Oyatsu Break!, Page 17

by Chris | July 28, 2011

Oyatsu Break! In The News!

To celebrate the launch of Oyatsu Break! in July, I treated a bunch of friends and associates to an evening of Kit Kat Tasting. 40 flavours of Kit Kat were disseminated amongst candy-lovers and Japanese Kit Kat virgins, with some truly surprising results! Corey Mintz, food writer for The Toronto Star, wrote the whole thing up and it’s now online at http://www.thestar.com/living/food/article/1031538–kit-kat-club#article.

Please visit and check it out!

Also, I’ll be posting the results of our surveys here at the blog in August and, going forward, I’ll be including the survey results in any Kit Kat Reviews I post here where they’re applicable.

Thanks for reading!

– Christopher
Photo by GALIT RODAN/TORONTO STAR

Review: Caramel Pudding Kit-Kat

Caramel Pudding Kit Kat (Purrin)
Received: July 2011
Best Before: N/A
Review Date: July 2011
Price: N/A

A gift from my good friend Deb Aoki received at the San Diego Comic Con this past week, I actually saw Caramel Pudding Kit Kats all over my last trip to Japan… and didn’t buy them. You see them come in the bags which contain 12-14 of the packs of 2 bars, and they were Halloween decorated, and I thought that they were just regular Kit Kats with halloween packaging for Halloween. Because I’m an idiot. So the lesson is: next time, just buy them anyway… and practice your Japanese so you can read the bags!

Probably my favourite Japanese snack food, and one I plan on reviewing once I actually get back to Japan, is purrin, or Japanese pudding. While there are all sorts of variations on Pudding in Japan, standard issue of Glico pudding is “Glico Pucchin Pudding”. It’s basically a lightly flavoured milk pudding, sort of a jelly, with a thin layer of burnt caramel sauce on the bottom of the container. You flip it onto a plate, break an air seal so it releases, and then the burnt caramel sauce warms and drizzles all over your pudding. I found a video of it online actually, check this out: http://www.vidoevo.com/yvideo.php?i=OFdmMnJrcWuRpdWhXSlE&. There’s even a fan-page for it on Facebook. It’s delightful, but it isn’t available for sale in North America because of how expensive or how long it would be to ship it, and so like melon pan it remains an only-in-Japan snack.

Luckily, this Kit Kat purports to be milk chocolate, flavoured with delicious caramel pudding! Being a personal favourite I’m looking forward to putting it through its paces…!

Packaging: As these were a gift, I unfortunately don’t have any personal photos of the bag to show you, but the interior packages are super-cute. Orange and Purple with the Kit Kat Logo, and a couple of little super-deformed (tiny versions) halloween characters adorn the package. Super cute.

I guess I could make a comment about the bag packaging, seeing as I couldn’t figure out it was a specially flavoured Kit Kat and therefore it wasn’t successful… but honestly I’m about 90% sure I was the problem on that one… -___-;

Scent: WOW! Opening the package, I could instantly smell the strong burnt sugar/caramel flavouring even from a foot away! This is one intensely scented candy. While I feel like a lot of the Japanese Kit Kats rely more on getting the smell of item right moreso than the flavour, this didn’t feel gimmicky at all. It’s intensely rich, with milk chocolate and a strong caramel smell. Lovely, really whets the appetite.

Taste: It delivers! Although as a milk chocolate bar, it’s not going to match the taste of purrin exactly, it does hit all of the right caramel notes. In fact it takes it all on step further, with the caramel even tasting a touch MORE burnt in the candy bar than it smells, or than I remember it tasting in actual pudding. It’s actually a nice touch, taking something that might be considered boring or traditional, and amping it up a little.

I shared this one with my husband Andrew, and he described the difference between this caramel flavour and a western caramel flavour in like a Caramilk bar or something as “The difference between Japanese muscat grape flavour and regular grape flavour,” and that’s very accurate.

The milk chocolate is standard, though blends nicely with the sugar taste and smell.

Verdict: Andrew also brought up another good point, that this was an exceedingly conventional taste combination even with the increased flavour profile. He wondered if it was an homage to western candy, as chocolate + caramel is a particularly notable and enjoyed candy flavour, in the same way that the packaging and distribution was an homage to the western holiday Halloween. That sounds very plausible, although who know exactly what’s going on inside the heads of Nestle Japan, some days?

I will say that it was a solid flavour, unique and enjoyable. It was actually really fun to eat, and even now the aftertaste is lingering pleasantly. I’d buy these again, probably this Halloween. ;)

Review: Blueberry Kit Kat

Blueberry Kit Kat (Milk Chocolate)
Purchased: Asian Food Grocer, December 2010
Best Before: May 2011
Review Date: July 2011
Price: US$5.99 (From AFG)

A week, maybe two after I got back from my November 2010 trip to Japan, Nestle released a brand new flavour and it was one that I was more-or-less destined to love. As I mentioned in my review of Blueberry Ramune, artificial blueberry is probably my favourite candy flavour, owing to its rarity, its intensity, and its distance from anything resembling a real blueberry taste. Let’s be honest here, unless you get the most perfect of blueberries, in season and ripe and sweet and delicious, they’re not the greatest fruits. Often sour, sometimes bitter, and occasionally even bland–and even the best blueberries can be jazzed up with a little cream and sugar (it’s like a lazy parfait–try it, delicious).

But that artificial candy blueberry? Why that’s the platonic ideal of the flavour. And so you can imagine how hurt I was, how personally offended that Blueberry Kit Kat appeared on store shelves almost as soon as I left the country. Actually, you probably can’t, because you’re probably reasonable about these things and I am not.

Luckily, the good folks at Asian Food Grocer had my back, and within the week 3 bags of Blueberry Kit Kats were winding their way to me via New York City (thanks to G.G. in NYC for the hookups). And so was the effort, the expense, the waiting, was it all worth it? Spoiler: Oh, oh yes.

Packaging: Probably the most basic packaging you’ll find for Kit Kats is the bag of mini-bars. Sold at grocery stores and convenience stores, the bags take up a gargantuan amount of shelf-space compared to a bar, and consequently they’re a little rarer.

The Blueberry Kit Kat bag though is great, honestly. That Kit Kat logo is huge, and the red and blue contrast nicely. A large, full-colour illustration of bursting-ripe blueberries (blue, not the actual purpley colour) adorns the bag, alongside an illustration of the bar to be found inside. Even without the English-language “Blueberry” on the bag, you know exactly whit this is and what you’re getting.

The back of the bag, theoretically at least, says something about Blueberries. Perhaps in the far-flung future when I can read more Japanese I’ll come back and translate all of these, but for now, we’ll just assume they’re trying to sell us on the magic of blueberries and we’ll go from there.

Interestingly, the mini-bars inside have a purpley-blue wrapper, closer to actual blueberry colour… and it doesn’t seem to say the flavour in Japanese, just English! That might be a first.

Smell: Getting mail is nice. Getting mailed a bunch of Kit Kats is nicer. And the nicest still is why you open up the mail package and you can actually faintly smell the blueberry Kit Kats, so potent was the scent. Opening up the actual bag of Kit Kats was even more surprising–the scent of blueberry leapt out of the bag and perfumed the general area. And let me remind you, these were still wrapped in one more layer.

I opened up my last bag of these last week, and lo and behold you could still get an intense blast of blueberry scent just by inhaling near the open bag that was over 7 months old! What I’m saying is, these are strongly scented Kit Kats. And they smelled great! A full hit of candy blueberry, mixed with the milk chocolate, whether warm or cold they were an automatic hit.

To date, these were the most strongly-scented Kit Kats I’ve ever tried, and that’s saying something.

Taste: Well they’re pretty much perfect, to me. The milk chocolate Kit Kat is a great match with the blueberry, though if you’re not a fruit & chocolate fan you won’t find a lot here to convince you otherwise.

The taste of the blueberry is pretty-much perfect as well. It has a hint of real blueberries, but it’s really strong and fills your whole mouth with every bite. It’s not too sweet either, to my pallette. While I generally find the white chocolate Kit Kats to be overly sweet, the milk chocolate ones are usually a little mellower and enjoyable. I’ve had some variations, strawberry, raspberry, and cherry especially, that were powerfully, face-meltingly sweet, and this was actually kind of pleasant. I mean, not after the 3rd or 4th one, it’s still candy, but you could eat a whole bar of this and not feel ill from the sugar… probably. :)

Verdict: Honestly, it’s one of my favourite Kit Kat flavours. It has that nice mix of the familiar and unconventional that really ‘makes’ a Kit Kat for me, and I could even see this as a limited edition flavour in North America, albeit for a very brief run. Actually in North America it’d probably end up being cranberry. :-/

Review: Hot Japanese Chili Kit Kat (Yawataya Isogoro Ichimi) (Gift Set)

Hot Japanese Chilli Kit Kat (Yawataya Isogoro Ichimi)
Shinsyu Limited edition Gift Set Flavour
Purchased: Tokyo, Narita Airport November 2010
Best Before: May 2011
Review Date: July 2011
Original Price: 1320 yen

Chili and chocolate is a natural pairing, really! It can be found in specialty chocolate shops around the world, particularly in countries with access to both good cocoa, and good chilies.

I was delighted to discover this flavour at my airport Kit Kat treasure trove, as it’s comprised of ingredients that are recognizable to folks in the west, but unique as a Kit Kat flavour. It’s spicy chocolate, and despite its appearances in upscale chocolate boutiques the general public would still be a little weirded out–in short, a perfect gift to bring back to North America!

Of particular note, this is a Shinshu Region limited edition flavour. Shinshu (also read as Shinsyu) is roughly equivalent to present-day Nagano, site of the 1998 Winter Olympics and northwest of Tokyo. Not quite as far a distance to travel as Hokkaido, to get the Yubari Melon Kit Kats, but still: thank you import store at Narita Airport!

Yawataya Isogoro is actually a specific manufacturer in the region, famous for its chili spices. This marks a partnership between Nestle (Kit Kat) and the manufacturer, which is kinda neat. This wasn’t immediately obvious to me, not being familiar with Japanese spice companies, but I’m glad I looked it up! :) If you’re curious about them, you can visit their English language website.

Packaging: The most elaborate packaging for Kit Kats in Japan (that I’ve come accross anyway) is the 12-bar gift-set packaging, available on the regional specialty flavours sold at major train stations, transport hubs, and tourist destinations. These are lovely and usually beautifully designed, drawing in aspects of traditional Japanese patterns and design. This box is no exception to the rule, though it does offer bolder blocks of colour and a sort of shiny gold motif.

Speaking of which: The wrappers are gold! Shiny gold and red actually, super-classy.

The Kit Kat standard gift set packaging features a cardboard box with a plastic insert tray, two rows of six Kit Kats each-perfect for sharing with all of your coworkers after you return home from the Shinsyu region of course. Because you wouldn’t dream of going anywhere in Japan, and not returning home with a treat featuring an item that the region is famous for.

All in all, really great packaging, but the romanization of the Japanese on the box is a bit of a train wreck–here’s hoping the next printing cleans that up a bit.

Smell: These Kit Kats don’t have a particularly strong scent, but a deep inhale gives you dark chocolate notes and a hint of the spice to come. It’s actually nice.

Taste: This is a darker, less-sweet version of the standard Kit Kat chocolate and it matches well with the surprising amount of heat that hits right in the back of your mouth. It’s a nice smooth dark chocolate too, just the barest touch of bitterness. And the heat is real! Much spicier than I might expect from a Japanese snack regularly, the pepper on the package is a good indication of what you’ll find inside. It’s a pretty straight-forward chili-flake heat, but it’s a little more complex than I was expecting and it’s really well-suited to the darker chocolate. It also builds nicely with each Kit Kat you eat, giving you that “good burn” that makes spicy food so addictive. Congrats to Yawtaya Isogoro, you make some spicy chili peppers!

Verdict: This is probably one of the most successful, balanced, and palatable Kit Kat flavours I’ve ever tried… which isn’t to say that it’s either boring or “standard”, honestly. It’s a really great, balanced snack. I’m just saying that I could easily see this on store shelves in North America, though it would probably have the word ‘extreme’ in the title, sadly.

4 Comments

Filed under Japanese Kit Kats, Reviews

Tagged as Gift Set, Kit Kat, Limited, Regional, Spicy, Yawataya Isogoro

by Chris | July 14, 2011

Review: Yubari Melon Kit Kat (Gift Pack)

Yubari Melon Kit Kat
Purchased: Tokyo, Narita Airport November 2010
Best Before: May 2011
Review Date: July 2011
Original Price: ??

My fall trip to Japan was largely fruitless, at least in terms of finding rare and unique new Kit Kats. By the time I’d finished my trip and arrived at the airport I was carrying bundles of maybe 6, maybe 7 different flavours and only 3 that were new to me… out of more than 100 different places I’d gone looking for them. I found Toasted Soy Flour and Soy Sauce Kit Kats at a Lawson in Shinjuku; Wasabi Kit Kats at the Ueno JR Station. I’d found Sweet Potato Kit Kats everywhere, being that’d they’d just been released. But yeah, by the time I’d arrived at the airport I was in a bit of a down mood, expecting the motherload and only having been moderately successful for all of my efforts.

Then, I found a near-magical store at the airport. It was an “import food” store, which is to say that they imported goods from around Japan, primarily food, and then sold them. And what did they have at that store? Why nearly 12 different flavours of Kit Kat that I hadn’t seen anywhere on my trip. I spent hundreds of dollars at that store (much to my husbands chagrin), and it was there that I acquired Yubari Melon Kit Kat for the firsttime.

My very good friends Jim and Stacy also brought me back a standard Kit Kat bar version of Yubari Melon from their trip in May 2011, just a few months ago and after this wonderful Melon Kit Kat had been released nation wide. I might go and review those as well, shortly, especially as they probably aren’t 2 or 3 months past their best before date. Until then, Yubari Melon Kit Kat–Gift Pack Edition!

Packaging: Love it. Love it all. This tiny gift set features 5 mini foil packages of Kit Kats, each with two small bars in them. The exterior of the box has pictures of both the product and what it’s supposed to be, and we can tell quite clearly from the photo that “Yubari Melon” is nearly analogous to Cantaloupe here in North America.

A special feature of this gift-packaging is that these are actually intended to be mailed. Seriously, pop on a stamp and send it away. The back features a “Message” area on it, and even better, that whole thing has been de-embossed, missing the glossy coating that the rest of the box has so that it’s easier to write on! Oh my goodness! Bravo, Kit Kat!

The packaging also tells us that Yubari Melons are native to Hokkaido, and as such this is a regional snack. The packaging even features a little blurb that I absolutely cannot read–feel free to translate it in the comments if you feel so inclined. Still, a snack and a bit of history, what more could one ask for?

This packaging is so amazing, so thoughtful, so well done.

Smell: Unlike certain other flavours, there’s no strong scent when you crack the packaging on this one. Up close you get that distinct milk chocolate Kit Kat scent, and a very sweet melon scent as well. It’s pleasant, but it’s not that intense.

Taste: So here’s the thing: You either like chocolate and fruit mixed together, or you don’t. Being the open-minded sort, I was really excited by the prospect of biting into a melony milk chocolate Kit Kat bar–considerably moreso than I would have been if it were one of the white chocolate bars. On that note, the bar is a complete success. The milk chocolate of the Kit Kat matches nicely with the Japanese melon flavour of Yubari Melon… It’s a good match and quite tasty.

The melon flavour is close to Cantaloupe, but if you’ve ever had any other Japanese melon-flavoured items, it’s much closer to those than to fresh cantaloupe. Items like melon-flavoured ramune, or melon-pan (a melon flavoured snack bread I hope to review soon) are good touchstones for what this one tastes like, of course with the added bonus of milk chocolate. It’s not overly sweet either, which is appreciated.

Of course, if you’re like my husband the thought of mixing fruit (particularly artificial fruit flavouring) and chocolate is an abomination, and as such this is one of his least-favourite Kit Kats of all time. If you’re not a fruit and chocolate person, this bar isn’t going to convince you.

Verdict: Oh I’d definitely eat this again–I’m actually happy to hear that it got a widespread release in Japan, as that means it was popular enough that it’ll get re-released for years to come. If I were in a convenience store and couldn’t find something new to try, I’d be happy to pick one of these up knowing I’d enjoy it.

I’m so incredibly happy I stumbled across these in Japan, and if you get the chance definitely try one, you won’t be disappointed.