KitKat Bracket

A few days ago, I posted a picture on my Instagram, as well as a story, about my latest KitKat acquisition, the limited edition mini whole wheat biscuit (it tastes kind of like Teddy Grahams). I mentioned in passing that I have a whole spreadsheet of KitKat flavors and rankings thanks to my husband, and that I could probably blog about it. Turns out a number of people want to know about KitKat flavors!

So here's the blog post on the Japanese KitKats I have tried.

I'm not going to beat around the bush. Here are my top five currently:

1. Dark chocolate cranberry almond/ruby chocolate cranberry almond/white chocolate cranberry almond/mainichi cranberry almond
2. Chestnut
3. Yuzu matcha
4. Whole wheat biscuit
5. Salted white chocolate (Save the Whales limited edition)

And here are the bottom five:

1. Ikinari dango
2. Sakura wine
3. Summer mango (this one hurts. I really wanted the mango to taste better and not like artificial flavoring)
4. Apple pie (it didn't taste like apple pie at all)
5. Sparkling wine

Suffice it to say that I don't think KitKat is very successful with getting alcoholic drink flavors into the candy. 

Here's the list of all the other KitKat flavors we have tried!

• Custard Pudding (Creme Brulee)(this one's good!)
• Iyokan (Orange Cream)(big hit with the orange cream fans)
• Ichigo Daifuku (Red Bean Strawberry Mochi)
• Party Ice Cream (kid favorite)
• Matcha
• Matcha Chocolate
• Peach Mint
• Salted Lemon (tastes like the smell of Pledge . . .)
• Dark Chocolate (this one is a perennial favorite for me and if I had to pick only one KitKat to eat forever, it'd be the dark chocolate or bitter chocolate 72% KitKats)
• White Chocolate
• Mint Chocolate
• Strawberry
• Autumn Sweet Potato
• Chocolate Hojicha
• English Milk Tea (unfortunately, too artificial-tasting for me)
• Roasted Hojicha
• Cookies and Cream
• Summer Ice Cream (kid favorite!)
• Mont Blanc (I'm just not a fan of any coffee-flavored KitKat in general, so this includes things like cafe latte)
• Passion Fruit
• Green Tea Tiramisu (pretty yummy!)
• Cafe Latte
• Raspberry
• Strawberry Milk (kid favorite, reminiscent of strawberry Pocky)
• Maple syrup (surprisingly good??)
• Cheesecake (good, but not mindblowing)

KitKats from Japan aren't cheap by any means. I've built this list over several years at the Buford Farmers Market, which I'm lucky enough to access fairly easily, but my budget gets blown to hell if I decide to buy a bunch of bags.  I wish we could have local KitKat tastings, honestly!

Where might you find these? I'd check your local HMart if you have one. Lots of online stores will sell these as well, most notably places like Bokksu. And if there are flavors you love (or hate), please feel free to leave a comment and let me know!

Some quick wrap-up stuff: the submissions period for JAMDAM is currently going! Subs close on April 30, 2023. Click the link above for full details. I'm looking forward to reading your submission packets! And the next blog post will be about the decolonization panel at Flights of Foundry, I promise.