by | October 10, 2011

Review: Fujiya Red Bean and Green Tea Parfait Look Chocolate

Review: Look Chocolates
Gifted: July 2011
Best Before: January 2012
Review: October 2011

Another lovely gift from Deb Aoki, it’s Fujiya’s Green Tea Ice Cream Parfait Look Chocolate. Quite a mouthful eh? Well these little chocolates are much smaller than that, a tiny bite each. Honestly this is something I’d never buy for myself, the mix of lfavours, the box of smaller chocolates, the Fujiya brand, none of it does much for me normally, but that’s what makes it such an excellent gift–I get to try something new!

Packaging: The Look Chocolates come in a flip-top box containing 14 individually wrapped chocolate squares. Each square weighs about 4 grams, and has about 23 calories, for those of you keeping track of that sort of thing.

The packaging itself is really excellent (unfortunately it was smooshed a little in the shipping back from San Diego). It features a large, wrap-around image of the flavour it purports to be–a green tea ice cream parfait, drenched with red bean. It also features a product shot of the actual chocolate, and large branding. Even if you can’t read the Japanese, you can still tell what you’re getting. The tear-away lid on the box is also nice, and surprisingly the inside of the box ALSO features printing… a cool green evocative of the green tea. A+, really lovely.

Scent: Almost unscented, which is worrying. Bringing it in close the only scent is of waxy chocolate, with no hint of green tea, red bean, ice cream, or anything else. Even biting it open and smelling the center where the green tea, red bean, and cream are supposed to live smells like nothing except waxy chocolate. Um.

Taste & Texture: Well, that’s a failure. Seriously, I can’t stress enough how little this chocolate has anything at all to do with being a red bean and green tea ice cream parfait. The taste is almost exclusively waxy, standard-issue Fujiya brand chocolate (think cheap halloween chocolate). There’s the barest hint of green tea there, but it’s so weak and muddled that I honestly couldn’t tell what it was supposed to be at first… it’s more like an absence of flavour. The only red bean comes through in the after-taste, as each chocolate has a couple of freeze-dried red beans in the center and if you just eat those, they taste like red bean. Well, freeze-dried red bean, which only tastes like 10% of a red bean.

Verdict: The thing is, this isn’t bad, as a little chocolate confection. It’s just not any good either. It’s utterly inoffensive on its own merits, but a complete failure if it’s trying to be what it purports on the box. I doubt I’d buy them again, but I can’t believe that Fujiya’s Look Chocolates have become this popular tasting this mediocre. It’s actually a little shocking.

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by | October 7, 2011

Review: Kit Kat Kinako Ohagi

Review: Kit Kat Kinako Ohagi
Best Before: July 2010
Reviewed: September 2011

Another Kit Kat from the recesses of my fridge, Kit Kat Kinako Ohagi is a bit of a strange one. Based on an autumn Japanese snack, Kinako Ohagi are basically mochi–rice balls–covered in toasted soy flour–kinako–and filled with sweet red bean paste. It’s basically a whole range of flavours that we don’t have in North America, so I don’t think I’ll be able to talk about how well it captures the ‘taste’ of the original snack, but I will quite happily give you my impressions of it.

Oh, and a quick shout out to Japanese Snack Review and Jen’s Kit Kat Blog for providing the background info on Kinako Ohagi.

Packaging: Written entirely in Japanese, the lettering again denotes a Japanese domestic market product. While anything with even a whiff of the international about it will get English (or French) language descriptions, it seems that flavours coming from traditional flavours or seasons won’t have any more romanji on them than is absolutely necessary. It’s an interesting distinction.

The packaging itself is very autumnal, fading greens turning to brown, orange-yellow sunsets, and a lovely shot of the snack we’re supposed to be ingesting a version of. The yellow/green background really sets off the bright red Kit Kat logo.

Scent: A very strong, earthy scent fills the air when you open the package containing the Kit Kats. Right away there’s a scent of the kinako, or toasted soy flour, and it’s quiet pleasant. It’s a sort of earthy, nutty scent, similiar to a light peanut butter or sesame, and it’s pleasant. It also smells strongly of chocolate.

Taste and Texture: Sampling just the chocolate, it seems that the flavour of the kinako has been infused there as well as between the wafers.

The taste of the kinako is lovely… it’s not quite smokey, but it is airy, if that makes any sense. There’s also a flavour of toasted rice, to mirror the rice in the Kinako Ohagi, and it compliments the chocolate and kinako well. While it is a sweet chocolate bar, it’s considerably less sweet than a standard-issue Kit Kat, and has a much deeper range of flavour to it.

Having consumed most of it, I have to be honest and say I didn’t taste much of anything that tasted like red-bean or sweet-bean filling. The aftertaste has a bit of sweetness that I associate with asian, red-bean filled desserts (mostly Korean walnut cakes), but I can’t tell if that’s intentional or not. I feel like that’s something of a failing, to have what must be a very prominent flavour in the original treat almost entirely absent in the Kit Kat version… but then the original isn’t covered in chocolate either, so I suppose sacrifices have to be made.

Finally, I should point out that the chocolate coating is filled with tiny bits of puffed rice, “mochi puffs” according to the package, that account for some of the extra crunch and probably a bunch of the rice favour of this candy bar. They don’t seem to be any different in texture than the wafers so I’m not entirely sure why they were necessary, but ‘necessary’ is sort of a dirty word when it comes to candy innovation anyway.

Verdict: Well, I really can’t say how well it delivered based on what was on the box, but it is an unique flavour. The toasted soy flour, the rice, the chocolate and wafers, it all adds up to something special. While I have no particular affection for kinako, I can see the appeal and perhaps as I experience more non-Kit Kat treats in Japan I’ll begin to develop an appreciation. And Since Kinako Ohagi seems to be an autumnal, seasonal flavour, it won’t be too long until it’s reintroduced again at some point in the future.

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by | October 5, 2011

Review: Kit Kat Bitter Almond

Review: Kit Kat Bitter Almond
Best Before: January 2011
Review: September 2011

This Kit Kat came to me at a bit of a dryspell for new Kit Kats. It was in stores while I was in Japan in October 2010, and then remained in stores both locally and online forever. As it became more and more clear that I wasn’t going to be able to go back to Japan in early 2011, I grew frustrated with the fact that, alongside Adult Dark, this Kit Kat lingered on store shelves seemingly indefinitely, with no new flavours to come. While other Kit Kat blogs have talked about flavours like Hazelnut Strawberry and Cookies and Cream and Tiramasu, visits to the shop were greeted with… Adult Dark and Bitter Almond. And Adult Dark. And Bitter Almond.

I’m trying not to be as bitter as the bar in reviewing them, but I can’t promise anything.

Packaging: I actually really love the packaging for Bitter Almond Kit Kat. The exterior box, with the 3d inspired triangles and the large picture of the Kit Kat Finger is really cool. Coupled with large romanji writing and photos/illustrations of almonds, all in a lovely bronze colour, and I feel it’s a hig. Things get even better once you open the package; the shiny bronze foil with repeating triangle motif is eyecatching, but still a little understated. It feels a little bit special, and that’s what you want out of a snack.

Scent: Right out of the package there’s a strong, bitter dark chocolate scent. Even past the best before, it’s a very strong scent and actually kind of pleasant. It seems like they’re using the same dark chocolate as on the adult bars, instead of the standard milk chocolate. I can’t really smell much that could be considered ‘almond’ though.

Taste and Texture: Again, the matte finish of the dark chocolate bars is considerably less appealing than the shiny candy-chocolate coating on their usual bars. I suppose it’s a way of visually denoting the difference amongst consumers, but ultimate I’m not sure if I like it.

Man, I’m sitting here with the bar about 2 feet away and it is so powerful I can smell it from here. Crazy.

The most immediate flavour is of the dark chocolate. It’s considerably less sweet than a standard-issue Kit Kat, though it isn’t so dark or bitter than you forget it’s a Kit Kat candy bar. I actually didn’t get any of the almond at first, and it was only as I finished chewing the finger that I noticed a sort of all-over mouth taste of almond. It comes through only in the full-mouth flavour though. If I could be so bold as to make a suggestion, a Kit Kat with actual pieces of Almond in it–like any of the Pocky’s with nuts on them–might be a better way to go.

Verdict: Ultimately, it tastes like what it says on the package. It’s nice in its way, although stronger tastes, richer tastes, would be preferable. It’s worth trying but it certainly wasn’t worth being the only thing on store shelves for weeks and months at a time.

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by | October 4, 2011

Review: Kit Kat Milk Coffee

Review: Kit Kat Milk Coffee
Best Before: August 2010
Review: September 2011 

I don’t know if it’s apparent, but I try to do some research on all of the snacks I review here at Oyatsu Break! One of the things that I haven’t mentioned yet here, is that Kit Kats have a novelty value to their name that presages some of their popularity. “Kit Kats” is usually pronounced in Japanese as “Kitto Katsu”, which in Japanese means “You’ll win for sure!” or “You’ll pass for sure!” It’s an auspicious phrase said to students when they’re studying for exams, or when someone is undertaking a challenge.

Further to that, the phrase “sakura saku” means “Cherry Blossoms Bloom,” which also has connotations of success and good fortune.

Which brings us to this new flavour, Kit Kat Milk Coffee.

Packaging: Decorated with sakura, I had initially thought that this flavour of Kit Kat was some sort of cherry-blossom infused tea, a black tea rather than a green tea due to the colour of the liquid in the cup on the packaging. This is the danger and the fun of trying Japanese snacks without being able to read the labels–and this particular item has no English description of the contents. In reality, the Sakura that dot the packaging are symbolic for blossoming success, the name Kit Kat a “you can do it!” message, and the flavour–Milk Coffee–is probably what a lot of students are drinking by the bucketful as they try to stay awake to study.

The packaging even features the phrase “Sakura, Saku yo” on it, and a space on the back to write a message of encouragement. And because this is Japan and they generally have awesome packaging, the area that you write on has a matte finish rather than the glossy finish on the rest of the box, to make your task easier. Genius!

I want to be grumpy about the lack of English on the package making it difficult to understand for foreigners, but working to discover things like this about the culture is why I’m so interested, why I do a blog, and so I won’t knock any ‘points’ off on the design front. This is very clearly a “by the Japanese, for the Japanese” iteration of the candy.

Scent: It’s a white chocolate Kit Kat, and so quite honestly the biggest scent is the white chocolate coating. There’s a faint smell of coffee if you really work for it, but overall the scent of these Kit Kats is very mild, and not terribly exciting. Maybe they should have added some sakura to this one, if only for the aroma…!

Taste and Texture: I find that the white chocolate Kit Kats tend to melt quicker than the milk chocolate ones, and so this was a bit messier than I was expecting despite it being only 20 degrees in the room.

The immediate taste was the white chocolate coating, which didn’t have much in the way, but after the first bite the scent and taste of another familiar chocolate bar filled my mouth–Coffee Crisp. It tastes very much like Coffee Crisp actually–a touch sweeter, a touch less chocolatey, but the resemblance is pretty uncanny. For those of you who’ve never had a Coffee Crisp before, it’s a coffee-infused chocolate bar, heavy on mocha and wafer tastes. The wafer taste on the Milk Coffee Kit Kat is very strong, as is the mocha and surprisingly a bit of milk chocolate–despite the fact there isn’t any milk chocolate in it as far as I can tell! A quick taste of the outside white chocolate confirms it’s the ordinary flavour, which means the mocha is coming entirely from a cream sandwiched between the wafers. I guess the white chocolate is supposed to account for the “milk” part, and the coffee from the wafers, but honestly it didn’t taste tooo milky.

It’s a really great flavour combination though, and while I just try to stick to one or two fingers for these taste tests, I surprised myself by opening up the other two-finger package to ‘try’ a little more.

And now I kinda want a Coffee Crisp.

Verdict: I brought my husband in to try some to see if the resemblance to Coffee Crisp was all in my head, but he agreed that it was very similar. “Knowing what it tastes like, I’d definitely eat it again,” he said. “It’s a solid second-tier choice for a candy bar, when you want a specific flavour that’s well-executed.” I completely agree, and maybe feel a little more strongly than that. Shame it’s only a limited-time flavour!

I’d like to thank the good folks at http://ponkanchan.blogspot.com/, specifically this post, for being my primary research spot on this review. Arigatougozaimasu!

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by | September 25, 2011

News: Get Out The Vote for Japanese Kit Kats!

Thanks to Jen’s Kit Kat Blog, I’ve found out that the good folks at Nestle Japan are holding a vote to see which classic Kit Kat flavour should make a triumphant return this winter!

http://b.nestle.co.jp/kitkat/senkyo/

Nestle has pulled together a list of 20 different Kit Kat flavours, many of which I’ve never tried before, and they’re asking the public to vote for their fav. The winning flavour will return this December. The order that they’re on the website reads as follows:

Almond, Strawberry, Orange, Green Tea
Lemon Cheesecake, White, White Maple, Sakura (Cherry Blosson)
Azuki Bean, Vanilla, Kinako, Caramel Pudding
Salt & Vanilla, Royal Milk Tea, Pudding, Tiramisu
Salted Caramel, Cocoa, Strawberry Cake, Black Sugar and Kinako

(The flavours I’ve tried have been italicized).

Quite honestly, I’d totally love to acquire one of each of those delicious candy bars again, but topping my list would be Salted Caramel, Lemon Cheesecake, and the patriotic bit of me says White Maple.

You can vote 3 times a day, every day, for the flavours of your choice. Unfortunately you’ve got to be a Nestle member to vote, which is kind of a huge sticking point if your Japanese skills are lacking. But if you can manage the sign-up process, head on over and vote for your favourites!

– Chris
Thanks to Phil Knall for translation help.

 

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