Kawagoe Baked Sweet Potato Kit Kat-regional limited edition

I have an announcement to make.

Drumroll please...

dundundundundun

I have tried every Regional Limited Edition Kit Kat available.

That's right. Thanks to extensive travel this past year, helpful friends, and the internet I have tried every specialty flavor from Annin Dofu to Shinshu Apple to Yubari Melon. I think I missed the Intense Kinako from the Tokyo area but it's no longer available so I'm not counting it. I've ftried every one on the page today, Finishing up with the Kawagoe Sweet Baked Potato Kit Kat today.

The Kawagoe Sweet Baked Potato Kit Kat is the third time I've tried a sweet potato Kit Kat but so far it's been the best. Someone at Nestle heard my plea that they should make a Kit Kat that tasted like my mom's sweet potato casserole she makes for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

The Sweet Baked Potato Kit Kat has 69 calories in each mini bar. I bought mine from NapaJapan but if you're traveling in Japan you can find it in the Saitama area. The bar was made with white chocolate and was a light yellow color. It smelled like brown sugar and while it tasted like sweet potato it was heavy on the brown sugar in the flavor department as well. Not that I'm complaining. Like I said, it tastes just like my mom's sweet potato casserole. While I don't mind the purple sweet potatoes, the color for is enough to make me smile while eating them, I still prefer the orange yams. And this Kit Kat tasted more like them than the purple sweet potatoes.

Too bad that these are expensive to order online - one cost $2.49 because I would have loved to try more. I recommend trying them if you can get your hands on them.

Final Score: 8

Le Lectier Kit Kat - Niigata Limited Edition

The Le Lectier Kit Kat is another example of how Japanese people like to randomly throw French phrases around. Although if you sound out the katakana next to it on the packaging you come out with "lu le ku chi e" which sounds nothing at all like French. Although to be fair my own French accent was mocked first in French class and later in France so I can't judge. Also I'm going to stop saying The Le Lectier Kit Kat because that's redundant n'est ce pas?

Anyway for those not in the know Le Lectier is a popular pear grown in Niigata making it a prime candidate for a regional limited edition. This one is not sold in the Nestle E-shop so the only way to get your hands on some is to make your way to Niigata or hope that napaJapan has some in stock. (I'm in Ohio so I got mine from napaJapan.) When it comes to fruit the pear is pretty near the bottom of the list of favorites and I never could get excited when we got pear halves with school lunch in Tahara but I tried not to let my pear hating ways get in the way of enjoying this Kit Kat.

Le Lectier Kit Kat has 69 calories and is made with white chocolate. Upon opening it there was a strong artificial pear smell. Fortunately the artificial only extended to the smell and not to the taste. This mini had a nice smooth pear flavor to it that was pretty tasty. It was concentrated in the chocolate but it was there in the wafers as well. It was very sweet but not sickening. I'm not a huge fan of white chocolate but this one was definitely better than some of the other incarnations. I can wholeheartedly recommend Le Lectier if you can get your hands on it. And if you've tried a real le lectier pear let me know if they're truly better than your standard pear. I'm curious.

Final Score: 8

Roasted Tea Kit Kat - Kyoto Limited Edition

I drank tea before I went to Japan but living there really upped the ante for me when it came to tea-drinking. Now that I'm back in the States I drink a lot more coffee than anything else. I miss the always available pot of green tea in the teacher's room. But luckily I have tea flavored Kit Kats to remind me of better times. Although to be honest I have never had this type of tea. Hochija tea is made with roasted green tea leaves and is a specialty in the Kyoto region. Although I like green tea I don't usually like green tea Kit Kats. This one however was an exception.

The Hochija Roasted Tea Kit Kat is 69 calories and is a regional special limited edition from in and around Kyoto. I assume you can buy it only in that region or you can do what I did and get it on NapaJapan. It is made with white chocolate that is tinted a light brown. It smells like tea and the chocolate tastes like somewhat like tea but when you add in the wafers it tastes just like a chocolate wafer cookie.

You know what I'm talking about - those wafer cookies that have creme between them and come in vanilla, chocolate, or strawberry. My grandpa loves them. Well this Kit Kat tastes just like a chocolate wafer cookie so either the wafers in those cookies taste just like Hochija roasted tea or Nestle didn't do a great job of replicating the taste. Since my tea experience doesn't extend to Hochija I can't really say.

What I can say is that it was a pretty good Kit Kat and definitely the best of any tea flavored ones I've tried. If you're a fan of the Green Tea Kit Kats then this might not be your cup of tea (did you see what I did there?) but otherwise I recommend you try them if you can.

Final Score: 7

Yawata Five Spice Kit Kat - Nagano Limited Edition

Nestle does not make it very easy to get my hands on some of these regional limited edition Kit Kats. I travel quite a bit but I'm loathe to plan according to my Kit Kat needs. Lucky for me though I have friends who also travel and are kind enough to bring me back Kit Kats as omiyage. That's how I got my hands on this chili flavored Kit Kat from Nagano. You can buy the Nagano Apple Kit Kats online but this offering is only for those traveling through the region. My friend Marie happened to be there back in March and brought me back a mailer box.

The best part about this Kit Kat? It's not that it's dark chocolate although that is a bonus. No it's the name which when I plug into babelfish comes back as "The Five Conspirators." Not one, not two, but five different spices have conspired to bring you this hot Kit Kat. This is a candy bar for spies or corrupt Japanese politicians.

The Five Conspirators Kit Kat comes in a box of 5 minis (or a larger box of 12) and each is 67 calories. They are made with dark chocolate and like the Chili Kit Kat balls they don't smell like anything other than chocolate. The spicy kick is lurking beneath the surface. It's there though. It comes on slow, building in heat. I liked these better than the Chili Kit Kat balls though. The dark chocolate is a better compliment to the spiciness. I've also found that the Kit Kat Little are more concentrated in flavor so my sensitive palate handles the heat better when it's more diffused throughout the larger Kit Kat mini.

In the end I really enjoyed these minis. If you are ever in the neighborhood of Nagano then I wholly recommend searching these out. Or if not there's always hope that maybe someone will offer them online.

Final Score: 8

Cherry Kit Kat - Yamagata Limited Edition

From what I can tell the Cherry Kit Kat is less common than a Strawberry Kit Kat but only slightly. I missed the Cherry Kit Kat season last year but I did like the Sakura Matcha Kit Kat released earlier this year.

There are two cherry seasons here in Japan. The first is in April when everyone has flower viewing parties and gets drunk under the cherry blossoms. Later comes the cherry-eating season. Now is the time to get cherries. I think the cherry blossoms are beautiful but I much prefer to eat cherries and I spend a lot of money this time of year buying them. (Fruit is soooo expensive here!) When I saw that there was a Cherry Kit Kat I was both excited and wary. I like real cherries too much to waste time with fake cherry flavoring.

I bought these two precious minis online. For the longest time they were listed but out of stock but with regular and diligent checking I was finally able to score some. You can't buy these from the Nestle E-shop. You have to hope Napa Japan has some in stock or make your way to Sendai in order to try this one.

Each mini is 69 calories. They are made with white chocolate and colored a dark pink color. They have an artificial cherry smell to them. Upon tasting them, the chocolate itself has a slight cherry taste to it. If it was just that it would be too sweet to be good but the cherry creme between the wafers has a tartness that rounds out the sweetness of the chocolate. It is an artificial cherry taste to be sure but it's not so bad. It reminds me of a cherry icee but without the awkward red lips afterward.

Although I would rather have the real thing over this Kit Kat bar it was nice to finally try a Cherry Kit Kat. If you can get your hands on it then I recommend giving it a taste but I wouldn't go all the way to Sendai just to try it.

Final Score: 6.5

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

Strawberry Kit Kat - Tochigi Limited Edition

A few weeks ago I took a trip up to Nikko where I ran across yet another regional limited edition. Usually I get excited about finding rare and hard to get Kit Kats when I travel but this time I actually questioned whether I should buy these or not.

Why? Well because this will be the FIFTH strawberry Kit Kat I have tried since I started this blog. This blog is still pretty young. It's been less than a year since I started on my crazy quest to try every Kit Kat Japan has to offer and already I have tried four other strawberry versions. But in the end I did buy them because you can't buy them online or find them in regular shops so if I was going to do it then it had to be while I was in Tochigi Prefecture visiting Nikko.

As a regional limited edition this particular Strawberry Kit Kat came in a box of 12 minis that cost 810 yen. Each mini is 68 calories. They are made with white chocolate and have an artificial strawberry scent to them. The taste is also artificial and this incarnation lacked the sour note on the end that redeemed the white chocolate versions that came before it. Without that little bit of sourness this bar was too sweet for me and because of the plethora of other strawberry Kit Kats out there this one was underwhelming.

I wholly suggest visiting Nikko but while there you should pass on the Strawberry Kit Kats and instead try the age yuba manju (a more traditional Japanese treat that is crispy, salty, and sweet all at once.)

Final Score: 5

Check out my other Strawberry Kit Kat reviews here:

Strawberry Kit Kat (circa May 2009)
Strawberry Cheese Cake Kit Kat
Sparkling Strawberry Kit Kat
Strawberry Kit Kat (circa January 2010)

Citrus Blend Kit Kat - Shikoku Limited Edition

We have these convenient stores in Ohio called United Dairy Farmers (or UDF for short) that also have ice cream counters that sell UDF brand ice cream and a variety of malts and shakes. My favorite is the Orange Freeze - orange sherbet and orange juice. It's also the reason why I tend to gain 5 pounds whenever I go back to the States. I used to make a similar version in my college cafeteria with orange sherbet, orange juice, and a little bit of Sprite. It's a great summer treat - cold, sweet, and refreshing.

So why am I waxing nostalgic for UDF Orange Freezes? Well, if you put one of the Citrus Blend Kit Kats in the freezer and then ate it then you would have an Orange Freeze in Kit Kat form. I didn't expect to like these as much as I did, but eating one (or 3) made me really wish they had UDFs in Japan.

The Citrus Blend Kit Kat is a regional limited edition from Shikoku. Although I have been traveling around quite a bit lately, I still haven't made it to Shikoku but lucky for me this was offered online at the Nestle E-shop. For 840 yen I received a box of 12 mini Kit Kats. They are made with white chocolate and are colored a bright bright orange despite the fact that they are flavored not only with orange but with lemon and lime. Each mini is 69 calories. They have a generic citrus smell to them and the chocolate itself only has a very mild orange-y flavor. Most of the punch comes in the creme and the wafers. The orange flavor is not authentic but it's not bad either. Although orange is the dominant flavor, it remains true to its name and lemon and lime are mingled in there as well. They mix well in your mouth and then it ends on a sour note that is very refreshing in its own way.

I'm still not a huge fan of the citrus-y flavored Kit Kats but if I had to choose my favorite of the bunch then this would definitely be it. I've said this before but I seem to like the citrus with white chocolate over the milk chocolate. I think the sourness of the citrus blends better with the sweetness of the white chocolate. So even though I won't tear through this box of Kit Kat minis but I don't think I will have trouble finishing them off eventually. I'd rather have an orange freeze though...

Final Score: 7

Apple Kit Kat - Shinshu Limited Edition

Recently I went back online to the Nestle E-shop and picked up some more regional special editions - this time from Shinshu. I should note that there are a lot more regional special editions out there that are NOT offered anywhere online. The only way I am going to get them is to get off this peninsula and buy them wherever they are offered locally. So Sendai and Nagano have suddenly made my list of places in Japan I want to see so I can pick up the Sakura Kit Kat, Zunda Kit Kat, and what I can only determine is another spicy Kit Kat.

But until I make more travel plans then I will make do with the ones I can find online, starting with the Apple Kit Kat. This one comes from Shinshu, which after some very superficial internet research I learned is the old name for the mountainous region in Nagano. The regional special edition Kit Kats come in a box of 12 which looks very nice opened and plays very well into the Japanese idea of omiyage or bringing food back to the office for those poor suckers who had to stay behind and work. They tend to try to take the region's specialty food (and every town has one even my small town has its special omiyage - clam flavored rice crackers) and turn it into a Kit Kat flavor.

Nagano is known for apples and so it makes perfect sense that their regional special edition Kit Kat would be apple flavored. The Apple Kit Kat is made with milk chocolate and has 66 calories. I was already inclined to like it because of the milk chocolate but the subtle apple flavoring made this a truly enjoyable snack. Both the smell and the flavor are mellow and mix well with the chocolate. The apple taste is similar to that of the Apple Vinegar Kit Kat but without the sour note on the end. Since these are made with milk chocolate rather than white the sour end note isn't really needed. The taste is somewhat artificial but of all the different fruity varieties I have tried it comes the closest to the real taste of an apple. If you are a true apple aficionado then you might prefer the Apple Vinegar since the apple flavor shines through more with that bar but for me I prefer this more subtle milk chocolate version.

Final Score: 7.5


Check out the list of Regional Special Edition Kit Kat varieties here!

Corn Kit Kat - Hokkaido Limited Edition

I like corn. I like corn a lot and corn on the cob is one of my favorite things to eat in the summer. It's also one of those things that is strangely more delicious here in Japan. I'm still not sure what they put on it but whether I'm buying it at a festival booth, out of the back of an old lady's van, or eating it in school lunch, I love love love corn.

And since the Roasted Sweet Potato Kit Kat was surprisingly good I had pretty high hopes for the Corn Kit Kat. Corn is sweet. It's delicious. Thus it should be good as a Kit Kat. I would be very very wrong.

I got this box of Kit Kats as omiyage from my Japanese friend Marie (mah-ree-ay) who bought it in Hokkaido. It's another mailer box that came with 5 Kit Kat minis and let me say that that was four Kit Kats too many. Each one is 68 calories. They are white chocolate but colored a nice buttery yellow color. They smell very nice - a mix of white chocolate and sweet corn.

But as nice as they smell, they taste horrible. I gagged on the first bite. It was all I could do to finish one mini. Normally, I eat at least two when I'm writing a review but the thought of eating another one was unthinkable. It tasted exactly like buttered corn. There's even a hint of salt at the end. And while that sounds good when I'm thinking of summer barbecues it is not good when I'm thinking of chocolate. The texture was all wrong. My brain tasted buttered corn and expected crunchy goodness and instead it got creamy chocolate with wafers. In this instance, Nestle went too literal with the taste, way way too literal. I think a milk chocolate bar with a hint of sweet corn might actually taste good but the Corn Kit Kat went too far. I cannot recommend this Kit Kat to anyone and now I have four Kit Kats sitting in my kitchen that I will NOT be eating.

Final Score: 2

Yubari Melon Kit Kat - Hokkaido Limited Edition

Japan is obsessed with brand names. Even certain fruits and other food items can be more expensive if they have the right name on the label. And I'm not kidding when I say expensive. A friend of mine tried strawberries that cost $10 a piece this weekend. I've seen mangoes advertised at 8,000 yen for one mango. That's $80! A melon from nowhere, Japan will sell for a lot cheaper than a melon from Yubari, Japan. The average price for the Yubari label is $60-$150. More expensive ones will set you back $200. The record price for a Yubari melon...$20,000!!! I sure hope it was covered in platinum.

The truth is that I never used to be a big melon fan. I would eat cantaloupe when my mom would buy it but too often it was pretty dry and disappointing. And I never touched the honeydew melon that was completely void of any taste that came in institutional fruit salads. But that was before I came to Japan - land of $200 melons. If you are going to charge 20,000 yen for something it better be good...damn good in fact.

Actually even the 1,000 yen ones are pretty amazing. It helps that my town is famous for melons. If you feel like spending some serious cash on a melon you can get one that was grown in a box so that it comes out square. Or if you're like me you're content with the round ones as long as it's so juicy you have to eat it standing over the sink (and they usually are.) I usually get a couple free during melon season thanks to my many farmer friends. I've even become a huge fan of Suntory's melon soda even though I've been informed that only kids drink it. Japan's melons are sugoi oishii.

That being said, I've never had a Yubari melon and because I'm frugal and don't think laying out a $100 for some melon is a good idea I'm going to guess that the closest I'm ever going to get to eating one is this regional limited edition Kit Kat. Too bad too because if they are anything like Tahara melons then I would be very happy to eat one. As it was the Yubari Melon Kit Kat was an okay substitute.

I got this box as omiyage from a friend who went to Hokkaido during winter vacation. It's another box designed to be sent through the post with five minis inside. Each mini is 66 calories. The first thing I noticed about them was that they are made with milk chocolate. If you are a regular reader of this blog then you know that I much prefer the milk chocolate over white so combined with my new found love for melons I was very excited to try this Kit Kat.

Upon opening the wrapper I could instantly smell melon. It smelled slightly artificial - like a melon soda - but it wasn't off putting. It had a very strong melon taste - more like cantaloupe than the green melon flavor you get with soda or other melon flavored sweets, which makes sense since Yubari melons are very similar to cantaloupes with an orange flesh rather than a green one. The chocolate has only a very slight melon flavor so I assume most of it is concentrated in the creme. I did note that the chocolate was nice and creamy in these bars, much more like a classic chocolate Kit Kat. Overall the bar was not too sweet. It was just the right balance of melon and chocolate.

I'll admit right now that I ate all 5 minis in one sitting. In part because I've just started working out again and that usually sends my appetite through the roof and in part because they were so delicious. It makes me sad actually to think that I don't have any more left to try, (until I remember the four Kit Kat varieties in my kitchen and several more recently ordered via the internet.) If you get a chance to try these definitely take it. And if you ever try a real Yubari melon then let me know! I want to know what a $200 melon actually tastes like.

Final score: 8.5

Purple Sweet Potato Kit Kat - Okinawa Limited Edition

I've mentioned before that one of the best parts about having a candy review blog is not only that you have a great excuse for eating a lot of chocolate (not that I've ever needed one) but that people start giving you candy. I recently got three boxes of Kit Kats as omiyage from friends.

This was another "mailer" souvenir box that came from my friend Kaoru. Although she delivered it by hand rather than mailing it since she just lives down the street from me. She got to go to Okinawa AND Hawaii this fall and was kind enough to bring me back souvenirs. The Purple Sweet Potato Kit Kat is a limited edition from Okinawa because these potatoes are native to that island. It's not exactly a unique flavor as you can see here and here, but it is a delicious one.

The box comes with 5 Kit Kat minis and is designed to be sent through the mail. Each mini is only 69 calories, made with white chocolate. Purple sweet potatoes really are purple - inside and out - and this Kit Kat strives to replicate that deep purple color. It's not quite the same hue but close enough. It smells strongly of sweet potatoes and with sweet potato flavor in the chocolate and creme it achieves a nice sweet potato taste as well.

I liked it. It was another great snacking experience from Nestle. But other than the color it was very similar to the Roasted Sweet Potato Kit Kat that I reviewed back in the fall. The Roasted Sweet Potato Kit Kat was maybe a touch sweeter than this one. It's hard to remember the finer details in taste, but in essentials this was the same flavor. You can do different variations on coffee and strawberry but there doesn't seem to be much to do with sweet potatoes. Maybe throw in some cinnamon and nutmeg and call it sweet potato pie? It makes me more confident than ever that I made the right decision not to buy the other sweet potato regional limited edition.

But despite the repeat in flavor it was one that I really liked so I don't think I'll have any problem finishing these off. Thanks again Kaoru for the great omiyage!

Final Score: 8

Green Tea Kit Kat - Kyoto Limited Edition

I've reviewed the Green Tea Kit Kat once before. That one came in a mixed bag of minis and wasn't my favorite. This one came from a box of Limited Edition Kit Kats from Kyoto. Now I know there are different kinds of green tea. There is the really thick kind that looks like pea soup and is served in a bowl and tastes bitter but goes well with sweets. And there is the less thick kind served in cups. But please don't ask me which is which when it comes to these Kit Kats because I have no idea. I've tried looking it up but my Japanese kanji skills are failing me. If anyone knows better than me then please chime in.

Like the other regional limited edition boxes this had 12 minis in it, each only 69 calories. My friend Kristin bought these in Kyoto Station when she was here visiting me and was nice enough to let me have two in order to review. (Apparently I am breaking a tie in her office as to whether these are good or not.)

I wasn't a huge fan of the first Green Tea Kit Kat I tried. It didn't really taste like green tea and it had a very unpleasant aftertaste. This one, however, wasn't as bad. It smelled of matcha and it had a darker green tint to it than the last one. Despite the extra green dye it had a milder green tea taste than the last one. It was very sweet thanks to the white chocolate and the matcha taste was very mellow. It almost smelled more like green tea than it tasted. There was none of the bitterness that I associate with a bowl of tea here in Japan. But that's not a bad thing. You always have a sweet with your tea and in a way you could say that Nestle has combined both the tea and the sweet into one package. I wish it had been a little bit more bitter but I feel that way about most of the white chocolate Kit Kat.

Overall, it was a nice snacking experience. I'm not sure I would buy another box and I'm glad I only had the two to eat but it was much better than the last Green Tea Kit Kat I tried so thanks Kyoto for another delicious Kit Kat!

Final Score: 7

Yuzu Kosho Kit Kat - Kyushu Limited Edition

So what is a Yuzu Kosho Kit Kat? It's Yuzu Citrus and Japanese Chili Flavor and it's a limited special edition from the island of Kyushu. Yuzu are small yellow citrus fruits that are similar to a mikan orange or grapefruit. The juice and rinds are used in many different recipes but I was told by the little old ladies giving them to me not to eat them like I would eat an orange. Instead they said I should put them in my bath to ward off colds. The traditional time to do this is the night of the winter solstice and it's supposed to bring you good luck and keep you healthy. I can't say if that's true or not because my yuzu are still in the kitchen waiting to be used up, but it's definitely yuzu season because everywhere I look there are yuzu products being offered. My favorite is a hot yuzu and honey drink.

Yuzu Kosho is a spicy sauce made with yuzu, green or red chili peppers, and salt. You can see all three pictured on the box of the Yuzu Kosho Kit Kat. I've not run into this in any cuisine I've tried but I would love to taste it. Japanese food isn't really known for being spicy so anything with a little more kick would be a welcome treat. This Kit Kat certainly had more kick than usual.

Like the other Regional Limited Edition Kit Kats this came in a box of 12 for 810 yen. Each mini is 67 calories. I bought this particular box in the train station in Kumamoto near the beginning of my trip. The Yuzu Kosho Kit Kat is made with a little bit darker chocolate than a regular Kit Kat - so right there it's already winning with me. It smells more like dark chocolate than it did of yuzu. The yuzu flavor is concentrated more in the chocolate and the chili is between the wafers. It starts off with a nice chocolate citrus flavor and ends with a spicy note. The more you eat the more the spiciness builds up.

I mentioned with the Wasabi Kit Kat that I would be interested in trying other spicy varieties of chocolate and this Kit Kat certainly fits that bill. Unlike the Wasabi Kit Kat, I really liked this one. Maybe it was the dark chocolate. Or maybe the addition of the yuzu to balance out the flavor or maybe it wasn't as spicy as the Wasabi Kit Kat but I really liked the Yuzu Kosho Kit Kat. It was the perfect blend of sweet and spicy.

Because I bought this towards the beginning of my trip I started putting one or two in my purse to snack on throughout the day while I did touristy things in Aso, Beppu, and Fukuoka. Usually I have trouble getting through these larger boxes but I only have one of these left! If you get a chance to try these I say you take it.

Final Score: 8

Strawberry Cheesecake Kit Kat - Yokohama Limited Edition

I recently took a trip up to Tokyo to visit a friend. I warned her before I came that I would be hunting Kit Kats so she wasn't surprised when I insisted on going in every conbini we came across. Although a fat lot of good it did me since I didn't find a single one I didn't already have. I had better luck in the train station though. They had lots of regional specialties on sale for those travelers looking for some last minute omiyage.

A few of them I had already tried, like the Soy Sauce Kit Kat and the Wasabi Kit Kat. And then there was the Sweet Potato Kit Kat that looked similar enough to the Roasted Sweet Potato Kit Kat that I didn't think it was worth the money to try it again. (If anyone has tried this one and wants to let me know if I made the right decision that would be great!)

But they did have Strawberry Cheesecake Kit Kat, which although it is doing very poorly in my poll, I just couldn't pass up. They actually had two choices available. The large box of 12 for 870 yen or a smaller box of 5 for 370 yen. The smaller box is actually made for mailing to your friends, which I think is a cute idea. I know I like getting candy in the mail!

The Strawberry Cheesecake Kit Kat is a specialty of Yokohama. With 69 calories a bar, this Kit Kat is another white chocolate Kit Kat but unlike the other strawberry varieties I've tried, it wasn't pink colored, just plain white. This is similar to how the Blueberry Cheesecake Kit Kat looked. Unlike the Blueberry Cheesecake Kit Kat though there was more of a noticeable strawberry taste although I still could do with a little more cheesecake flavor than what I got. What little there was tasted more like yogurt although it did a good job of balancing out the sourness of the strawberry flavor that I've tasted in other Kit Kat strawberry varieties. Overall it was a good snacking experience. I won't have any trouble finishing off my little mail pack. (Sorry friends you won't be getting any Kit Kats in the post anytime soon.)

Final Score: 7

Wasabi Kit Kat - Shizuoka Limited Edition

I was in Shizuoka two weekends ago and because I almost left my luggage on one train and had to sprint back to get it before it left without me, I missed my next train and had to hang around the station for an extra 30 minutes or so. And that's when I came across the Wasabi Kit Kat - a Shizuoka special.

Wasabi is known as the Japanese horseradish and has a strong flavor that can open your sinus cavities if you have a cold. I'm personally a fan. I like it with my sushi and sashimi. And apparently most of it is grown on the Izu peninsula in Shizuoka.

But while I like it with sushi, I never quite imagined it as a Kit Kat flavor. Although there is a precedent for adding spicy things to chocolate. There is Mexican Hot Chocolate, a favorite of my friend Kristin. You can buy bars of Hot Chili Pepper Chocolate. And then there's my hometown speciality - Skyline Chili - secret ingredients: cinnamon and chocolate.

The Wasabi Kit Kat comes in a box of 12 like the other regional specialties and each bar is 69 calories. They are light green in color. They smell sweet like white chocolate but with a hint of wasabi underneath. But while the scent is subtle the flavor is not. This Kit Kat doesn't pull any punches when it comes to the wasabi, with wasabi flavored chocolate and wasabi flavored cream between the wafers. The sweetness of the white chocolate and wafer battles it out in your mouth with the hotness of the wasabi. It's just shy of being too much wasabi. Any more and you'd be grabbing for your water.

For me, it was a little too much. If I had that much wasabi with my sushi I would probably dial it back a bit and I would have liked less here as well. In fact, I don't see myself finishing this box anytime soon. I didn't even finish the two bars I usually eat when writing a review. But it was definitely interesting to try the spicy and sweet combination. I sometimes complain that some of the crazy flavors of Kit Kat are too sweet but this definitely wasn't one of them. I would be interested in trying some more spicy chocolate combos.

What do you think? Do you like your chocolate spicy?


Final Score: 4

Soy Sauce Kit Kat - Tokyo Limited Edition

After several weeks of looking at it in my kitchen, I finally broke down and tried the Soy Sauce Kit Kat. I think this might be the most disgusting sounding Kit Kat I have tried so far. Luckily, it was not the most disgusting tasting (the Rose Kit Kat still maintains that honor.) That being said, I think I will keep my soy sauce for dipping my sushi in or pouring over my fried rice.

The Soy Sauce Kit Kat is another regional limited edition sold only in the Tokyo area or online. I bought mine online for 810 yen plus shipping. Each box comes with 12 mini Kit Kats and a little description of the area they are supposed to represent, (which I can't read because my Japanese is bad.)

Like most of the strange flavored Kit Kats this one is white chocolate. It had a very generic white chocolate smell - very sweet and with no detectable soy sauce smell. The actual soy sauce flavor was very very very slight and concentrated in the wafers. In fact, I had to take several bites to make sure I was even tasting any soy sauce. It certainly wasn't as salty as the real thing can be but I guess having a more intense soy sauce flavor might push these into the inedible category.

These are definitely a novelty flavor, and not something I would ever willingly eat again. Not that they were bad just that they were so underwhelming and bland that I would rather have something better when it comes to snack time. Some commenters have mentioned that they had a maple syrup-ish flavor to them and I can taste that, but it was just too sweet for me. If you like white chocolate then you might enjoy the little twist the soy sauce flavor adds but I won't be trying them again.

Final Score: 4

Miso Kit Kat - Tokkai Hokuirku Limited Edition

When I think of miso I think of miso soup. Or I think of the disgusting miso glazed fish I sometimes get in school lunch that makes my hands smell fishy and my breath bad for the rest of the day. I don't really think of Kit Kats. Until now of course with the Miso Kit Kat.

Although I should mention that miso is also used in sweets. Just not in the sweets that I am a fan of. Mochidango is sometimes covered in a thick miso glaze for instance so the jump to Kit Kat is not as strange as I first thought. But still...miso?

This is another regional limited edition from the Tokai area. The red miso or akamiso is popular in this area. When we have miso soup for school lunch it is almost always akamiso. Although that didn't really occur to me when I was making my online purchases. Almost immediately after ordering it online I had two different friends email me to tell me they had seen it in Nagoya and Toyohashi (basically not very far from where I live.) So I probably could have saved myself some shipping costs. Oh well.

This is another white chocolate Kit Kat. For 810 yen plus shipping I received a box of 12 minis. Once again on the inside panel there was a very nice description of what I can only imagine has something to do with either the Tokai region or the production of akamiso, maybe both. (I really need to bone up on the Japanese!) Each mini is 68 calories.

It had a strange smell, very sweet and kind of custardy. I'll admit to being a goof and sniffing the miso I had in the kitchen and comparing. It didn't really smell the same but I don't usually keep akamiso around (I prefer shiromiso) so that might account for the difference. As I said earlier I was thinking more miso soup than mochidango when I ate this so I was very pleasantly surprised. It was very sweet and reminded me of custard although it lacked the ending bitter note that the Custard Pudding Kit Kat had. The miso is already sweet and the combination with the white chocolate made it even more so. In the end, even with ice tea to wash it down, it was a little too sweet for me.

Final Score:5.5

Blueberry Cheesecake Kit Kat - Koshin Limited Edition

So if you follow this blog you'll know that recently I realized that not only are there Kit Kats to be found in my local supermarket and conbini but that there are special limited edition boxes that are only sold in certain cities/regions of Japan or on the internet. So I broke down, pulled up the Nestle E-shop in one tab and Babelfish in the other, and ordered me some strange regional Kit Kats. This is not one of them. I mean it is a regional limited edition, Koshin Limited, according to the box, I just mean it's not that strange of a taste. This is the consolation prize I allowed myself for actually buying Miso Kit Kats and Soy Sauce Kit Kats. If I was spending all that money then I felt that I should at least have one box of appetizing sounding chocolate on there.

Despite all that the Blueberry Cheesecake Kit Kat was a little disappointing. Maybe I had my hopes too high, after all blueberry cheesecake is pretty awesome (and blueberry cheesecake ice cream is even better.) But the Blueberry Cheesecake Kit Kat failed to deliver. For 810 yen plus shipping I got a very nice box of 12 mini Kit Kats. There's also a very nice description of the area it's from on the inside. Or at least that's what I imagine it says since I can't really read it. I pretend that it says something about a lake and mountains and delicious blueberries because that's what the picture on the box evokes, but really it could be about anything. They are 69 calories for one bar. It was white chocolate with a very very faint hint of a blueberry smell. The blueberry taste was just as mild and if I wasn't such a conscientious reviewer and been looking for it I might have missed it all together.

I would have liked a much stronger blueberry taste. And even some more cheese flavor would have been good too. In other words, it wasn't a bad snacking experience but it wasn't one to write home about either. Definitely not worth the hassle of ordering it online but I also won't mind serving it to friends with tea when they come to visit. (Just a note if you ever visit me you will almost certainly be served Kit Kats because I have to get rid of all these mini packs somehow. They will also feature heavily in Christmas presents this year too.) Final score is middling for being a less than creative flavor without really delivering on the flavor.

Final Score: 5

Kit Kat Special Release Map

Turns out I wasn't even looking for half the Kit Kats I should have been while traveling this past week. There are special release Kit Kats for certain cities and regions only. Check out this crazy map that shows where to find what and when. I might have been able to grab three of those in Tokyo alone. Although we did manage to snag some of the Green Tea Kit Kats that are especially for Kyoto.

Click here for a larger version

Of course they are also available on the internet if I want to pay 840 yen with shipping. I'm going to have to decide here soon how far I want to take this project. Do I stick with the general release Kit Kats and shop in my local conbinis or do I extend my search to internet shopping as well. Part of the fun is trying to find all the flavors in different stores and coming across ones I wasn't expecting to see. It's like a treasure hunt. But getting candy in the mail would be fun too. And really can I leave Japan next year without ever trying the Soy Sauce Kit Kat?

What do you think readers?