a thing in Japan, but I’m happy for it.

The flavor is basically white chocolate, and — nothing. I actually didn’t taste anything pumpkiny or cheesecakey at all here. The latter wasn’t a huge surprise because the previous cheesecake flavors we’ve covered (blueberry and strawberry) didn’t have much tang either (contrast this with the gourmet cheese flavor, which was nice). Not tasting pumpkin, though, was a huge disappointment. Oh, well, white chocolate is never really a bad idea, so these certainly won’t go to waste.

I realize these have been few and far between. Have not made it north of the border in awhile, which is my usual source. Maybe in January!

I know I’ve been promising a KitKat entry for awhile now, but there’s going to be a little bit sleight of hand tonight. Please keep your eyes on my attractive assistant as I…

What? No attractive assistant?

Sigh. Well, the real story is that I misplaced my notes on the haul I purchased at Bellevue Uwajimaya’s grand opening celebration. Fortunately, I did find a bag of “Desert Assortment” KitKats there over the weekend, so! Here we are, as if nothing ever happened!

I guess “custard pudding” is conceptually like flan, indeed, the first thing you notice when tearing open the wrapper is a super-cloying, somewhat artificial caramel scent. It pretty much tastes like it smells — a super-sweet, vanilla-esque flavor followed by a really long aftertaste of caramel. It’s almost a little smoky, like maple syrup, but it’s hard to tell after your taste buds are blown out by sugar.

I’ve never really been a fan of these super-sweet KitKats, and I’m not this time, either. I’d really love to be able to taste something balanced and smooth like the chestnut flavor again.

Full disclosure: I am not a coffee drinker. I usually can’t stand it, and especially not in desserts. Tiramisu has probably been the least offensive coffee-based dessert in my experience, but I wouldn’t ever call myself a fan.

Now, you may remember that all the way back in 2006 I tried some limited edition British Big Kat bars, one of which was tiramisu. I remember it being pretty authentically flavored and, well, tasty. I didn’t have the same reaction at all to this one, and I don’t know if it’s the flavor or me that’s changed in the meantime.

I’m pretty sure the main problem is whatever they’re using to simulate the liquor flavor. Whatever it is, it doesn’t react well with the other flavor components, and affects the smell too. Not really sure how to describe the odor. Musty, maybe? All I know is I opened the wrapper and nearly gagged. Let’s just say that “musty” is not a word I want in my candy descriptions! The taste’s a little bit better, but still weird — there are times when the flavor does recall tiramisu, but it keeps changing in the mouth, occasionally transforming into that same weird flavor-smell.

I normally like being girl reporter on the KitKat beat, but this time I’m really wishing I’d bought the kinako Aero bars instead. Anyone fancy an Aero blog?

Addendum (2012/1/11): I have to revise my opinion here, having had another chance to try the tiramisu. There may have been something off about my palate that day, but it now tastes very authentic to me. It may help that in the intervening months I’ve developed a taste for coffee, which helps, but I think it was the liquor flavor that I found off-putting the first time, and this time it was fine.

So! With the caveat that your appreciation may wax and wane with the seasons, I now have to change my verdict on tiramisu to a “recommend.”

Well! I almost forgot I had this sitting here. I guess an intense period of forced creativity can lead to a massive correction — since Thirty Pages ended I haven’t even felt a twinge to create anything, which has been both a relief and completely depressing.

But you’re here for the KitKats, and I have them. So!

Unusually, rather than four bars of a single flavor these came as two bars each of two different flavors. The box says “Which will you eat?” so maybe this is a his-and-hers kind of situation?

The cola KitKats are a prune-ish off-purple and give off a distinct smell of cola. In fact, the flavor is pretty much exactly like Coca-Cola, down to the slight fizzy sensation coming off the cream filling. There’s a nice lemony aftertaste, but overall the effect is not unlike “chocolate soda” or Survivor: Redemption Island: no matter how genuine it might taste something is just off. A novelty, but easy to forget.

The lemon squash, on the other hand, is definitely the “hers” candidate. Not as cloyingly sweet as the Valentine’s Lemon, it reminded me a lot of a Schweppe’s Bitter Lemon soda, which I like but haven’t had in ages. Citrus chocolates haven’t really ever been my thing, but I enjoyed these.

Okay, I know what you’re thinking, and as far as I can tell online, you’ll either love these or hate these. Personally, I’m all about love! But I’m the one with the esoteric KitKat blog, so… grain of salt and everything.

There are ten petit bars inside each attractively illustrated box (which are identical in form factor to the special edition strawberry and blueberry cheesecake KitKats from 2009). Each is individually wrapped and about an inch and a half long.

The first thing one notices on opening the wrapper is the slightly pungent, cheesy aroma coming off the bar. This is where we lose the first lot of you. The color is pale yellow, which doesn’t look at all appetizing next to the rich golden wheel of cheese on the box — a few more get off the bus here. Finally the flavor: the white chocolate exterior contains “cheese powder” and “cheese paste” according to the helpful diagram on the back of the box, and there’s definitely a generic cheddar-ish tang present. No fooling, it’s cheese, but overall, a nice balance of creamy, salty & sweet. The filling, on the other hand, is on the sweet side so it’s still clearly on the candy side of the fence, but those of you who appreciate salt caramel or more pungent cheesecakes might find these pretty appealing.

Miss me? I miss you!

More KitKats

More snackblogging, because you know you love it. Seriously.

Found at Candyland in Richmond, which once upon a time had the goodness that is green tea KitKats:

These seem to be one in a series of flavors designed by famous confectioners — at least that’s what little I can guess from the packaging. This one’s by Takagi Yasumasa of Le Patissier Takagi, a man I saw on television once, creating amazing-looking desserts en route to getting schooled by Iron Chef Kobe in “Battle Strawberry.”

Inside the box, fifteen or so individually-wrapped packages, each holding a miniature pink bar. The coating is a white chocolate base imbued with wine, a muscat-like flavor that’s subtler but juicier than my previous favorite, strawberry. We’ve gone through half the box already and I wish I’d bought more than the one. *sigh*

They also had white chocolate KitKats, but no sign of green tea or other flavors, a shame since I’d wanted to stock up.

And since I’m all about the green tea, I picked up these McVitie’s miniature green tea digestive biscuits:

They’re good, but very leafy in taste — would go beautifully with a hot cup of genmaicha or barley tea, I think, but not so much for dry snacking.

Also, I meant to mention that in Chicago we found those Lay’s dill pickle potato chips which I’d previously only seen in Canada. No word on nationwide availability, but that’s hope, keep trying!

Oh,

and

Happy new year!

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Found at Candyland in Richmond:

Emily, of course, was first to let me know they existed, but I never expected to see them in the flesh. Should have known that Canada would be just the place to go — another example of how snack-deprived we are in the States!

My flickr friend hexion said this, in comments:

Children in Japan do not like green tea taste. However, the adult like green tea taste. I think that it is a thing like the bitter chocolate.
 
By the way, There is a custom of presenting “Kit kat” to the examinee in Japan. Because the pronunciation of “Kit kat” is near Japanese “Kitto katsu” that means “Win without fail”.

Kitto katsu!

They’re good; maybe a little too sweet, but not overwhelmingly so — about what you’d expect from a good green tea ice cream, but swirled with crispy KitKatty goodness. Since they’re imported from Japan, a little pricey, and then there’s that commute…

I know it seems tea’s been on my mind a lot lately, and you’d be right! Shaula over at tsuredzuregusa 徒然草 has a lovely entry on tea, for whose inspiration I can take some little, indirect credit (via Watermark & my Adagio Teas entry), which spurred a small tea shopping expedition: genmaicha is an old friend (this from Republic of Tea), wonderful and mellow, while lapsang souchong is a new acquaintance, smoky and nostalgic. I know a few of you vehemently dislike it — I wonder if it comes from not having often experienced warm winter fires on frozen nights, crackling & aromatic of charcoal, memories of which come flooding back to me as I sip. How could you not love?

And from janjan, word of her own Adagio reward, which sounds amazing — but I need to watch myself. Finish the tea you’ve got first, yukino.

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Valerie and matter eater lad, being sweet, wonderful people, sent me a tin of Chimes Peanut Butter Ginger Chews. The note attached said:

She doesn’t like ginger & I don’t like peanut butter, so we thought of you. (p.s. Ginger Altoids are now widely available in NYC!)

Well, I certainly love ginger (no surprise to anyone), and enjoy peanut butter for the most part, but I’m afraid to say that these are pretty awful. Don’t know if it’s the natural outcome of the pairing or just my mutant sense of taste*, but my mouth got confused and everything ended up tasting like sickly sweet cucumber. The texture is nice (nice amount of chewiness, and not as sticky as chews from The Ginger People, which still make my favorite ginger candy), but the flavor — scary! And it lingers, too.

Which is not meant as a slam on Chimes as a brand — their other two flavors (ooh, peppermint!) look like they’d be plenty yummy and their tins are really, really pretty — but anyone who sees me in Seattle over the next week can probably get a free peanut butter ginger chew, no questions asked.

And thanks for the lovely thought, you two! I still enjoyed them — just not for the taste!

This will be about snacking.

But it’s not like I’ve been stuffing my face! I’ve just had these things on the backlog for awhile and now that I’m sick — well, it’s as good a time for miscellany as any…

This is Tim’s Cascade’s latest limited edition variety, which is the Best Thing Ever. Nice amount of sinus-clearing wasabi bite per chip, plus the palpable crunch for which Tim’s is known makes for a decidedly different snack! Wish the timer wasn’t ticking — but you can still get them right now at most any northwest grocery. Time to stock up?

Canada seems to be the place to get the best flavors of potato chips these days. When I was in middle school back in the midwest, I remember that you could get interesting varieties of Snyder’s of Hanover chips in vending machines, including salt & vinegar (which was still exotic to me at the time), ketchup, dill pickle, and pizza flavors. Alas, the company seems to have gone pretzel-only and I haven’t seen anything like them since on this side of the border. In Canada, though, you can get all that and more! And also these:

Ketchup Pringles! SO genius!

If you haven’t tried ketchup-flavored potato chips, you might be recoiling in horror right now. I did too, once. But they’re actually wickedly addictive once you get into them (haven’t tried dill pickle so far but I can imagine a similar effect).

On the candy front, Canadians love their KitKats. White chocolate, dark chocolate, caramel, KitKats of various thicknesses and lengths — they’re all available up there. Strawberry KitKats, something like a candy bar made of strawberry and milk chocolate Pocky sticks mashed into a rectangular mold, may just be the best of them all. Yummy!

[Emily tells me there are Green Tea KitKats in Japan. Heavens!]

There are Vanilla Smarties now too!

Seems like I’ve only been to Vancouver once in the past year, which should be a crime. Looks like I’ll either have to change that trend or find a friendly supplier to help me out — but for my sake, only at a trickle! Can’t have too much of this kind of good thing, after all.

Hope that was somewhat interesting for you. Off to try and get well!

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