Spice Up Your Life: The Wasabi Kit-Kat Bar

Now, I can't say it was an all-out taste test like the recent NPR feature on the unusual Kit-Kat flavors of Japan (thanks Julie!), but we did recently get to sample the unusual Wasabi Kit-Kat Bar.

Said bar was a treat from Danny's associate (and Exohxo violinist) Hiromi, who recently returned from a trip to Japan.

She brought two specimens for our examination: one soy sauce flavored, and one Wasabi flavored.

Sadly, I'm just gonna have to say it: the soy sauce was simply. Not. Good. 

But moving on, the wasabi presented an unexpected delight.

The first flavor that hits you is the sweetness of the candy coating, which tastes mostly like white chocolate--but then gives way to a surprising, and happily not overpowering, spiciness. Without having had the benefit of knowing the flavor, I'm not sure that we would have been able to detect exactly what it was--it didn't have that nasal passage searing quality usually associated with wasabi--but it did offer an intriguing dimension to the sweet candy.

This is all to say, if you're headed to Japan, the wasabi Kit-Kat gets a thumbs-up.

Read more about the Kit-Kat taste test on NPR here; learn more about the Kit-Kat variations available in Japan on Wikipedia.