One of my childhood fav candy bars was KitKat. Basically 4 connected bars of wafers covered with milk chocolate, it was the perfect cookie/candy crossover to me. However when Twix came to the US — adding caramel to the basic KitKat setup — I switched loyalties. And then like most people as I got older my tastes changed again and I dropped both for higher quality chocolate — as this site amply documents.
And since I write about chocolate I get a lot of alerts and leads on everything chocolate. I started hearing about Japanese KitKats — how they were better than American KitKats and had a bunch of interesting flavors — about a decade ago. Because my interests skew local and artisan, I didn’t really pursue the topic — even when Cacaopod and I went to Japan.
That changed this past fall when Cacaopod saw an offer from Sugoi Mart of this super cute KitKat themed cooler filled with 60 KitKat mini-bars containing a mix of 10-20 Japanese flavors. The online store sells all sorts of Japanese snacks and collectibles and was also offering a 120-bar version for true Japanese KitKats fans but for us novices we went with the smaller (haha) option.
When our cooler arrived it contained 17 different flavors — as far as we could tell based on their different packaging. They were packaged for the Japanese market so the labels were all in Japanese except for a few instances of decorative English. Even after using Google Translate to decipher the writing some of them were still mysterious: “Kits, Individuality, Put the kit in your mouth” was what I got for the text on the first bar I “translated.”
Most of the bars did not say what they were even in Japanese. Luckily I found sites that list KitKat bars so I was able to pretty much figure out what was what based on how the graphics of my mini-bars were similar to the packages pictured. I also learned that there are seasonal KitKats, KitKats made with regional specialties, KitKats that are collaborations with other brands, double KitKats — meaning they are made with 2 types of chocolate, and adult KitKats — ones with less sugar than regular KitKats. My assortment included some of each.
This became the most research heavy piece I’ve done for CBTB. In addition to all my newly acquired KitKat knowledge I looked for artisan alternatives for the bars —first I searched this site for SFBA chocolate, then if I didn’t find anything I expanded my pool. My suggestions don’t match exactly — I don’t know of anyone making artisan KitKats — but if you’re interested in an upgraded chocolate experience I found some better chocolate with similar inclusions — and some are even crunchy!
I also compared a Japanese KitKat to an American one to see how they differed and if I would agree with the consensus opinion of Japanese KitKat superiority.
Adult Sweetness
This is the newest range of KitKats — grownup versions of KitKats, meaning darker/less sweet/more bitter chocolate. It’s called Otona No Amasa which literally means “sweetness for adults.”
Dark Chocolate
Of course I wanted to try the Dark Chocolate bar first — both as a baseline for what Japanese KitKats are like and to gauge the quality of their chocolate. The wrapper doesn’t actually say dark chocolate anywhere on it — and there were no ingredients lists on any of the mini-bars we received. The main Japanese text on this wrapper translated as “Kit, this is fine.” Okay… The smaller text below was the Otona no Amasa /Adult Sweetness tag, and the single line on the back translated as “Put the kit in your mouth” — a lot of the bars had this tagline.
Thus began my research. Finding the KitKat list at Japan Candy Store, I was able to match this wrapper to the Dark Chocolate package on the site. Between this and the KitKat section at Sugio Mart I was able to match my 17 varieties to their names and find out more about this whole other world of chocolate.
As for the tasting experience, the bar smelled like sweet chocolate and had a typical KitKat biscuit texture with a mildly dark chocolate taste instead of the classic milk chocolate. To me it seemed like the original chocolate KitKat flavor but with less sugar. Cacaopod and I both approved.
Artisan option
However the Adult Sweetness Dark Chocolate bar has got nothing on my SFBA recommendation. Formosa Chocolates’ Bopomofo Bar uses a much better couverture and it’s crunchy too — from crushed bits of puffed rice. It’s kinda cool the way it’s made — there are 2 layers, the bottom dark chocolate layer is textured with the crunchy puffed rice and the top is a super smooth flat dark chocolate slab decorated with gold phonetic Chinese characters — the bo-po-mo-fo of its name that Taiwanese kids learn so they can pronounce Chinese correctly.
The Adult Sweetness KitKat doesn’t mention cacao percentage — nor could I find it when I googled it but I think the Bopomofo Bar was probably higher at a still not bitter 65%.
Deep Matcha
The Otona no Amasa line includes a white chocolate bar flavored with Uji matcha — matcha that comes from Uji, a Japanese city famous for its long history of growing high quality matcha. According to what I read, the recipe for the Deep Matcha bar includes 2X the amount of matcha used in KitKat’s other matcha bars.
The main text on the solid green wrapper translated as “Kit, happiness comes to those who smile.” The smaller text says “Adult sweetness” and “strong matcha” — this KitKat was labeled with its flavor! No sleuthing required.
The bar was the darkest green color of all the matcha KitKats included in our assortment. It wasn’t bitter but it was less sweet than the other versions with a more matcha taste, especially the aftertaste. Cacaopod and I both thought this was the best matcha KitKat.
Artisan option
For my money though — and it will cost more — Deux Cranes’ Matcha Chocolate with Caramelized Sesame bar is more satisfying. It’s a vividly dark green white chocolate that has a small crunch from caramelized white sesame seeds.
The intense green color comes from all the matcha in it. That amount also gives it a distinct matcha aroma and immediate matcha taste. The matcha is strong bordering on bitter but the toasted sesame seeds and caramelization counter the bitterness. The KitKat bar is fine but this is definitely an upgrade. I especially recommend it if you love matcha.
The upgraded options I’m including are more expensive than the imported KitKats. With shipping we paid about $75 for the 60-piece variety pack and branded cooler bag. This single Deux Cranes bar is $14.
For that money you get a large handcrafted bar made with generous amounts of the best ingredients in an elegant box suitable for gifting — all of that costs money. Not to mention most artisan chocolatiers and chocolate makers use ethically sourced cacao which also costs more.
Strawberry
The 3rd Otona no Amasa bar we got was this no-name one. The sites identified it as Strawberry and described it as a white chocolate bar infused with Japanese strawberries. We also got KitKats made with strawberries from a specific region of Japan in the pack but I couldn’t find anything more specific about these strawberries.
I could smell the strawberries as soon as I opened the rather plain solid pink wrapper. The bar was light pink with visible flecks of darker pink that I assume were real bits of strawberry. All positive signs.
The bar had a tart strawberry flavor and wasn’t too sweet which tells me they use a pretty good white chocolate. Cacaopod and I agreed this had a better strawberry taste than the seemingly more special regional strawberry KitKats in the assortment.
Artisan option
My upgrade suggestion for the Adult Sweetness Strawberry bar doesn’t crunch — it crackles.
Socola Chocolatier
makes a Strawberry Cream Soda Bar that fizzes as it melts in your mouth due to popping candy. Remember Pop Rocks? That’s the experience.
There are no crunchy wafers inside this pink-tinted white chocolate but you can see it has the same visible flecks from the strawberries mixed into the chocolate as the Adult Sweetness KitKat.
What’s that? You can’t see the flecks because of all the slices of freeze-dried strawberries layered on top? Yes, Socola makes this next level with extra strawberry flavor. The abundant tart strawberries cut the sweetness of the white chocolate and along with the pop rocks make this a good, slightly unusual gift for strawberry & chocolate lovers.
Seasonal
This next group of KitKats are limited edition flavors that KitKat releases 4 times a year which incorporate seasonal ingredients.
Fall: Milk Tea
Maybe because it was fall when we ordered our KitKat pack we got 3 Fall KitKats — and 2 out of the 3 were favs. The Milk Tea KitKat was one of those 2. It started with the cute illustration on the wrapper of a happy teapot, cup, and tea leaves practically dancing across a pastel plaid background.
I was surprised when I opened the package to find a cream colored white chocolate — I had assumed it would be a milk chocolate bar. Ya know, because “milk” was in the name.
I wondered what tea would be used to make it milk tea flavor. Mystery solved as soon as I opened the package — it had the distinct aroma of Earl Grey tea — that perfumy citrusy black tea scent. It was very lemony tasting and slightly bitter. We thought it was excellent. Now we just have to wait for fall to roll around again to buy more.
Artisan options
If you go with my recommendations you won’t have to wait another year. These are available year round.
Maison Bouche has an Earl Grey Tea Milk Chocolate Bar. This is a milk chocolate bar — they also make the flavor in dark chocolate . I haven’t tried these yet but I’m sure they’re good. I have liked the Maison Bouche bars I have tried.
A local milk tea chocolate treat I have tried and loved is NeoCocoa’s Milk Tea Toffee Brittle — there’s your crunch! Like the KitKat it’s flavored with Earl Grey tea.
It’s not a typical toffee or brittle — there are no nuts, seeds, or nibs — the crunch comes from the caramelized sugar making up the brittle. This is a thin brittle coated on both sides with a delicious dark milk chocolate, Best of all is its distinct Earl Grey flavor.
I think it’s the best Earl Grey flavored chocolate I ever tasted and I highly recommend it.
Fall: Mont Blanc
The other Fall KitKat we loved was mysterious to us on a couple of levels: The packaging was the typical Japanese KitKat mini-bar — no English, no clear flavor illustration — and when we figured out the flavor we had no idea what it would taste like.
The wrapper was a pretty light green with the text written in an elegantly casual script and fall leaves scattered around it. Google Translate said, “Mont Blanc taste.”
Mont Blanc? Like the French dessert? I have never had that classic dessert because my focus is on chocolate and it has none. When I had the opportunity — Cacaopod and I saw the famous Mont Blanc pastry at the original Angelina on our first trip to Paris — we were there for their hot chocolate which is pretty intense. There was no way we could handle another sweet treat in one sitting. Priorities.
Now I wonder what we missed out on because based on the KitKat bar, Mont Blanc is delicious!
KitKat took the sweet chestnut and rum cream of a Mont Blanc pastry and made a chestnut and rum flavored white chocolate shell covering layers of chestnut paste and wafers.
The cream colored white chocolate Mont Blanc KitKat smelled delicious —like cotton candy and a little sweet almond.
The bar was sweet but tasted yummy with a caramelized butter frosting flavor — like birthday cake icing but better. It evoked memories of Christmas cookies.
Cacaopod and I both loved this new flavor discovery — and to our delight Berkeley Bowl was carrying bags of KitKat Mont Blanc mini-bars when we did this tasting so we snagged a whole bag of these treats. WYKYK
Artisan option
I don’t know if I have just been missing it or if nobody local has made chocolate flavored with chestnuts but I have absolutely nothing I can recommend you buy instead of the KitKats. Maybe our local authentically French pastry chef Catherine Delfino at 1.2.3 Chocolat could be enticed to create something. Seems like she could do something chestnutty with her classic chocolate mousse recipe. Or maybe French trained Japanese American chocolatier Michiko Marron-Kibbey at Deux Cranes could whip up a bar that riffs on Mont Blanc pastry.
If you can’t wait we do have a chocolate chestnut truffles recipe on our site from Chocopi AKA original CBTB chocolateer Martha Shibata. I never made these because I am not a cook and until this article I did not know how good chestnuts could taste in a dessert — let alone in chocolate — but Martha was enthusiastic about these.
Fall: Apple Pie
The last Fall KitKat in our assortment was Apple Pie — which for some reason was decorated with Halloween themed graphics on the wrapper?? I dunno, as American as apple pie and Halloween?
The bar was described as combining the flavors of apple and cinnamon in white chocolate with the crispy KitKat wafers substituting for pie crust.
The bar was an appealing light orange color and smelled like apples and cinnamon. It had that typical KitKat texture and the taste and texture combined reminded us of apple cinnamon cereal.
The creamy white chocolate added a slight a la mode aspect to the bar but also competed with the apple flavor so it tasted like a fruity cinnamon-y white chocolate — but not particularly apple. It’s not bad just not in the same realm as the other 2 Fall bars.
Artisan option
Locally I don’t have anything. Michael Mischer used to do an apple pie bonbon but he’s retired now. Maybe Michael Benner of Michael’s Chocolates could be convinced to do one?
He took over the other Michael’s factory store and people coming into the shop often confuse the 2 and ask for Michael Mischer treats — so much so that Michael B. decided to do enrobed Oreos too. Maybe we could get an apple pie bonbon or bar too if we lobby for it.
The closest artisan option I know of is from LA’s Compartés, makers of inventive unusual bars. They have a limited edition Apple Pie bar for the fall/winter season. It’s a white chocolate bar flavored with cinnamon and incorporating bits of apple pie, cinnamon streusel, and cinnamon baked apple. So it’s got lots of apple and cinnamon — and crunchy bits too!
I haven’t had this bar but from other Compartés bars I have tried I think it’s probably a better interpretation of apple pie in chocolate.
Winter: Orange Chocolate
We received 2 other seasonal KitKats — one for winter and one for spring. I wish we had gotten a summer bar too — they sound interesting. Like they have a series of salted KitKats and one of mint KitKats for the summer that I am curious about. I’d especially like to try the mint ones. I don’t know why in the US peppermint is considered a winter ingredient — it’s cooling and refreshing, perfect for hot days. Turns out Japanese people might think the same way.
No peppermint this time — the winter selection was Chocolate Orange which is a seasonal taste all over the world. In England they have Terry’s Chocolate Orange — the molded chocolate ball you “whack and unwrap” so it falls apart into individual “orange segments.” In Japan they have Chocolate Orange KitKats.
This started out as a limited edition flavor that was retired. Then KitKat held a “revival election” where it won first place and they brought it back — it continues to be one of the most popular KitKats.
KitKat’s Chocolate Orange bar has orange flavored milk chocolate covering wafers which are layered with orange cream.
It smelled sweet and tasted very orange. We thought it was one of the better fruit flavored KitKats but we preferred the plain dark KitKat to this one because of its high level of sweetness.
Artisan options
Orange chocolate is a popular flavor and a lot of local chocolatiers and chocolate makers have their versions of it. I don’t know of any that make one with wafers or crispy bits but here are a couple of orange chocolate bars I can recommend.
Casa de Chocolates has a 72% Valencia Orange Peel bar which has long pieces of candied orange peel that are soft enough to break with the molded squares on the back of the bar, so you always have some candied orange when sampling. It’s a very orange chocolate bar, and even thought it’s one of their darker bars, it’s not bitter.
They make the bar in 2 sizes. I like getting the small one pictured here along with a mix of their other bars made with flavors from around Latin America.
The Xocolate Bar has a wide range of inclusion bars including a candied orange bar. But if you like ginger and cinnamon with your orange — think Constant Comment tea — their Cinnamon Spice bar is better in my opinion. It’s not KitKat crunchy but it is chewy from the candied orange peel and ginger.
Depending on which inclusions are in — or not in — the piece you are eating, the taste ranges from a very chewy orange chocolate to chocolate covered candied ginger pieces to cinnamon flavored chocolate. It’s a fun chocolate orange+ bar.
The package graphics are delightful too. Combined with the fun taste/texture experience this is a very giftable bar.
Spring: Matcha Latte
The last seasonal KitKat in our pack was the Matcha Latte for spring — which combines Uji matcha with milk. The packaging was pretty — light green with sakura blossoms decorating the edges and some latte art for visual identification.
The outside of the bar was a lighter green than the Adult Sweetness Deep Matcha KitKat. The matcha flavored white chocolate covered wafers layered with matcha latte flavored cream inside.
While that sounds like a lot of matcha this is a mild matcha flavored bar. It’s not bitter and has a milky buttery taste along with the distinct matcha. It’s noticeably sweeter and less matcha tasting than the Deep Matcha bar. We still thought it was excellent. If you don’t like matcha bitterness, this is a good matcha chocolate bar to try.
Artisan option
No matter how good the Matcha Latte KitKat is, my artisan option is better: Socola Chocolatier’s Crispity Matcha White Chocolate Bar.
It gets its “crispity” crunch from bits of feuilletine sprinkled throughout the large bar. It’s a bright green bar from all the matcha and it’s not too sweet — the white chocolate serves mostly to tone down the matcha bite.
The combination of white chocolate and matcha — along with some milk and butter — make it taste like a good matcha latte — and the crunchy bits add a cookie experience to the bar. I think this is my favorite white chocolate bar, my favorite matcha flavored bar, and my favorite Socola Chocolatier bar.
Collaborations & Specials
We got a few of these KitKats made in collaboration with other brands or for specific purposes in our cooler bag.
Tokyo Banana
This KitKat is made in collaboration with Tokyo Banana — which makes a popular dessert snack in Japan of individual sponge cakes filled with custard cream made with banana purée.
These little banana shaped cakes are an iconic Tokyo souvenir. From its start in a stall at Tokyo Station in 1991, Tokyo Banana has expanded to other transit stations, the airport, and other shops around Tokyo. You can even find them on Amazon.
KitKat has turned this banana flavored high end Twinkie into a milk chocolate KitKat that is made with its own special mold featuring a cubby Tokyo Banana.
Besides being hella cute, the bar smelled like banana and had a real banana taste. The milk chocolate was good too. A delicious combo.
Even better, the texture was unique — in addition to the crispy wafer it had a little mashed banana texture and a bit of a spongy texture. This one’s a winner in our books. It even makes me want to seek out the original Tokyo Banana store if I ever go back to Japan.
Artisan option
For a good SFBA crunchy banana chocolate option, Socola Chocolatier had a limited edition bar in 2024 called Turon Crunch.
Inspired by the Southeast Asian dessert of caramelized tropical fruit (typically banana) wrapped in spring roll wrappers and deep fried, this dark milk chocolate bar was decorated with a slice of dried banana and a puffy piece of yellow freeze dried jackfruit — plus tiny white sesame seeds sprinkled all over. Mixed inside the bar were crushed feuilletine bits and more pieces of fruit.
Instead of the KitKat’s crispy wafer/mashed banana/sponge cake texture combo, Socola’s Turon bar had a crunchy chewy texture. It had a good banana chocolate flavor with an extra tropical note from the jackfruit that tasted a bit like mango. It’s not currently available but if you like banana and chocolate, I’d recommend checking with them periodically to see if they have brought it back.
For Café
Nestlé For Café is a special KitKat developed for coffee bars. It’s like a regular KitKat except they altered the chocolate recipe to make it specifically compliment coffee. It’s not coffee flavored — KitKat makes a cafe au lait bar for that — instead it’s supposed to be a chocolate bar to enjoy while drinking coffee.
According to my research they knead a “biscuit formula” into the chocolate. It sounded like maybe instead of layered wafers and filling there would be crispy bits scattered through solid chocolate.
The bar looked like regular KitKats — maybe a slightly darker chocolate but otherwise the same. It had a medium snap and there were wafer layers inside just like all the other KitKats.
I don’t know what the biscuit formula adds to the bar except the chocolate didn’t melt as quickly as regular KitKats — maybe the biscuits mixed into the couverture make it heftier than the other KitKats?
We both liked this one. It’s a good chocolate, definitely better than the regular milk chocolate to us. I could see having it with a cup of coffee — or tea as Cacaopod suggested.
Artisan options
I am going to cheat a little here. My first option isn’t a bar per se, and the second is a coffee infused bar.
You might not think of a mushroom company for chocolate but The Chaga Company makes a really good dark chocolate. Their 70% Cocoa Dark Chocolate ingots are little nuggets of savory dark chocolate infused with chaga mushrooms.
They use a delicious non-bitter chocolate and the bite size chocolate cubes have a creamy texture with a savory undertone from the chaga mushroom infusion. The infusion is subtle — if you didn’t know there was mushroom in this you would never guess what the savoriness was. It has a kind of dark chocolate ice cream taste.
I think it makes a good pairing with a strong cup of coffee.
If you want a coffee flavored chocolate instead, chocolate maker Tiny House of Chocolate Artisans makes an excellent one. Tiny House makes bars with cacao from different regions — primarily in Brazil where they are from — with a variety of inclusions, many of them Brazilian in origin too such as cupuaçu.
Their Arabica Coffee 68% Cacao bar made with beans from the Dominican Republic has an alluring coffee aroma and immediate coffee flavor. The Arabica coffee makes a very good combo with the chocolate in these well made bars.
I like that this chocolate has a distinct and specific coffee flavor — Arabica which is strong, bright, and a little sour. The coffee flavor mellows as the chocolate melts and chocolate becomes the more prominent flavor.
Cacao 72%
The Marugoto Cacao with Cacao Nibs, 72% Cacao is the only KitKat that lists a percentage which is rare to see in a big name-brand chocolate.
Marugoto is Japanese for “the whole thing” and a lot of the advertising copy for the bar describes it as chocolate infused with finely crushed cacao nibs so I’m guessing they added ground up cacao nibs to their Adult Sweetness dark chocolate couverture to up the cacao percentage— and they are naming it whole cacao. Who knows? It all reads like it’s been put through Google Translate or maybe ChatGPT wrote the copy.
Whatever. When I opened the package I could see that the bar had bloomed and it smelled like baking chocolate. Not exactly the premium chocolate experience I had been led to believe I would have.
The initial taste was hard cheap chocolate. It got better as it melted but it didn’t have a good mouth feel — it was dry instead of creamy. It had a good chocolatey aftertaste but ultimately it’s not a winner.
Artisan options
There is no reason to suffer that when there are so many excellent SFBA options for a 72% range bar with better chocolate — such as 9th & Larkin’s single origins, J Street’s single origins, Rainy Day’s Tanzanian single origin, Little Burde’s 71-72% single origins, Dandelion’s 70% single origins, Tiny House’s 70%-71% single origin bars — some with inclusions, Volo’s 70–73% single origins with inclusions, or new chocolate maker Cacao Regina’s set of 70% single origins.
None of those suggestions include a wafer or wafer substitute. For a crunchy option, CocoTutti makes chocolate covered matzah with 72% Guittard couverture, caramel, and sea salt. It’s messier than eating the 72% KitKat but the flavors are way better.
Doubles
KitKat Doubles are made with 2 different chocolates — for example white and milk — with one chocolate covering the top and the other serving as the slab foundation underneath. We received several of these two-tone chocolates.
KitKat GOLD
We didn’t know what to expect from KitKat GOLD just looking at the wrapper. The text translated to “Let’s support with KitKat!”
Maybe this is a bar to give as encouragement to students at test time — one of the popular uses of KitKats in Japan. The name KitKat sounds similar to the Japanese phrase kitto katsu, which translates to “you will certainly win,” and is one of the reasons KitKat is so popular in Japan — it’s become a traditional inexpensive gift or good luck charm.
KitKat’s name in Japanese is pronounced “kitto katto” and looks like: キットカット. You can see that phrase — with its character that looks like a wry smily face — in the top line of the text on the wrapper. It sounds cute and even looks cute!
The KitKat itself had blonde chocolate on top and dark milk on the bottom. It had a butterscotch flavor and was slightly coconutty. We thought it was delicious — a winner to inspire winning!
Artisan option
Even better than the KitKat GOLD is Woodhouse Chocolate’s Willy Wonka-inspired Golden Ticket bar which also uses “gold chocolate” — AKA blonde chocolate. It’s an eye-catching bar with its warm tone and splashes of dark chocolate and gold powder.
Blonde chocolate is made by cooking white chocolate or its ingredients — cocoa butter, milk, and sugar — until they caramelize. Woodhouse’s gold is darker than other blondes because they caramelize it 2x.
Blonde chocolate is not as sweet as white chocolate and the Golden Ticket bar tastes mainly caramel. As the crumbled bits of 90% dark chocolate melt it tastes more chocolatey. All it’s missing is some crunchy cookie crumbs to surpass the KitKat on all marks.
Double Strawberry
The other Double KitKats had these 2 color labels with a big swash running like a wave across the front of the wrappers. The Double Strawberry KitKat label kept its flavor to itself — the text translated as “Kit moving forward!”
Looks like another encouragement/good luck bar.
Even without the flavor printed on the label it was revealed when opened — pink on top and milk chocolate on bottom the bar smelled like strawberry and chocolate, mostly chocolate.
Unfortunately the flavor was off. The bar had a weird chemical strawberry taste. It also seemed to have a different type of wafer than the other KitKats. I found some KitKat flavors in my research that said they were made with whole wheat wafers and that might be the case here because there was a pronounced wheat or grain flavor. It was not a good combo. This one was not a winner.
Artisan option
No worries. We have a winner in Deux Cranes’ vegan Strawberry and Dark Chocolate bar — an eye-catching bar with bright pink Valrhona Strawberry Chocolate flowing over 70% dark chocolate molded with a broken cubes pattern.
Besides looking so arresting the bar has an appetizing strawberry/chocolate aroma. It’s well made with a strong snap and smooth texture. It has an immediate strawberry flavor then chocolate. The strawberry is intense and the chocolate is mild not bitter.
Double Matcha
The last Double KitKat had a red and green wrapper wit the same wave/swash treatment as the Double Strawberry but with a more ambiguous statement printed across the front: “Kit, most likely”
At least that’s what Google Translate said. Who do you give this bar to? Not the strongest encouragement, it sounds almost like ‘you will probably do okay.’
The top part was dark green Uji matcha flavored white chocolate while the bottom was milk chocolate. I think this was the prettiest Double bar.
It’s also a good one. The matcha was mild, almost too subtle. The chocolate was more pronounced. It’s funny because the advertising copy for this one said it was a deeper, slightly bitter matcha bar but it was like the lightest matcha flavor of the 3 matcha bars we got in our cooler.
Mild or not it’s still a good bar and became more matcha in the aftertaste.
Artisan option
The closest local artisan option to the Double Matcha KitKat I found is the Genmai bar from veteran SFBA chocolatier Jade Chocolates. It’s got green tea, milk chocolate, and some crunchiness. I describe it as an upscale Nestle’s Crunch bar with an Asian twist. It uses genmai cha — which is a mix of green tea and roasted brown rice — and adds a floral note with jasmine tea.
Jade’s Genmai bar is a thick bar made with a pretty mold of varying height squares embossed with cacao flower images. It has a medium hard snap and smooth texture. Jade uses a 35% milk chocolate for this bar that tastes darker than its percentage but not so much as to be bitter.
The bar has an immediate milky chocolate and jasmine tea flavor, then a roasted nutty taste from the crispy rice. It’s less sweet than the KitKat Double Matcha and it’s more a jasmine tea bar, not matcha. Still it is definitely a green tea bar —with an elegant floral jasmine aftertaste.
Gotochi – regional specialties
Gotochi means local in Japanese and KitKat makes bars flavored with local ingredients that are sold as souvenirs of the regions where the ingredients were harvested.
Kyushu: Amaou Strawberry
The first souvenir KitKat we tried was made with Amaou strawberries which are grown on the island of Kyushu — the big island at the bottom of Japan.
I liked the wrapper with its colorful fat strawberries on a deep blue background. I wish I had liked the bar inside too.
KitKat uses the Amaou strawberries to flavor the white chocolate shell. The strawberries also colored the KitKat an attractive pink. It was the prettiest of the 3 strawberry KitKats and smelled like strawberries just like the others.
Unfortunately it tasted strange — vegetal and soapy and not very strawberry. Maybe we got a bad batch but we tried 2 of these bars and I have to say this KitKat is a no. Go to Kyushu for their famed ramen and real strawberries but don’t bring this home as a souvenir.
Artisan options
A much better strawberry bar in my opinion is SFBA based Charlotte Truffles’ Parisian Pink Bar AKA Mon Amour Bar. It’s a pretty pink bar with a white chocolate molded Eiffel Tower on the back.
The bar smells like strawberries and is a buttery white chocolate with a mild strawberry flavor. It’s not a crunchy bar but it tastes like real strawberries and it’s not overly sweet.
It’s not always available — I picked it up at the International Chocolate Salon this year — so I have another suggestion but it’s not local.
For a crunchy strawberry bar, LA based Compartés makes a Strawberry Shortcake Chocolate Bar that includes lots of crunchy cookie bits along with strawberry pieces in another pretty pink bar. It’s not local but we recommend it.
Shinshu: Shinshu Apples
According to KitKat, Nagano prefecture is known for its specialty apples. So KitKat makes these gotochi bars with milk chocolate infused with Shinshu apples from Nagano.
It’s interesting that unlike the Apple Pie KitKat this is made with milk chocolate instead of white chocolate.
Even if the wrapper didn’t have apple illustrations covering the front you would know it was apple flavored because you can smell it as soon as you open the wrapper. The bar was shiny — which I hadn’t noticed with the other KitKats — and had a softer break than most of the other bars.
It had a tangy apple flavor in mild milk chocolate. It’s an unusual combination but a good one. I liked this KitKat.
Artisan option
I couldn’t find an SFBA apple flavored bar. Most American apple and chocolate combos include spices or are chocolate covered apples — which is something a local chocolatier is known for.
Dunn Family Chocolates has been making giant (2+ pounds) chocolate and caramel covered apples for decades. Formerly Rachel Dunn Chocolates in Concord, they closed for a few years then reopened in Oakland as Dunn Family Chocolates, where they make their signature treats and also offer classes. These apples might not have crispy wafers but they do have plenty of crunch from the fresh apples and the roasted chopped almonds covering them.
Shizuoka: Wasabi
I saved this bar for last not because it’s the best but because it’s wasabi — and I hate wasabi.
I have a caveat though. Most wasabi — like 99% of what is called wasabi in the US — is not wasabi, it’s horseradish dyed green. Horseradish tastes like poison to me. The smallest hint of it on sushi ruins the sushi for me.
Real wasabi — the freshly grated root is different. I know because last time we were in Korea our friends took Cacaopod and me to a sushi restaurant where they use the real thing. The wasabi still had a slightly poisonous taste but the heat came quickly and blew it away. I could finally appreciate eating sushi with wasabi.
According to KitKat the wasabi paste used in these bars is made in Shizuoka Prefecture which is known for the production of wasabi. Since this sounded like it was going to be authentic wasabi — not gussied up horseradish — I was willing to try it.
I wavered a little upon opening the wrapper which revealed an almost glowing green KitKat. Food coloring perhaps? Oh no!
Persevering I continued the inspection. The bar didn’t smell like wasabi — it smelled sweet.
And the taste? It started out sweet then a little heat and a lightly wasabi — not horseradish — flavor. Yay! As Cacaopod — who also experiences horseradish as poison, we are truly meant for each other — said, “I wouldn’t seek it out but it’s the best wasabi candy I’ve ever had.”
Artisan option
I got nuthin’. I don’t mess with no American wasabi chocolates. You are on your own.
American KitKat
Finally I wanted to compare American KitKats with the Japanese ones to settle for myself if Japanese KitKats are superior.
Since it was around Halloween when we got the cooler I bought a bag of American snack size KitKats for the treat or treaters and put aside a few for comparison. I used the Adult Sweetness Dark Japanese KitKat for the comparison because it was the closest to the plain American KitKat. As I expected the American KitKat was bigger because that’s how we roll, right?
While it was longer it wasn’t taller. It wasn’t as cute as the almost square Japanese KitKat and the molded logo treatment was not as attractive — the letters were spaced out and there were no parenthesis — it looked kind of blah.
Cross sections of the 2 KitKats revealed the American one had 3 layers of wafer vs. 2 layers in the Japanese one. The Japanese KitKat had a thicker chocolate shell.
The taste and texture experience was different too. The American KitKat had a soft crunch. The Japanese one had a crisper crunch and better tasting chocolate.
I agree with what I’ve heard: Japanese KitKats are better. My experience is that they use better quality ingredients. And they have a lot of fun flavors — literally hundreds more. So with online stores selling Japanese KitKats directly to US consumers we can all enjoy them in all their quirky adventurousness.
Sugoi Mart — beyond KitKats
While the variety pack was a fun introduction to Japanese KitKats you don’t have to drop that many $$$ to try some. In addition to the KitKat variety packs, Sugoi Mart sells packages of single Japanese KitKat flavors that change frequently. When I wrote this there were almost 30 flavors available including Sake (“With a small percentage of real sake actually used to make this tasty treat!”), Azuki (Red Bean) Sandwich, Purple Sweet Potato, Hojicha (roasted green tea), and Blueberry Cheesecake — plus the flavors in my assortment.
Sugoi Mart sells a lot of other Japanese treats too such as Pocky — the chocolate covered biscuit sticks — with almost 20 flavors including grape, melon, and tomato — well, technically it is a fruit.
There are lots of other ever changing Japanese treats at Sugio Mart — how about boiled egg chewing gum?
According to the Sugoi Mart site, you can “Elevate your snacking game with Lotte Boiled Egg Gum, delivering a quirky twist on a classic treat. Bursting with unexpected delight, it’s a must-try for those craving a playful flavor adventure.”
Indeed. Thx but I’ll stick with the KitKats.
