Foreign Kit Kats

When traveling abroad, I'm always excited to see something familiar from home that's not quite familiar. If I were a McDonald's fan, for example, I'd be ecstatic to go to London to try their curry menu, or to try noodle offerings in Asia. Then there's always trying the standard item (say, a Big Mac) to see if you can taste anything different.

Well, I'm not a McDonald's groupie so I can't add my vote to others' experiences. Regardless, the idea is the same for other products like the special varieties of Kit Kat available overseas...except I wasn't overseas the other day. Instead, I was at the local big Japanese supermarket, Mitsuwa when I chanced upon a Sakura Kit Kat (cherry blossom flavored) and Matcha Kit Kat (green tea flavored). I'd never seen these in the market before so I had to buy them to experience the same thrill whilst traveling. Cheap thrills...I know.

After I excitedly ripped open the wrapping for the sakura one, I suddenly got worried as I sniffed the very fake smelling cherry. It was so fake, I thought my nose had just consumed some strawberry Nestle Quick (which incidentally was my favorite flavour as a child). Thoughts immediately turned from Nestle Quick to London. London? Yes, when I excitedly ripped open an orange flavored Kit Kat. My entire family has a thing for Jacob's Club Orange. We've been eating them since I can remember. We're addicted so we're always on the lookout for a new orange/chocolate wafered/biscuit concoction. Fortunately for the Jacob's brand, I found the Kit Kat to be utterly overly sweet, and the orange flavor not quite right. I immediately bought another case of Jacob's to take home. Yes, I said case, not pack. Addiction, remember?

Ok, back to the Japanese-themed Kit Kat. That fake cherry scent made me recall the bad experience of the orange Kit Kat. I feared it would be much too sweet for enjoyment and indeed, I nearly spit it out. If I were a diabetic, I think it would have killed me on the spot. It must have been at least twice as sweet as the British orange versions. That Matcha Kit Kat would have to wait for my tastebuds to reset themselves and for my mind to recover from the trauma.

Today, I braved the Matcha. I was hankering for some sweets, chocolate sweets really, when I eyed the package. This time, I ripped open the packaging with some trepidation. A quick sniff revealed very little...that's promising. A small bite revealed...green tea flavor! Surprisingly tasty since I've had some pretty bad matcha flavoured stuff. It's all the rage these days to flavour anything including your laundry in matcha. Yet I've heard that shades of green is out for car paint. As for the sweetness, it was on par with the average Kit Kat which is a bit sweet for my tastebuds (but fine for average folks I guess). Hooray! At least I didn't burn a hole in my wallet with two misses. They're incredibly expensive as a Kit Kat. $2.29 EACH and they were on sale. =O The matcha one was even smaller than the average Kit Kat. Ouch!