Japanese Kat

The star of this blog, here are pictures of just about every Kitkat I’ve ever found, and eaten, in Japan.

I will try to list these chronologically, although I can never be sure of the exact order and dates that these were released.

2006

Very sweety and very tasty. I was later reminded of these with the Anko KitKats. Click here to see the Anko review.

Tasted like blueberry white chocolate, and not really like cheese at all.

Tasted like a strawberry KitKat with a hint of nuts in the aftertaste.

Pretty much tasted like green tea with a little peanut butter (kinako). I don’t remember tasting the ume.

2007

Some vending machines sell KitKats in glass jars.

Kiiiiind of tasted like pumpkins.

Tasted like chocolate and banana. Not bad.

Pretty much Cookies and Cream.

Don’t be fooled. It’s just repackaged white chocolate with packaging promoting the movie “Midnight Eagle”.

Slightly thicker and had more flavored cream on the inside.

Tasted better because of the extra creamy apple cream filling.

These were kind of sour and not all too tasty.

Tasted like a regular melon and was much cheaper than a real Yubari melon.

Fantastic. These are one of the best KitKats I have ever had.

Dark chocolate and orange.

Orange and milk chocolate.

Pineapple taste was subtle. Much better than, say, the kiwi one.

No chocolate taste. If you like lemon, you will probably like these.

Very sweet and similar to the Ogura/Anko ones. The cherry taste was minimal.

A “lighter” strawberry flavor than previous versions.

Another personal favorite. Dark chocolate, thick orange cream, and real alcohol! 1% to be exact.

Really bitter, and what you would expect of a KitKat made from such dark chocolate.

Even more bitter than the 61%. I’d say about 11% more to be exact.

White chocolate with green tea as well. A little bit sweeter than normal tea flavors.

Tasted like a chocolate-covered peach. Sweet, but good.

Very sweet and very “artificial” tasting.

Tasted like chocolate and that typical “artificial banana” flavor. You know the one I’m talking about.

One of the Tokyo-only souvenir flavors that are now discontinued. Tasted like cherry blossoms.

Like the Exotic Sakura, these have been replaced. These had an odd fruity taste that I could never put my finger on.

Another one of the vaguely named region-exclusive flavors that has since been replaced. These were sweeter than regular white chocolate and were really really good.

The special flavor that you can only get in Nagano. They no longer sell them in these packages.

These tasted exactly like those mass produced ice cream cones.

They smelled a lot like Caramel, but they didn’t really taste like caramel, unlike the U.S. versions that just put real caramel in the middle.

Same as the one above, but sold in individual, regular-sized bars instead.

Very sweet reminded me of cake. (Video review)

These were pretty spot on. They got the flavor right here.

White Chocolate using milk from Hokkaido, the Wisconsin of Japan. Tasted milkier than usual. Who would have guessed!?

The standard dark chocolate version without all of the crazy percentages.

2008

These tasted more like peanuts than anything else.

Another winter strawberry flavor that was very sweet and had a strong “artificial” flavor. There are some that tasted like real strawberries, but these were more like candy flavors.

An excuse to sell these before it was actually winter, even though there are certain cherries blossoms that actually bloom in the winter. Again, somewhat sweet, perfume-like, and tasted like a flower.

These creamy ones are always good. This tasted pretty much like english tea, and it was a nice break from the onslaught of green tea flavors.

These tasted like Hazelnuts, and they’re apparently based on Gianguja.

Call it whatever you want to, but these were just like the orange ones from 2007.

Typical dark chocolate.

Probably similar in taste to regular tapioca pudding. It’s no JELL-O.

Each little “BB” had a different flavor such as melon, banana, and strawberry.

More green tea.

More chocolate and banana here.

These came out around Mother’s Day. It’s just another typical strawberry flavor though.

Salty white chocolate. These were surprisingly good. I ate a bunch of these.

These were region-exclusive. These tasted more like real grapes than your typical “candy” grape. These were on the verge of tasting more like wine than grapes.

These were pretty sweet and, I thought, quite accurate. Some people said that they were a bit too sweet.

As with other Azuki bean flavored ones, it was very very sweet and tasted like “cake”.

Video review here. It was hard to taste both the strawberry and cranberry in these. It’s good as a generic “berry” flavor though.

Very flavorful, and a good summer pick.

For once, regular cherry instead of “Cherry Blossoms”, but the both taste very similar to each other. Less “flowery” of a flavor with these though.

The only thing special about these is the box. These are just a regular Kitkat.

The Crunch Berries KitKat! Video review.

This had somewhat of a smoked/roasted flavor to it, which I suppose is exactly what they were trying to emulate.

These were a little bit sweeter than regular milk chocolate ones.

Even though these are supposed to be a wine grape, I still think those other grape ones tasted more like wine. Those tasted like red wine though, while these were obviously closer to a white wine.

These were the two special Halloween flavors. The pumpkin tastes more like “pumpkin pie” and I like them better than the 2007 variety. The caramel pudding smelled like caramel, but the taste only really had a slight bitterness to it that was also found in the regular pudding KitKat. Video Review.

I liked the coffee flavor that wasn’t too bitter and more or less sweet. They also released a Caramel Machiatto McFlurry at McDonalds at the same time. Video review.

I really liked these cocoa ones. The other two tasted just like flavored white chocolate, but it was nice to have a dedicated blueberry one for once. Video review.

These ones taste similar to the instant versions of Red Bean Soup. Still sweet, but nowhere near as sweet as previous versions. Video review.

Another Kinako flavor, another comparison to peanut butter.

More orange/citrus action. Video review.

2009

(coming soon)