Matcha Green Tea KitKat

Just tried a new version of Matcha KitKat called オトナの甘さ Matcha KitKat. This is a new series of KitKat made for adults with a less sweet flavour. オトナの甘さ means Adult Sweetness. A KitKat geared towards adults! KitKat is really popular in Japan and they are always coming out with new seasonal varieties.

They also make great おみやげ (souvenirs) as each region has their own unique specialty flavour.

This flavour is Matcha which is a type of Japanese green tea where the tea leaf is ground into a fine powder. The Matcha is from Uji which is a region of Kyoto famous for their green tea.

How does it taste? Matcha KitKat tastes really good and the flavour is not too strong. It’s not as sweet as your regular KitKat but sweet enough and the Matcha flavour really hits you as an aftertaste with a slightly bitter note.

We picked up this KitKat for 50 yen ($USD$0.50) which contained three bars inside.

Matcha KitKat

Three of  these delicious bars in one pack

Close-up of the Matcha KitKat

Koala’s March Strawberry Milk

Koala’s March Strawberry Milk is the second in the series of special edition Koala’s March Halloween. You can read about the Koala’s March Chocolate edition here

The Strawberry Milk edition also includes cute koalas in Halloween costumes. The Strawberry Milk Koala’s March is very good and inside the cookie is a sweet Strawberry Milk filling.

Koala’s March Chocolate

Koala’s March Chocolate is a bite size Japanese cookie snack with a sweet chocolate filling inside. Koala’s March (コアラのマーチKoara no Machi) is made by Lotte. These cookies are so cute and each one is in the shape of a koala with a picture of a koala on the outside of the cookie. This edition is the special Halloween version of the cookie so it contains some koalas in Halloween costumes. This includes classic Halloween costumes such as witches, wizards, vampires, fairies, and jack-o-lanterns.

Lotte Puchi Busse

Puchi Busse is a Japanese light cake made by Lotte. This is a limited edition snack and only appeared for a short time in Japan. The cake consists of a lemon custard cream filling, and chocolate layer sandwiched between a whole-meal soft cake. The whole cake is only bite size and hence the puchi in the title which means petite. The cake has a distinctive cake smell typical of Japanese cakes of this type and the custard cream has a light lemon flavour which isn’t too over bearing. The chocolate layer gives it a nice touch and brings a bit of a stronger dimension to the cake. The cake was pretty good and I would recommend it to all lovers of Japanese cakes.

Puccho

Puccho (ぷっちょ) is a Japanese candy made by the Japanese company UHA Mikakuto. Puccho is one of my favourite Japanese candy due to its unique texture and chewy nature. There are several types of Puccho which include Juushi, Shuwa, and World. There are many different flavours of Puccho including strawberry, cola, grape, orange, lemon, yoghurt, cream soda, blueberry, cherry, peach, mango, melon soda and pineapple. There are also flavours that are unique to certain regions in Japan and these usually make great souvenirs.

Fran Japanese Biscuit Stick

Fran is Meiji’s version of the popular Japanese biscuit stick Pocky by Glico. You can read about Pocky here Most people know about Pocky and it has fans all over the world but few people know about the equally delicious Fran. Fran and Pocky are very similar but in many areas I probably prefer Fran over Pocky as I will explain below.

This is the Original Chocolate flavor Fran. It is a chocolate biscuit stick covered in a smooth chocolate mousse. As you can see from the images the chocolate coating is a lot thicker than the regular Pocky and the biscuit stick is much thicker than the original Pocky. The taste of Fran is a lot smoother and richer. I prefer the original chocolate Fran to the regular Pocky due to this and it is more suited to the adult palate than the regular Pocky.

Jyagariko Cheese

Jyagariko (じゃがりこ) is a seasoned potato stick made from non-fried potatoes made by the Japanese snack company Calbee. My first experience with Jyagariko was the original salad flavour many years ago. This was followed by the equally famous Jyagariko cheese made from potatoes and cheese, which I will talk about in this post.

Jyagariko cheese is one of the most popular Jyagariko flavours and is really crunchy and crispy. I enjoy these because of the great cheese flavour which comes from the real cheese bits embedded in each stick. The cheese bits really enhance the overall cheese flavour and experience even more and make this more than the average potato chip. These are really delicious and addictive and are a must try snack from Japan.

Strawberry Pocky

Pocky is a Japanese biscuit stick coated in chocolate. There are many different flavours of Pocky in Japan including Strawberry Pocky which made its debut in 1977. This is my favourite Strawberry Pocky and is called tsubu tsubu strawberry. It is strawberry flavoured chocolate with pieces of dried strawberry. It has a light sweet taste and is very addictive. I enjoy the sweat taste of the strawberry sometimes as opposed to some of the more bitter chocolate varieties.

Tsubu Tsubu Strawberry Pocky

This is what it looks like. You can see the pieces of dried stawberry.

Jyagariko

Jyagariko (じゃがりこ) is one of my favourite Japanese snacks. Made by Calbee the most recognised snack company in Japan, it comes in a cylinder cup with a peel-off lid as you can see from the picture. Jyagariko is basically a seasoned potato stick made from non-fried potatoes. The original flavours are salad and cheese, but now there are a multitude of different flavours and types. These snacks are really crunchy, perfectly seasoned and tasty with the original salad Jyagariko still my all- time favourite.

Check out some other Japanese Snacks in this series below

Onigiri Senbei

Collon

Kinoko no Yama

Pocky

Onigiri Senbei (Japanese Rice Crackers)

Onigiri Senbei is a Japanese rice cracker that is shaped in a triangle like a Japanese onigiri. It is a tasty snack seasoned with soy sauce, sugar and nori (seaweed). It is one of the most popular rice crackers in Japan, and is so crunchy and crispy that it is addictive and you can’t stop eating them.



I highly recommend you try the classic Onigiri Senbei.

Here are a few pictures of the yummy snack.

 

Check out some other Japanese Snacks in this series below

Collon

Kinoko no Yama

Pocky

Collon

In the second of this series on Japanese Snacks, I would like to introduce the strangely named Japanese snack Collon.

Collon is a cream filled biscuit. It is the shape of a small tube and filled with delicious cream. Now, I know that it is oddly named but again trust me as it is very tasty. If you can get by the name then definitely give this Japanese snack a try. Collon is made by Glico, which is the biggest candy company in Japan.

Here are some pictures of the delicious Collon

You can read about more delicious Japanese snacks at Japanese Snacks

Kinoko no Yama

In this first of a series of posts about Japanese Snacks, I am going to start with the popular snack Kinoko no Yama which translates literally as “mushroom mountain”. Kinoko no Yama is a Japanese snack from the Japanese company Meiji. It is a biscuit shaped like a mushroom with a chocolate top. It is very cute and trust me very tasty.

Pocky

Pocky is a Japanese biscuit stick usually coated in chocolate. There are many different flavours of Pocky in Japan including almond, strawberry, milk, chocolate mousse, green tea, honey and banana. Pocky is extremely popular in Japan especially among teenagers. It has also spread to other East Asian nations and has a significant presence in both South Korea and China. It has just started becoming popular in Western countries such as Australia, Canada and the United States. In these countries it can be found in Asian supermarkets or grocery stores. My local supermarket has also started stocking it in the Asian food section. In the US it can be found at most large supermarkets such as World Market, Wegmans and Wal-Mart in either the international section or Asian food aisle.

Pocky can be found in dozens of varieties as mentioned above. Some of the more unusual flavours include kiwifruit mango, grape, melon, tangerine, Kobe wine, sweet potato, pumpkin, and soy bean.

Special variations of Pocky also sometimes appear and these include Decorer Pocky (features extra decorative icing) and Dessert Pocky (features sticks covered in cream)

There is also another types of chocolate biscuit stick similar to Pocky called Fran. This is a different brand, but is also delicious and the stick is thicker than Pocky.