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

Choco Daizu Kinako (kinako-flavoured chocolate soy beans) – チョコ大豆 きな粉

I’m making it my aim at the moment to seek out candies with a decidedly Japanese component: matcha, azuki, satsumaimo…any of the essential elements of Japanese confectionery. Thus, when at Daiso last weekend, I was drawn to this coated soybean snack, which is flavoured with kinako: roasted soybean powder used as a dusting on various traditional wagashi. I’ve never heard of Fukui, who produced this product, but I suspect they are one of the several companies that create cheap and cheerful lines for discount stores. Accordingly, I had no great expectations for this candy.

The fragrant, toasted-smelling beans, approximately the size and shape of small peanuts, are the colour of pale vanilla fudge, with attractively smooth and shiny surfaces. The packet contains a large handful (around 45g). Typical bargain-price ‘chocolate’, the outer coating is rather oily and lacking any hint of real cocoa, providing little more than a soft and sticky-sweet case for the bean within. That said, there is a detectable note of kinako that manages to compete with the sickly chocolate, but it is experienced primarily as a scent rather than a flavour.

The encased soybeans are roasted to crunchy perfection and have a rich, nutty flavour, without the waxiness or oiliness of actual nuts, giving them a cleaner, sharper bite. In spite of the sub-par coating, they are quite satisfying to eat – perfect for munching absently while watching a movie – and will be gone before you know it. While I think a luxury version of this concept, made with high-grade chocolate, could be an indulgent treat, this product for me is simply a cheap snack: it doesn’t rate well as a confection but it fulfills certain cravings in the same way as popcorn or crisps, and is certainly palatable.

5/10

Fukui Choco Daizu Kinako   ￥108

Crunky Matcha – Crunky 抹茶

While traditional bars and blocks are among the less popular forms of chocolate in Japan, Crunky, alongside Meiji Himilk and Ghana, is one of the long-standing fixtures of any candy aisle. Usually made from milk chocolate, Crunky is a lightweight rectangular bar, studded with puffed barley grains, similar to Nestle’s Crunch bar, yet slimmer and thus brittler. With spring having finally arrived (it takes a while for it to reach Hokkaido), supermarkets are awash with matcha and sakura flavoured confections, hence I came across this seasonal item at a large branch of Daiso.

Encased in a thin cardboard box and wrapped in flimsy silver foil, the bar was fresh and in near perfect condition when I opened it. The murky green hue was promising, as, although strong green tea can have a rich emerald tone, typical brews are usually a paler mossy colour. Matcha candy that is a very pale pastel green, while pleasing to the eye, is less likely to deliver on flavour, and will probably taste more like matcha au lait, i.e. extremely milky and sugary. The Lotte logo is embossed into every chunk and the smooth surface has an appealing sheen, with the malt puffs just visible beneath.

Looking at the underside reveals how thoroughly well distributed the grains are throughout the bar. There are a few air holes but not enough to affect the texture. The chocolate has a lovely toasted cereal aroma, like a cup of barley tea, but matcha is not quite detectable in the scent.

There is not as high a concentration of grain here as the illustration on the cardboard sleeve suggests, but there is still enough to provide a nice crisp bite. Every chunk contains plenty of cereal and the barley is light and toasty, not at all stale. It feels fairly solid, by which I mean that despite all the aerated puffs, it still has the dense creaminess of chocolate. The crucial matcha flavour is good – fairly bold – and works very well with the cereal, which really helps to offset the dairy and sugar in the bar and bring out the natural taste of the tea.

I thought this was a good bar, in particular the ratio of chocolate to malt puffs and the green tea flavour. While not as rich a matcha taste as Dars’ Ujimatcha or Meiji’s matcha bar, the flavour was distinctive and pleasant. I don’t think this is my favourite green tea chocolate, but it could be my favourite Crunky.

7/10

Lotte Crunky Matcha  42g   253kcals

Kabaya Puchi Pastel – カバヤ プチパステル （カラフルチョコスナック）

I’ve been wanting to try these since the first time I spotted them in the supermarket, not long after I moved to Hakodate, but for some reason it’s taken me over a year to make the purchase. I’d say it’s because they’re for children but in a country where every second thing has Hello Kitty on it, there’s no shame in buying cutesy candy, especially as someone who still looks like a high school student.

Puchi Pastel consists of two small packets of pastel-coloured biscuit balls partially embedded in cute chocolate shapes.

The cheerful colours and variety of designs was enough to appeal to me, so I was surprised upon opening the box to find an extra level of entertainment, in the form of a fortune wheel displaying a prediction for each of the chocolate forms.

Here are the items that were in my selection, and the corresponding readings:

Ice cream – You might stumble and fall 😦

Fluted cup – You could get a present

(back) Rocket – You may have a good dream   Heart – You may be able to talk to the person you like

(front) Blob monster – You might meet a monster   Pumpkin – Someone may get angry at you   Whale – A dog may bark at you

Others: Candy – Your wish may come true   Shuttle bus(?) – You may find the thing you’re looking for   Train(?) – You may be able to make up with someone you fell out with (sorry, these were very difficult to photograph…)

The fortune-telling element is a novel idea, I can see that this would be a lot of fun to share with friends, blindly picking candies one by one and finding out each other’s fates. Even without this added entertainment, not knowing what assortment of the fifteen shapes you’ll get keeps things fresh. With fifteen designs and five different colours of biscuit center the total number of possible combinations is pretty big.

But cute gimmicks aside, what about the actual product? Well…the chocolate is not good. The ingredients include a shining agent to bring lustre to the surface, but due to the simple packaging the pieces rub together, leaving them tarnished and dull. They have a pleasant hot chocolate aroma but fail to deliver on taste – the chocolate is oily and, despite an initial cocoa tang, overly sweet, to the extent that even just sucking one tiny piece was enough to induce a slight burn in the back of my throat, the way very sugary, low-grade chocolate is apt to do.

The little biscuit ball is slightly better. Its outer surface, probably also made using the shining addiditive, has no flavour, so it’s best to bite into the cookie as sucking it means working through the waxy layer before you can taste chocolate. The colourful chocolate is blandly sweet and milky, while the crunchy center has notes of vanilla and malted milk, which is quite nice overall. Fortunately there is not too much air in the biscuit, which creates a good crisp bite.

I had fun with Puchi Pastel, it’s cute, colourful and original. However, a large part of the appeal for me lay in the fortune-telling element, which wouldn’t be so fresh and entertaining if I were to buy this product a second time. Add to this the disappointing appearance of the candy itself and the sub-par quality of the chocolate and you’re left with something that’s average at best. Puchi Pastel could be fun to share and would make a nice gift for friends abroad who are into typical Japanese novelty confections, but as a whole package it didn’t impress me.

5/10

Kabaya Puchi Pastel  2 packs (22.5g x 2)  121kcal/pack

Meiji Petit-assort – 明治 プチアソート

Having recently reviewed a Meiji assortment, it seemed appropriate to follow up with this second installment, a further introduction to some of the popular confectionery giant’s most well-known creations. Aimed specifically at young children, Petit-assort is a selection of five matchbox-sized packets of candy which feature cute characters and simple counting/picture spotting puzzles on the back. The varieties included in the selection are, from left to right: Marble (strawberry), Coffeebeat, Choco Baby, Apollo and Marble (milk chocolate). All these products are also available in various other forms, for example, Marble can be purchased in a small tube the size of a Smarties packet, Choco Baby comes in a rectangular plastic container similar to that of Tic-tacs, and Apollo is usually packaged in a larger box, about the size of a pack of aspirin.

All five lines are also to be found in large tubes of the kind that chocolate companies often release around Christmas in England, and there are even novelty jumbo versions too.

But enough about the various packaging options and on with the review, beginning with Marble:

I reviewed the standard milk chocolate Marble previously when writing about Meiji’s eight variety selection pack, so here I’ll only cover the strawberry version. Brightly coloured and with a nice shiny smooth shell, these fragrant morsels look very appealing. They both smell and taste strongly of strawberry milk, though there is a faint hint of acidity somewhere in the background that gives them a genuinely fruity note. The white chocolate centers are a little on the waxy side (as opposed to being creamy) but have a good dairy flavour. I have bought Petit-assort numerous times and I’m pleased to say that there is always a good mixture in the two Marble packets, with usually at least one piece of each colour.

Next, Coffeebeat. This is one of my favourite Meiji lines and without a doubt my favourite item in this assortment. Similar to Marble, Coffeebeat consists of milk chocolate in a crisp sugar shell, but due to their rounder and more compact coffee bean shape they feel denser and there is more resistance to the bite. Furthermore, the coating has a more lustrous finish, so that each tiny piece looks almost look polished. The shell has a refined sugariness to it, yet the chocolate inside, although sweet, is redolent of rich ground coffee. Here sugar and coffee coexist, which is not the case in many such candies, where the mild milkiness of the dairy dilutes the complex coffee notes. That is not to say that they are particularly bitter or acidic; there is just the right blend of coffee in this chocolate.

Following on with Choco Baby, perhaps the most interesting candy in the mix, as I’ve never seen anything like it elsewhere. I’ve always found the shape rather odd, as the sweets resemble the little pellets of pet food I used to give my hamster (both before and after the hamster ate them…), yet the glossy surface and milky cocoa scent are very appetising. Eating Choco Baby is an enjoyable experience, as you can savour two or three grains at a time, or eat a small handful and allow them to coalesce into a sticky, milky-sweet mass. Unlike Marble and Coffeebeat, these candies don’t have an outer shell; the whole piece is made up of the same chocolatey substance, which has a firm, fudgey consistency.

Lastly, Apollo, whose adorable hat-wearing bunny wins the award for cutest mascot. The conical chocolates depicted in the box-art are a vibrant bubblegum pink, whereas in reality the colour is a paler milky pink. The flavour of the strawberry chocolate is like that of the Marble, except that there are no overtones of tartness, making Apollo the sweeter of the two. The milk chocolate base is sugary, with only faint notes of cocoa, and somewhat oily, meaning that the melt is not as silky as it could be. With no hard shell to protect them, the Apollo tend to get the most tarnished, and there are also a few visible air pockets around the seam between the milk and strawberry chocolate, though of course none of this affects the flavour.

I’d say that I prefer this to the other Meiji selection, even though it contains fewer varieties, because some of the biscuit-based snacks in the eight variety pack were somewhat bland and dry, and the mixture was too heavy on milk chocolate. I should state that this is a relatively cheap product and as such is made with accordingly low-cost ingredients, so the chocolate isn’t always great. However, I feel it offers a good range of textures, shapes and flavours to keep things interesting, and has the advantage of being a single-serving pack, which can be an important factor for consumers living alone who don’t want to buy their candy in bulk.

If by any chance you’re put off by the Coffeebeat, as it seems many people have an aversion to coffee chocolates, you can always look out for the individual miniature boxes from Petit-assort, which are sold separately at Daiso, allowing you to pick and choose to suit your tastes.

7/10

Meiji Petit-assort 5pcs  274kcal

Otona mo Chocoball Cafe Mocha – 大人もチョコボール カフェモカ味

I’ve always been a big fan of Morinaga, from their chewy buttery caramel to their indulgent creamy pudding, and I’ve enjoyed Chocoball in the past, including the Shiratma Anmitsu I reviewed previously. Recently Chocoball has branched out from the original colourful, child-oriented boxes to a new line of toned-down grown-up products with flavours to suit a more mature palate. Cafe Mocha is one such item, which is part of the ‘Otona mo Chocoball’ (~Chocoball for adults too) range.

Drawn in by the quirky wrapper illustrations and the promise of mocha and cinnamon, I bought this to have with afternoon coffee.

Initially I was pleased with my choice; the bag contained a generous number of chickpea-sized balls (I’d say between 15 and 20) and emitted a sweet aroma reminiscent of the coffee candy in Revels. The smell was promising, so it was with great anticipation that I took the first bite.

And…it was totally underwhelming. I could barely taste anything. The supposedly mocha-flavoured chocolate is waxy and bland and the biscuit center, mostly hollow, is no more than a crisp puff of air. The fluffy-looking center depicted in the package art is highly deceptive.

I tried allowing these to melt in my mouth in the hope that it would release more flavour, but it was like sucking on plastic, it feels as though the whole ball has been coated with oily, tasteless floor varnish which you have to dissolve to reach the vaguely milky, sweet substance underneath – I don’t think you can call it chocolate.

The dry, crisp biscuit core is equally devoid of flavour; there is not even a hint of malted milk or coffee or vanilla or anything that might perhaps have made Chocoball Cafe Mocha a little more palatable. Cocoa powder, coffee and cinnamon are all listed in the ingredients, but the fact that they place lower than powdered milk, dextrin and lactose is not very encouraging.

I felt cheated that I had used up both money and my daily sugar allowance on this awful product. Only my aversion to wasting food prevented me from simply throwing these straight in the bin and it’s certainly made me wary of sampling any more Chocoball. However, in light of my extensive positive experience of Morinaga products in the past, I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and chalk this down to being simply one miss after a long succession of hits. So don’t feel that you should avoid Morinaga, or even Chocoball, just steer well clear of this particular item.

2/10

Otona mo Chocoball Cafe Mocha 32g  172kcal

Oreo Chocolate Bar Strawberry Chocolat & Big Block Bonobon – オレオ チョコレートバー ストロベリーショコラ・ビッグ ブロック ボノボン

For times when you’re in need of just a little sugar hit, there’s nothing better than a mini chocolate bar, and the convenience stores have all kinds on offer at the moment, with strawberry being a notably prominent theme. Stopping by 7-eleven the other day, my eye was caught by the shiny ruby red, royal blue and hot magenta wrapper of this teeny 13g Oreo bar, made by Nabisco.

About the size of a typical piece of shortbread, this bar consists of a crumbly, slightly salted, bitter cocoa biscuit base (aka Oreo) topped with a pale pink strawberry-flavoured, pink-speckled white chocolate concoction, all drizzled with more baby pink chocolate. I’m gonna take a wild guess and say that this isn’t targeted at men…

Despite the packet’s claim that this is an ‘adult taste’, I can’t see that children wouldn’t appreciate it. The chocolate layer is super sweet and creamy but with a good tang of fruity sharpness that goes really well with the saltiness of the biscuit, and the center is shot through with syrupy strawberry sauce that contains real fruit concentrate (unfortunately difficult to make out in the picture) Strawberry powder produces the attractive speckled appearance.

I really loved this bar. While I don’t usually go in for such a girly palate when it comes to clothing, stationery etc, I found the pastel pink colours of this treat very appealing and there were positive connotations of strawberry milkshake and bubblegum. I loved the hint of acidity in the berry flavour and the Oreo cookie tasted excellent, as always. Also, at just 71kcal this needn’t be a guilty pleasure, even though it tastes like one.

8/10

I’d never tried Bonobon before, although I often come across it in its usual form, that of a large spherical candy (about the size and weight of a Lindor) filled with layers of wafer and chocolate cream. This chunky treat however is much simpler: Big. Block. Peanut. Choco – it does exactly what it says on the tin.

Given the simple packaging, I felt that this product was embracing the notion of cheap and cheerful, and I lowered my expectations accordingly, assuming that it would be the usual sticky-sweet, overly milky yet delicious, low-quality chocolate that you sometimes just crave.

The wrapper illustration makes the block appear rectangular, but in reality it is much shorter, almost square. The rich cocoa aroma that issued from within the plastic wrapper as soon I tore it open, left me pleasantly surprised, and the taste was similarly unexpected. It is nowhere near as sugary as I had supposed, and there is a mellow bitter-sweetness to it, that reminds me of Cadbury Bourneville.

Unfortunately, the peanuts let this product down, as they lack a good, toasty crunch and are in fact rather waxy and somewhat on the stale side. On the plus side, there is at least a generous distribution of nuts, which helps to keep the textures varied and provides an injection of salt to offset the sweeter chocolate.

I thought the thickness of the chunk was great – it’s something you can really get your teeth into – but it’s an average product on the whole. I might be tempted to buy it again though, just for the wonderful cocoa scent.

6/10

Big Block Bonobon  107kcal

Meiji Selection 8 Varieties – 明治セレクション おいしい定番８種類

Last week I decided to replenish my chocolate stocks with this Meiji selection bag that contains 8 of the most popular and simple Meiji products in single-serving packs.

Takenoko no Sato

Of all the candies in this selection, Takenoko no Sato is probably the only one that conveys any sense of ‘Japaneseness’, as the small, bullet-shaped bites resemble takenoko (bamboo shoots) – a popular ingredient in traditional cuisine.

A nugget of crumbly biscuit with a dense and buttery consistency is partially covered with milk chocolate molded into a layered design similar to a pine cone.

The biscuit is slightly salted, with helps to offset the sweetness of the chocolate. The chocolate is fairly thick in parts, so each bite feels substantial and fulfilling.

Kinoko no Yama

These charming mushroom-shaped snacks are similar in concept to the takenoko, but the ratios are rather different, with one solid piece of chocolate balanced atop a thin biscuit stem.

Also, the biscuit is drier and less salty, with a light malted flavour and the chocolate has a smoother exterior. Both Kinoko no Yama and Takenoko no Sato are available in a wide range of seasonal flavours, most recently including pumpkin, chestnut and strawberry.

Marble

Marble is basically Smarties by another name: sweet milk chocolate in a sugar shell. There are seven different colours although there is no actual variation of flavours, but the crunch of the shell is nice and crisp. Marble is also available in strawberry.

Meiji Bar

The most basic item in the assortment, this is a milky and sweet bar with a good creaminess.

The sweetness could be a little cloying in a larger portion, but the tiny serving – three or four bites at the most without resorting to rodent-style nibbling – is not too sickly. A very ordinary and admittedly rather cheap-feeling bar.

Strawberry

This miniature bar consisting of two squares, is made with the same milky sweet chocolate as in the Meiji bar.

The bubblegum-pink filling tastes like strawberry yoghurt, with a distinctive note of sour cream, and is a little grainy, as it contains some freeze-dried strawberry.

McVities Milk Chocolate Digestive

I was interested to try this pack, of which the selection contains only one, to see if it varies from the digestives available in England. Although it says milk chocolate it was less sweet than I was expecting, the kind of odd twilight zone between milk and plain that you normally find in cooking chocolate. The biscuit was a little drier and less grainy than usual digestives.

Pucca

I’ve never tried these before but I can see that they are a close relative of Koala no March: cute-shaped crispy wafer shells, which house a thimbleful of chocolate cream.

For me, this was the most disappointing item in the selection; the biscuit was very dry and the filling was oily and sickly.

Almond

Roasted almonds covered in sweet milk chocolate, what could be simpler?

The nut could have been more thoroughly toasted, I found it a little soft and oily. The serving size of three pieces seemed a little stingy, I think four of five would have been just right.

I liked that there were so many different varieties in this assortment, most selection packs I’ve come across contain only two or three different items. The strawberry bars and marble candies were good but on the whole the chocolate was a little too sweet for me. This would be great for a children’s party but it’s worth investing in something a little pricier for yourself.

6/10

Meiji Selection Bag

Daiso X Tirol Choco Fukkoku Tirol: Blue Cheese Choco – ダイソーXチロルチョコ 復刻チロル ブルーチーズチョコ

If you’re like me, and have a meaningless obsession with hunting down and trying every kind of Tirol, then you’ll know that it’s virtually impossible, as region-specific limited edition products are constantly being released, meaning that you’d either need to keep visiting every major city in Japan in continuous rotation to check for new items, or else establish a vast network of underlings across the nation to do the job for you. And even then, what about all those chocolates released before I even knew about Tirol, and now no longer available? Well, luckily from time to time an old classic is revived, giving people who missed it the first time around a chance to catch up.

Hundred yen shop giant Daiso collaborated with Tirol Choco to poll consumers and find the top three out-of-production flavours that they wanted brought back. Blue cheese came in at number one, followed by peanut crunch and chocolate tart, and as a result Daiso produced this small 8 piece bag.

The small chunks are a pale creamy colour, dotted with minute green flecks of dried parsley, with a distinctive cheesy scent, that is strong but not overbearing, like a freshly opened packet of Parmesan.

The primary flavour is very odd – there’s no other word for it: it’s cheesy. Not a mellow, matured flavour like cheddar, but an unapologetically bold sour milk flavour, like that of a curd cheese. As the initial tang of cheesiness subsides, salt and a herby hint of parsley quickly make their way to the foreground, followed lastly by the oily uber-sweetness of low-grade white chocolate.

Now this may all sound horrific, and I’ll admit that on my first tasting I wasn’t sure what to make of this bizarre melange of flavours, but by the time I came to the third pale white chocolate square I was hooked. The contrast and progression of tastes is complex but it works; the saltiness counters the fermented dairy notes, and is in turn countered by the sweet chocolate, and thus everything balances out.

Adversely, when it comes to texture Blue Cheese is relatively simple. Each square looks like a solid block of chocolate but the cross-section of a chunk reveals that within the thick outer layer of white chocolate is a center with a crumbly texture, similar to a hard cheese like Parmesan.

While my writing may not have done much to entice you, I seriously recommend trying this unusual product for yourself, before it disappears all over again.

8/10

Daiso X Tirol Choco Fukkoku Tirol Blue Cheese Choco 8 pcs   ￥108  39kcals/piece

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