Kit-Kats: The Good

I have been a bad poster lately, but my greatest blogging sin has been neglecting to post my Kit Kat updates. I have over a dozen Kit Kats to introduce to the world (or the small amount of people who read this blog, whichever is more realistic), and so I've broken them down in three posts.

Behold, Part Primus: The Good. AKA, the Worth Buying, Hoarding, and Consuming at a Slow, Langorous and Enjoyable Pace.

First up is the kinako Kit Kat, which comes in both mini and BIG sizes. Kinako (きなこ) is soybean flour, made after the soybeans have been roasted. It's a little nutty in taste, comparable to not-so-salty peanut butter. There's a popular sweet treat called warabimochi that uses kinako - I've been told that in the Kansai area, it's sold from trucks like ice cream in the States, but I'm not sure how willing I am to believe it. Although, warabimochi is definitely delicious.

Anyway, as to the Kit Kat variety of kinako, it is also yummy, and I enjoyed it. It has a bit of an old-fashioned feel to it, almost nostalgic in a way. I imagine that it could be considered a comfort food of sorts. Most Japanese I've talked to about it absolutely love it and have fond memories of eating kinako sweets as children. They were all very pleased when I mentioned this Kit Kat.

This Kit Kat appears to be involved in the promotion of a concert or a band or something of the kind. I'm not entirely sure what, partly because I can't read most of it and partly because I was more interested in the flavor: sakuranbo (さくらんぼ), or cherry. As you can see from the box, the Kit Kat itself was a pretty pastel pink; it would be the perfect treat for a Breast Cancer Awareness function. If the packaging was different, of course. The flavor wasn't too powerful, just a subtle hint of cherry. I only saw this flavor in one convenient store, and I'm sorry I didn't buy more when I had the chance.

This is one of the most recent discoveries I've made in the ever-exciting world of Kit Kat flavors: mango pudding (マンゴ　プリン). I'm not a great fan of Kit Kats of amazing colors because they're white chocolate and therefore inferior, but I am enamored of the mango pudding's brilliant orange color. My camera did a poor job of capturing this wonderful shade of mango (with flash, without flash - it didn't matter). The taste is not so astounding, but it's yummy enough.

This is the remarkable ume soda (うめ　ソダ) flavor, which I had my doubts about. Not that I don't like ume soda, but it's not exactly something that you connect with Kit Kats. It has a somewhat bubbly feel to it, not unlike the effect of carbonation. The fizziness really made it that much tastier. It offset the unpleasantness of the whole white chocolate thing. This was another cheerfully colored Kit Kat, comparable to the green parts of the ume (plums) on the box. I fully intended to take a picture of the Kit Kat itself, but I forgot, and I haven't gotten around to buying another box.

This is a souvenir box of apple (りんご) Kit Kats, which I bought in Nagano. Apparently, Nagano-prefecture is somewhat famous for apples and grapes (see below - also, why, then are there no peanut Kit Kats in Chiba? Can I make requests?), so this is one of their omiyage sets. I adore apple Kit Kats. They taste so crisp and refreshing - just like apples! Okay, just like apples with chocolate, but there's nothing wrong with that.

This was another omiyage set from Nagano, flavored of the big purple grapes (ぶど) - not to be confused with those sissy little green "muscats from Alexandria." (need a refresher? they were in my first Kit Kat post) The muscat grape Kit Kat was made of white chocolate and mediocrity. There was nothing special about it. These, however, were milk chocolate and heavily scented and just downright marvelous. When a piece of chocolate makes you feel like you've just bitten into a juicy fruit, you know you have something special. This flavor has a firm spot in the top ten.

And thus concludes this portion of my Kit Kat update. Stay tuned for more.

P.S. to Heather (I know you're reading this): if you and the girls aren't practicing your kana, I'll be very disappointed!