Monday, May 17, 2010

Zunda Kit Kat - Yamagata Limited Edition

In the States the idea of a good dessert is something very sweet and chock full of calories. We like chocolate, ice cream, cakes, and frosting. You would never find a dessert in America that consists of a paste made by smashing up boiled soybeans and then putting that paste on balls of rice that have been beaten into a sticky consistency. But in Japan that's called Zunda Mochi. Sounds delicious, right?

I have never had Zunda Mochi or zunda anything for that matter although some light internet research shows that there are more zunda flavored products to be had. I will say that after eating the Zunda Kit Kat I am intrigued. I want to try more zunda if for no other reason than that zunda is really fun to say. Try it. Zunda! Zunda! Zunda!


Right, ok. So onto the review. The Zunda Kit Kat is a regional special edition hailing from Yamagata. I was resolved to try this before I left Japan even if that meant I had to hop a shinkansen to Sendai in order to get it but luckily NapaJapan saved me the trouble and finally got some in stock. Each Kit Kat mini is 68 calories. They are made with white chocolate and are a light green color. They smell very interesting, like edamame, salt, and chocolate.


But while the smell was intriguing the taste was underwhelming. The Zunda Kit Kat tasted mostly like white chocolate with only a hint of edamame. The edamame is there but the sweetness of the white chocolate overwhelms it. As I said before I've never had zunda so maybe some of the flavor of the edamame is lost when it's been smashed into a paste and maybe, just maybe, it's a good thing that the taste is subtle because a soybean flavored Kit Kat might be a bad idea but I was expecting more.

Overall, I was glad that this strange flavor didn't go the same route as the Corn Kit Kat and while it has sparked my interest in a traditional Japanese treat it's not something I would really want to eat again. What do you think? Have you had zunda or other zunda flavored snacks? Did you like it?

Final Score: 5

3 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm eating one as I type. I found your blog when I was searching for what a "zunda" actually was. I think it's delicious, personally. Although I see what you're saying about the overwhelming white chocolate taste. Perhaps I just like white chocolate? Anyway, love the site.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is my favorite Jen. Zunda Kit Kat is deliciously yummy.

    ReplyDelete