Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Kitto Katto

Kit Kats are huge in Japan! The reason, according to Wikipedia:

"The popularity of Kit Kats in Japan is a phenomenon attributed to the coincidental similarity between the bar's name and the Japanese phrase kitto katsu, which roughly translates to "You will surely win!" This has reportedly led to parents and children buying them for school examination days as a sort of good luck charm.[3]However, transliteration is not always in Nestlé's favour - kitto katto (where 'katto' is taken to be a katakana transliteration of the English verb 'cut') is understood to bestow Kit Kat with the less positive significance of "you will surely miss the cut". As such, gifts of a single kit-kat are a running joke for senior high school students taking the University Entrance Examinations in some areas. It is also in Japan that Kit Kat has in recent years seen a variety of different flavours emerge, although each for a limited time. Some examples include, maple syrup, melon, vanilla bean, grape, apple, caramel, kiwi, azuki, and cherry blossom. Further building on the teen market, Nestlé created a music label in 2005 and bundled Kit Kats with CDs which has propelled the Kit Kat to become the #1 selling chocolate bar in Japan as well."

We are always on the lookout for fun KitKat flavors! Here are some recent ones:
Strawberry:

Sakura, or cherry blossom KitKats are everywhere right now. They are marketed to girls for Girls' Day in March. These are my new favorite, because they have an awesome artificial cherry flavor:

This is a more expensive dessert bar. There is a layer of apple creme underneath the chocolate. It's delicious!

Orange and Chocolate, which is okay:

Cookies and Milk is great--it's like the cookies and creme Crunch bars that used to be around:


Put your requests in now...and I just might be able to sneak some KitKats back home in August (if they don't melt)!

1 comments:

Unknown said...

Cherry blossom sounds good to me!!!