The newest craze in combini-land these days seems to be something called ‘Sparkling.’ You can get Sparkling Tea, Apple Sparkling, and now even Sparkling Strawberry Kit Kat. I haven’t quite figured out what it means, although there always seems to be an over-exuberance of bubbles, so the derivation may be similar to that of sparkling wine. Across the divide from Nestlé’s multiplying Kit Kat brand is Lotte’s fantastic line of Crunky malt puff-infused chocolate, which now comes in 苺のチーズタルト, or Strawberry Cheese Tart. Both have bright pink packaging and juicy-looking stock photography of strawberries, and both are being reviewed today on Pocky Watch.
スパークリングストロベリー [Sparkling Strawberry] Kit Kats come in the same mini-box as many of the other Kit Kat brands I’ve reviewed, containing two packs each holding two long Kit Kat fingers. The packs themselves are Cute with a capital C: pink and red with understated gold rings indicating the bubbly confection inside. It’s worth noting that each pack contains only 99 calories, like the other similarly-sized Kit Kats, making this a mostly guilt-free mid-afternoon snack. The Crunky, meanwhile, comes in a slightly harder to slowly parcel 271 calorie bar, which, after being removed from its sealed foil wrapper, snaps into two squarish pieces of reasonable size. This treat is in the 食後のシアワセ series, which roughly translated means ‘post-meal good fortune;’ a worthy description for any dessert.
The Kit Kats have a strong fake-strawberry smell that really isn’t off-putting, but isn’t terribly appetizing, either. The cookie itself is very much a let-down. The promise of Sparkling is not delivered on except for a very slight bit of fizzing. But after my amazing experience with Meiji’s strawberry chocolate bar, nothing really saves this. If you really, really love strawberry candy, and think the idea of it fizzing on your tongue sounds fun, go for it. Otherwise, I’d steer clear until Nestlé goes back to the drawing board. 2/5
Glico has shown us how it’s done with cheese with their recent release of Chocolat Fromage Dessert Pocky, and Lotte seems to be going in a similar direction, flavoring this bar with cream cheese powder, imitating one of my favorite non-chocolate desserts, the strawberry cheese tart. Where this bar falls down is that tarts rely heavily on the ingredients, and Lotte has (necessarily) cut corners here. The bar is actually not bad, and actually manages to taste quite similar to its real life sister, but I fear the aim may have been a little high. Lotte simply left me wanting the real thing. 3/5
Buy Sparkling Strawberry Kit Kats from napaJapan.
Buy Strawberry Cheese Tart Crunky from napaJapan.
I thought the “sparkle” in the Kit Kat was overpowering and a little sour. I’m interested to see how it stands up to the other strawberry Kit Kat out right now though.
We’re interested too. Though I think minus sparkle strawberry would be pretty good.
Oddly, I didn’t detect any fizzing in the KitKat at all. I just got a sense of strong tartness as a part of it.
I’ve been seeing that Crunky around, and avoiding it like the plague.
The weird Crunky flavors just don’t do much for me. Though there’s a marron one that has been tempting me, I’ve resisted.
I tasted less fizz then Gregory and I think it might vary from box to box. Maybe the carbon dioxide breaks down over time or something. It did smell kind of like pop rocks though.
The Strawberry Cheese Tart Crunky got my attention.
I was hoping it comes in tart shape instead of a bar.
Real taste……..hmmmm… I think I spot that around but just resist in buying it.
Maybe I will get it next time.
If you do buy it, please let us know what you think. We like to hear other’s impressions.
My favorite KIT-KAT flavor! KIT-KAT Japan is the best!