another collective of kitkats.

so, this year's h'ween attendance was middling, but it's not like these were ever in the candy cauldron anyway: a plethora of kitkats for your perusal.



from indonesia: white kitkat, and cappuccino flavour. both quite rightly avoid the word "chocolate" on the packaging. about one-third smaller than the american sized bars, and both with an almost grainy, malted aftertaste, much like milo. what is milo, anyway? a malted grain drink? there you go. sort of plasticky, but not unpleasant. candyblog has a better review of the cappuccino one.

from the united states: kitkat minis, in milk, white, and dark chocolates. i rather like these individual two-bite bars. the chocolate coating used in american kitkats has always bothered me--it's too sweet to the point of harshness--but the dark chocolate's earthiness seems to compensate for that. the dark ones are always the first to go. the white ones taste, um, white. milky, sweet, like condensed milk. the milk chocolate ones are basically mini versions of the traditional american bar, the one i've come to dislike, but somehow in mini-form, they seem benign. maybe it's because they are in pink wrappers.





the kitkat extra crispy is one of those large single bars, and isn't so much extra crispy as super crunchy. when i think of crispy, i think of light and somewhat wispy, but biting through one of these is like inviting a marching band into your head-- CRONKBOOMSHAKALAKACRONK. errrr. the ratio of chocolate to wafer is different, with far more wafer, which actually works in favour of the bar. however, you could make yourself deaf. teresa so kindly sent me a milkshake bar, which i actually liked quite a lot--it was like eating the cookie/biscuit equivalent of a malt ball, only less sweet and more malty. so far the only american bar that i really like.



mon kitkat aussie: the chocolate used in the australian bars is better than the american bars, imo, much smoother, creamier, and less cloyingly sweet. the kitkat bites, which were like biscuitty pellets with chocolate coating were very good, just enough per bite for it to actually taste like chocolate, just enough crunch. there is a line of kitkats called temptations, and in this particular version of that, there are humps, my humps, lovely non-lady humps of filling like hazelnut praline, coconut, and caramel fudge. i think in theory it's a genius move, but in practice, it's just sort of okay. like eating a two candy bars at once, only one of the bars is way better than the other and dragging the good one down.



she who eats is she who sent these lovely japanese bars to me: strawberry, white chocolate/maple syrup, and wine, from patîssier takagi. there's a particular fake strawberry flavour i associate with japanese candies, and this strawberry bar has it. it's not unpleasant, but it tastes less like berry than it does like pink. this bar tastes pink. the wine bar is almost indistinguishable from the strawberry bar, the only difference is that it has a very subtly grapey aftertaste. however, as one of the limited edition patîssier takagi 'kats, the couverture coating is a higher grade than the typical japanese kitkat, which can easily be described as either plasticky, greasy, or if you like it (like i generally do), extra creamy. the white bar has a very pleasant lingering maple note that doesn't add too much extra sweetness to the white chocolate.



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i just want to let you know, i didn't try all of these at once, they were sampled throughout the year....also, how long does it normally take you to write a post? because this one is taking ages.
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where was i? ah, chestnut. was chestnutty. very sweet. green tea maccha. i defer to candyblog. bitter (dark chocolate), and white (milk). havena tried them yet, will get back to you. uji-kintoki, not green tea, but with green tea as a component, along with red bean, condensed milk, and presumably not shaved ice. well, at least i didn't taste it. verrrry subtle, more beany that tea-ey. very sweet.



and oh, yes, the pumpkin kitkat (photo at top of post). hm. how do i put this? at once completely repellent, and compelling at the same time. NOT to be mistaken for pumpkin pie flavour, the smell of pumpkin assails you the minute you rip open the wrapper. the flavour tastes like real pumpkin, not artificial, but is so strong and so unspiced, it's like eating raw pumpkin covered in chocolate. only not as pleasant. it reminds me of kabocha squash tenpura. wrapped in greasy chocolate. mmmmmmMMMM. and the lingering squashy taste only makes me crave it more. gaaaaaah.

and finally, another patîssier takagi creation, noir: tiny half-sized fingers wrapped in a quality dark chocolate and dusted with unsweetened cocoa. dirty and decadent.



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in its honour, a man that cooks creation, kitkat noir:

I knew the wrapper would come off and I was mad for trying but something about that chocolate just said yes. When I came around Benny the Fink's goons were making with my jaw like it was their step-kid.

...and there she was, that beautiful dame with the gams that went up to her elbows, laughing like a drain. at me, and my kisser filled with blood, and 71% dark cacao. it was revenge for tooting the wrong ringer, as bittersweet as the dusty layer of cocoa, smeared on my rearranged map, courtesy of benny's trouble boys.

feel free to continue the flickr fiction in the comments. or not.

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last year's kitkats!

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tech tags: kitkat candy chocolate japanese