Kit Kats, Japanese Style

My brother Ben has been living and working in Japan for 2 and a half years now.  Although it's a bit sad that I don't get to see him very often (except on Skype), I do enjoy getting exciting Christmas and birthday presents from him!

One feature of these presents from Japan is always the Kit Kat.  We all like Kit Kats - they seem to have been the number one selling chocolate bar in the UK for as long as I can remember...  but I can't help wondering how the UK market would respond to some of these...

Take a look at the last batch I received:

Clockwise from top - Cola and Lemonade, Bitter Almond, Apple and Carrot, Green Tea, Raspberry and Passion Fruit, er...  can't work out the last one; no clues on the box.  These boxes all have 2 2-finger Kit Kats in them, individually wrapped to save marital arguments!

They also come in the 'Chunky' size, and in miniature ball-shaped Kit Kats:

Here we have the Banana Chunky Kit Kat, strawberry Kit Kat balls (complete with Rilakkuma, the iconic Japanese teddy, on the packet) and a mini Kit Kat which I did eat but can't quite recall what it was (do you think 'TBC' on the wrapper means flavour 'to be confirmed'?!)...  I think it was some kind of milkshake flavour.

There's no holding back when it comes to the chocolate coatings ('chocolate' in the loosest sense of the word) - there's milk, dark and white...  and then any colour they fancy!  I've had pink ones and yellow ones, the green tea ones are, you've guessed it, bright green, and these apple and carrot ones are - as you can see - a very fetching shade of orange.

Believe it or not, these are the more conventional of the flavours.  In the past I've been sent English Breakfast Tea flavour (actually delicious), and I've heard that my parents were the lucky recipients of a Wasabi flavour Kit Kat this Christmas...  lucky them!  The piece de resistance this year for me was...

Yes, the CHEESE Kit Kats!  No, it's not cream cheese, or ricotta, or mascarpone, or any of those cheeses often used for desserts, it's 'real' European Cheese.  See:

And how do they taste?  Exactly as you'd expect.  Sweet, white chocolatey coating and crispy wafer with a savoury cheesy cream filling.  Pretty foul - but utterly brilliant!

Thanks Ben!