KitKat Big Little Matcha Azuki – KitKat Bigリトル 抹茶あずき

KitKat comes in many forms: standard, chunky, mini, individual fingers… but this is the only incarnation I’ve seen that strays from the traditional rectangular shape and branches into the hugely popular market of single-serving bagged chocolates such as Galbo and Crunky Popjoy. Big Little isn’t new – I tried the Kinako version last year – but it seems to appear suddenly in shops only to disappear again without warning, with a long hiatus before the release of the next variety. I get the feeling that perhaps Nestle is not yet fully committed to the product, and honestly, after considering this latest installment, I can see why.

The eight pieces contained in the packet, each about the size of a piece of cue chalk, are redolent of rich, strong green tea with a hint of sweet red bean, and have that deep olive green colour that I look for in matcha candy. Promising as that may be, I find the appearance rather disappointing. Every face of the cuboids is marked by blemishes and cracks that make them look like something you’d find in a 99p store marked under ‘factory clearance’. While this wouldn’t bother me normally, it just seems so at odds with the standard perfectly formed, cleanly embossed KitKat fingers, that this item feels unrecognisable as a part of the same range.

Never mind, the proof of the pudding is in the eating right? The thick chocolate layer is a little waxy and bland on the surface but creamy once it begins to melt. Milky and mild, the matcha flavour is pleasant, although the chocolate is over-sweetened and a touch sickly. I like that, with the altered chocolate-to-wafer ratio afforded by the new shape (wafer center is larger than usual), the secondary flavour contained in the sandwiched filling is more noticeable than in a typical KitKat. A side-effect of this is that the center is marginally less crisp than usual, being more thickly spread with cream filling. Unfortunately, despite the recognisable deep pink colour of the wafer, the azuki taste is too faint to compete with the sweet chocolate coating and languishes vaguely in the background. This was also the problem with the Azuki Sando KitKats I reviewed a while ago; the wafer center is too slim to allow for the addition of anything coarser than powdered azuki, which just doesn’t deliver on flavour.

I’m not condemning Nestle for trying something different, but the original KitKat fingers look so much more polished and recognisable, and already boast such a diverse range of flavours and sizes, that I just don’t see the need for Big Little, nor where it fits in. I’d still recommend trying it – who knows, maybe it’s the KitKat format you’ve always been waiting for – but I’ll stick to the rectangular bars I know and love.

5/10

KitKat Big Little Matcha Azuki  8pcs  190kcals

KitKat Yawatayaisogorou Ichimi – 八幡屋礒五郎 一味 （信州限定）

After my disappointment with KitKat Rum Raisin, expectations were low for this novelty bar, the result of a collaboration with reknowned tougarashi (chilli pepper) producer Yawatayaisogorou. While the concept of chocolate and chilli is fairly well established, it is usually only attempted, or at least only pulled off with any degree of success, by chocolatiers capable of ensuring a good, authentic, high-cocoa bar, as sub-par chocolate will simply ruin the pepper and vice versa. However, the adult-oriented bitter bar available in Japan is proof that KitKat is no stranger to grown-up dark chocolate, so I couldn’t help feeling optimistic the more I considered it.

The wrapper designs are more flashy than usual, with bold, stimulating pops of blue and yellow against shiny red and gold, which is especially eye-catching against the black interior of the box that houses them. Already this felt like something special, and I was even more convinced upon opening one.

The scent alone is exciting; earthy and spicy in a way that conjures up images of a Moroccan souk. The ebony-coloured chocolate is aromatic and bitter but with a silky, creamy melt. The excellent rich dark taste is achieved with the inclusion of cocoa mass, cocoa butter and cocoa powder, and reassuringly few artificial ingredients. The crisp wafer center has a peanutty smell, the light toastiness of which offsets the intense chocolate notes perfectly.

As for the all-important chilli: there’s certainly no missing it. Its heat is not the pungent kind that brings a sudden sting to your nose, like wasabi, but a slight burn on the roof of your mouth and in the back of your throat. It takes a few seconds before you get the full sensation and at first it threatens to intensify but fortunately remains at a manageable level, although it does linger after the chocolate taste has faded. I doubt this would really be too hot, even for someone with a fairly delicate palate, however I can see that it could alienate consumers who are used to milder, sweeter bars. For me though, this has to be one of the best chocolate products I’ve ever eaten: KitKat has more than redeemed itself for the rum-rasisin fiasco.

The complex combination of bitterness and spiciness is addictive and yet so immensely satisfying that one bar is easily enough. Sadly I expect that this unique product will have disappeared within the year, in the inevitable turnover of new varieites, but it will be a real shame. Recently I feel I’ve been too generous in handing out scores of eight for products that weren’t so far above average in retrospect, so just to make a clear distinction KitKat Yawataisogorou Ichimi (try saying that five times fast) earns:

9/10

KitKat Yawataisogorou Ichimi (Shinshuu area limited edition)  64kcals per bar

KitKat Tokyo Rum Raisin – ＫｉｔＫａｔ 東京ラムレーズン

Another thing I picked up en route to England, along with cookie crunch Pocky, was this box of mini Rum Raisin KitKats, which seemed an appropriately warm and indulgent concept for the boozy festive period ahead. I’m not sure what defines these typical bite-size bars as ‘Tokyo’ KitKats, beside the fact that they’re on sale at Haneda airport; no doubt it’s simply to encourage tourists to buy them as souvenirs. Well it worked anyway, as my curiosity was piqued and I didn’t hesitate to grab a pack.

Despite it being one of the most common combinations in the realm of confectionery, I realised that I’d never tried a rum and raisin product with white chocolate before, with the exception of Tirol’s Raisin Sando, which was a rum-butter-based candy, so a little different. The fruity alcoholic flavour of rum and raisin, simultaneously heady and warming and tart and tangy, is one of my favourites when it comes to ice cream, so I was looking forward to seeing what Nestlé made of it.

I was a little suspicious when I caught the scent of the first buttery yellow bar I unwrapped. While faint dairy notes of milky white chocolate did filter through, the aroma was unmistakably rum and raisin, yet almost too rummy and raisiny – a bold and exaggerated fragrance, like a perfume. I withheld judgement until the first bite, but unfortunately my suspicions were confirmed; what I got was a mouthful of a sickly sweet, perfumed confection with no hint of mellow spirit or fruity sharpness, except perhaps for a slight sourness in the aftertaste. KitKat have produced some great innovative flavours over the years, but it seems that when it came to turning their hand to an old favourite they got everything wrong. There was no caramelised sugarcane hit from the rum and I’m not convinced that a grape had ever even been in the same room as one of these. I’ll acknowledge that it’s difficult to add something like fruit flesh, which would need to be in fairly large chunks to be noticeable, to a biscuit with such a thin chocolate coating as a KitKat Mini, yet I think a raisin paste could have been sandwiched between the wafer layers, or perhaps Nestlé could have produced this as a Chunky instead, giving them a larger volume to work with. (Although the box and empty wrappers were whisked away before I had the chance to check the ingredients, I’ve confirmed that they contain a mere 0.056% alcohol, so I’m fairly certain that what constitutes the ‘rum’ here is primarily synthetic) Possibly the use or milk or even dark chocolate in place of white could have worked to offset the perfumey rum flavour, rather than enhance its cloying sweetness.

Don’t get me wrong, these were far from inedible, and the texture was spot-on as usual: the chocolate had a clean snap to it, a nice sheen and a good degree of creaminess, and the wafer was light and crisp, in pleasant contrast to the moist layers of cream in between. However, these are the selling points of any KitKat so I have to rate Tokyo Rum Raisin based primarily on flavour, which earns them:

5/10

Tokyo Rum Raisin KitKat Mini 12 pack    63kcals per bar

Limited-edition KitKats: Yatsuhashi, Houjicha and Azuki Sando – KitKat：八つ橋・ほうじ茶・あずきサンド味

As I mentioned in a quick post a while ago, I bought a load of limited edition chocolates when I last visited Kansai, in particular three new varieties of KitKat (all mini size), which is what I’m showcasing today.

First, Houjicha flavour (yellow packet):

I’m not very knowledgeable about tea but this houjicha, or roasted green tea, is apparently from Kyuuemon, in Kyoto. The biscuit has almost no scent and, although it may be hard to tell from the picture, it is a strange murky khaki colour, neither very appetising nor particularly reminiscent of tea. Despite this, a mild, non-herbal tea flavour comes through as the milky chocolate melts and compliments the sweetness nicely, and this flavour is carried through to the cream sandwiched between the wafers.

Next, Yatsuhashi Biscuit (red packet):

Yatsuhashi, a cinnamon-flavoured treat which is a famous product of Shougoin, Kyoto, can come baked in the form of a crisp, arch-shaped wafer

or in its raw form, as a soft triangle of thin mochi folded over a paste filling, such as azuki or chestnut. (Above photograph is not mine! Credit to this site: http://www.gurum.biz/articles/18964.html)

This KitKat incorporates the crunchy, biscuit-type sweet, as shown on the box. As soon as I opened the packet I was hit by a very strong, almost overwhelming smell of cinnamon but thankfully it does not taste too heavily spiced and in fact the cinnamon blends smoothly with the chocolate, which is delicately flavoured with kinako. When you bite into it you get the pleasant crunch of the biscuit fragments in the creamy chocolate before reaching the flaky wafer center, which provides that oh-so addictive smooth/crunchy contrast that will have you reaching for a second bar.

Last but not least, Azuki Sando:

I bought this in Nagoya airport and it’s a limited edition product for the Toukai/Hokuriku regions. I’ve never tried the toasted red bean snack pictured on the box, but I must have eaten just about everything else azuki-related so I knew what to expect.

The distinctive earthy azuki scent hits you when you open the wrapper and the flavour comes through strongly as you eat the bar, especially if you let it melt in your mouth. True to the product name the inner structure mimics a sandwich, with layers of pale pink azuki cream in between the usual wafers.

It would have been nice if the cream was a richer red colour, like the beans themselves, but the taste was good and certainly different from anything I’ve had before.

***

This weekend I’ll be taking a short road trip around Hokkaido (Toyako, Furano and Sapporo) so hopefully next time I’ll have some Hokkaido edition candies to write about^^

Next month: Kyoto Limited-edition Chocolates – 京都・東海・北陸・関西限定チョコレート

I gave up chocolate for Lent (not a religious thing, I just figure I’ll enjoy it even more if I take a break from it once a year) meaning that I can’t review any of the above until after Easter, so this is just a quick message about what’s coming up. I went to Kyoto this week and found Hello Kitty and Koinobori Tirol Choco, Matcha Apollo chocolates, Yatsuhashi KitKats and Houjicha KitKats, and finally in Nagoya airport I spotted Azuki Sando KitKats. I’m dying to try them all but in the meantime I have salt caramel, grape-flavoured chews, mochi, jellies and lots of other things to post so it will be a chocolate-free but still very, very sweet three weeks until Easter^^

 

Kit Kat Chunky Royal Milk Tea – ロイヤルミルクティー

Along with Tirol chocolates, Kit Kat is another thing I like to look out for, because the flavours change quite regularly, and new Kit Kat chunky varieties are rare. Lately I found some new Kit Kat minis too so it was a good time for hunting~

As you can see the chocolate coating is generously thick and appealingly shiny. The pale colour confused me a little, as you would expect a milk tea-based sweet to be a darker, milky-brown colour, which could easily have been achieved. However the scent is unmistakeably milk tea and it smells delicious. The taste too hits you in the same way as when you drink: first you get the creamy sweetness from the milk and sugar followed by the slightly herbal aftertaste of tea.

I tend to eat like a rabbit and gnaw away the outside of my chocolates and when I tasted the wafer center on its own it was strangely bitter. Not unpleasant but curious. Perhaps it’s there to balance the sweet tea and make the flavours more complex. In spite of the mystery center I loved it and hope that Royal Milk Tea is here to stay.