Japanese Kitkat Bars

These awesome Kitkat bars have been reviewed by almost everyone under the sun but why the hell not throw myself into the fray yea~?  They're crazy delicious and if you can definitely try to get your hands on some.  They cost a pretty penny, unfortunately; at the Narita Airport these babies (the small boxes) sell at Y800 a pop.  That's roughly $8-9 which is a lot considering that each small box comes with only 2 packages of 2 kitkat bars each that are only as long as your index finger.  The big box at the top came with 6 little packages of 2 kitkats each.  Luckily, my friend was nice enough to bring these back as a gift from Japan for me but I feel awful cuz I had no idea that they cost an arm and leg at the time :\ ah well, at least they are fun to eat!


The macro function on my camera is awful so my apologies :\ Starting at the top....

Yokohama Berry Cheesecake (ストロベリーチーズケーキ)  
Apparently this is a rare LE edition flavor.  It's got a delicate strawberry flavor with a white chocolate coating.  I'm not sure where the cheesecake flavor is but I can say it's a freaking yummy kitkat.  The crunch of the wafers is exactly that of an American kitkat but I swear the white chocolate coating is creamier, richer, and smoother than the chocolate coating of American kitkats. 9/10.

Framboise (フラボワーズ味)
Framboise is French for raspberry and boy does it taste like a raspberry. Consequently, I didn't like this one that much cuz I'm not a fan of that fruit. BUT I will say it is a very unique, tangy flavor that pairs well with the milk chocolate coating.  To me this is a mere 3/10 because I dislike the very strong, almost sour raspberry taste but as an overall piece of candy that ought to be tried is a 6.5/10.

P.S. This is a much better picture of this kit kat. Macro hates me.

Semi Sweet Chocolate
Being unable to read Japanese I thought this would be dark chocolate so semi-sweet was a pleasant surprise.  It had a faint bitter edge suitable for semi sweet chocolate.  It's not all that different from the American milk chocolate kitkat though except for the coating.  6/10 cuz it's not "that" special.

 Sakura Matcha
I really liked this one.  It's got a green tea flavored white chocolate coating with a "sakura" flavor between the wafers.  Sakura is a cherry blossom I believe, so I assume they were going for what they thought was the flavor of a cherry BLOSSOM not a cherry b/c it sure didn't taste like a cherry.  It was  lovely, mild fruit (not strawberry) flavor that I think blended well with the green tea.  Some might think this is a little too sweet but I love sweet stuff so to me this was one of my favorites.  It had the familiarity of matcha and white chocolate with a hint of something indescribable...the cherry blossom I suppose~ It's also a very pretty light green color xD 9.5/10

Raspberry & Passion Fruit
Eh, maybe this is my anti-raspberry bias coming out but this dark chocolate coated kitkat was even more raspberry-ish than the Framboise.  It even smelled like raspberry. This time the raspberry was even more sour/tangy because of the dark chocolate.  In its favor the raspberry flavored creme in the wafers give an amazing kick of (raspberry) flavor - it's just so strong.  There is a tart aftertaste that lingers and is the ultimate reason I didn't enjoy this kitkat.  I don't know what passion fruit tastes like so I can't judge that. For those who like dark chocolate, raspberries and tart flavors this kitkat is for you. For me 2/10.  As a candy bar, for it's creativity, a 7/10 since raspberry + dark chocolate isn't that unusual but the passion fruit is a nice touch.

Royal Milk Tea
Ohh, I really liked this one.  It actually tasted like milk tea, though a tad sweeter, probably from the white chocolate coating. Not much to say about this one except melikes :) The only con is that this is a very one note flavor kitkat, no subtlety or complexity in flavor. 8.5/10.

Green Tea (Matcha)
At first bite the green tea is very strong but the white chocolate sweetness quickly overwhelms the subtlety of the green tea flavor.  It certainly is a very green tea-ish flavored kitkat but it's actually overwhelmingly sweet, even for me.  I just feel like they poured as much matcha powder they could into the creme and white chocolate coating as they could without it granulating.  Hmmm...I honestly expected more and like the Royal Milk Tea, it's a very one note flavored kitkat.  For green tea flavored kitkat I'd actually direct you to the Sakura Matcha kitkat.  So it is a yummy SWEET kitkat but one I'd get sick of very quickly.  6/10 (mostly out of sheer disappointment).

So far, the Sakura Matcha and Yokohama Cheesecake is my favorites~ :) Overall, though these were so much fun to eat - an adventure for the tastebuds :D!!