There’s nothing better for a sick day at home than to write a review for Pocky Watch. Sure, the sugar isn’t good for my immune system, but it’s great for my morale. And today’s morale booster is  a new Kit Kat I spotted at the convenience store the other day: Bitter Almond. It’s apparently the result of a collaboration between Nestlé and Japanese hair salon chain Tokyo Beauty Center (TBC エステティック). Sort of the opposite of ‘For Men’s’ branding, I guess.

Whatever the source, Bitter Almond Kit Kat is pretty delicious. Rather than trying to incorporate whole almonds, Nestlé has crushed them up and mixed in the bits with 44% dark chocolate, which goes over your normal Kit Kat wafer. I’ve only seen these in the 99 calorie x2 packs, which have a nice brown pyramid design, and actually a pretty golden wrapper on the inside.

You guys know what’s up with Kit Kat, so let me go into the particulars of this one. I can’t say that the almonds add too much to the flavor. Even examining the wafers closely, I can only see a dozen or so bits in each. For actually almond candies, I prefer larger chunks, as in M&Ms or Meiji’s various ‘Almond’ products. But what is there does add a bit of nuttiness. The dark chocolate is what I really liked about these. It’s a dull sweetness that doesn’t overpower the almond or the wafer. I really could eat a bunch of these, and I think if you’re even slightly a fan of bitter chocolate, you should check them out too.

4/5

Buy Bitter Almond Kit Kat from napaJapan.com.

Aimee’s already written our Toppo review, but I saw these at the convenience store, and had to throw in my two cents. Just like Pocky, Bitter Toppo are apparently ‘for men,’ as in the view of candy manufacturers, Japanese women just lack the constition for reduced sugar content.

Really, though, these are quite similar to regular Toppo. There’s two foil bags, each with twelve sticks. You’ve got chocolate inside pretzel sticks, only this time the pretzel is a little darker, and the chocolate is, to my mouth, tastier.

Our other reviewer actually went so far as to declare regular Toppo better—better!—than Pocky. You’ll notice that our site has yet to change its name (Toppo Watch sounds rediculous anyway), but I won’t say there wasn’t a fair bit of arguing over the heresy here at the PW offices. Let me be clear: I don’t prefer Toppo to Pocky. It’s good, it’s fun, it’s a fantastic snack for on-the-go, but—like a matinee Vegas Elvis impersonator—it just kinda feels like a knockoff on the real thing.

This dark chocolate Toppo, though, is something else. The genius touch, in my opinion, is the bitter pretzel that Lotte makes these with. While the regular Toppo feels a bit like a low-rent coffee stirring biscuit, the combination of bitter chocolate and bitter pretzel, with just a touch of salt, turn this from an OK candy into a great one.

No, we’re still not changing the name of the site, but if Lotte can hit a few more home runs like this, they’ll be giving Glico a run for its money.

4/5

I was thinking about putting these in with the Kit Kat round up, but that post was getting so long and this is the first time I’ve had the chance to review Kit Kat Mail so lets call it a special occasion. My coworker called me mid day on a Saturday (which was odd since we work Mon-Fri) and announced she was in Hokkaido looking at Hokkaido Kit Kats, and would I like some. Hell yes! She brought them in on Monday and it took some serious effort not to rip into the cute little mail ready boxes. These Kit Kats are part of a line of regional souvenirs that come with a mailing label printed on the back. Domestically the box would cost about 140 yen to mail, and international EMS mail would cost about 1,200 yen.

I think the boxes could be sturdier but the interior is lined with packing material to help protect the candy. Each box contains five mini Kit Kats which are perfect for the health conscious, but kind of lame when you see that theres a good bit of empty space in the box.

The first of the two flavors is 焼きもろこし (roasted corn). Like a lot of the white chocolate Kit Kats, these smell like frosting. They’re more yellow then other white chocolate Kit Kats though, which i find cute, but also a little disturbing. I mean, that isn’t a natural yellow color. I love fresh grilled corn on the cob but these taste a lot like sweet canned corn and as a result are terrible. I think they make a fantastic souvenir for more adventurous pallets, but if you’re not actually going to Hokkaido, please don’t bother ordering these. 1/5

Melons are a delicacy in Japan and I’ve seen them average about 2,000 yen in the stores near me. Maybe its because I’m American or maybe it’s because I don’t like melon that much, but I don’t really get it. These 夕張メロン (Yuubari Melon) Kit Kats are flavored like the famous melons of Yuubari City in Hokkaido. The chocolate exterior is a little waxy and  bitter sweet. The wafer is striped with orange cream that tastes like melon (no big surprise there). The melon flavor isn’t too strong, fake, or sweet. I’m really impressed with these since I think they strike a good balance between real melon and fake melon soda flavor. 4/5

I love seeing new products on the shelf, especially from Meiji or Glico. This one is Assort Cho-pan, which I’m assuming means ‘assorted chocolate bread,’ although it looks nothing like the chocolate bread I buy from convenience stores (oh so good). So far, they come in two varieties, chocolat & white and strawberry chocolat & white. I’ve found them at a few combine, and each box is around ¥150.

Each box has four of the Cho-pans, which are like deep chocolate trays. They’re all filled halfway from the bottom with a piece of puff pastry, chocolate in the chocolate, and just normal in the strawberry. But instead of just giving you puff pastry in chocolate, Meiji mixes it up. Two of the Cho-pans include an extra piece of pastry, and the other two are filled with a creamy milk chocolate substance. The chocolate one even has some hazelnut flavoring, while the strawberry sticks to milk chocolate with just a hint of the berry.

All in all, I really didn’t mind these. I don’t really share Aimee’s aversion to puff pastry (although it certainly helps that these weren’t sold to me as ‘pie’), and so even though they were certainly messy—make sure you carry a handheld vacuum—I enjoyed straying from the typical chocolate mix. Long-time readers will certainly be shocked, shocked to discover that I prefer the chocolate Cho-pans, but if your tastes run to the berry, there’s certainly nothing wrong with those. They’re a little fake, but nothing like some of the worst fake strawberry I’ve tasted. To complete this review, I’ve eaten through two boxes of each, and I’m planning to get more, so please consider this review a recommendation. 4/5

Pretz is not a Japanese candy. Pretz is Pocky’s evil savory cousin. Ok, so it’s not evil except that like Pocky, it’s rather addicting. I was very pleased to find Tomato Pretz because I used to eat the stuff almost daily when I lived in Japan. I haven’t had it in years, but when I put it in my mouth, there was that taste I remember.

Pretz has the same stay-fresh packaging as Pocky and each stick has a lovely crunch. Tomato Pretz has seasoning powder on it. The seasoning doesn’t really taste like just tomato – I’ve always found it tastes like the spawn of a Nabisco Chicken in a Biskit Cracker and a bloody mary. And for some reason, that leads to a major yum factor. Since this is the U.S. version, I was actually able to read the ingredients and did find an ingredient list which is quite similar to the ingredients of bloody marys (minus the vodka) and Chicken in a Biskit crackers!  I hope my dear vegetarian friend M. who introduced me to Tomato Pretz years ago in Toyama-ken doesn’t read this because turns out Tomato Pretz isn’t vegetarian and we’re not talking gelatin this time. The ingredient list includes chicken extract powder, various vegetable extracts and MSG. As I write this review, I’m realizing that ignorance really is bliss – I liked Japanese processed food better when the ingredient list was just a big ol’ mess o’ kanji!  That being said, Tomato Pretz will always have a special place in my heart (and stomach)!

This Tomato Pretz was purchased in the asian candy aisle at Central Market, Shoreline, Washington (a few miles north of Seattle.)  There are four packets of Tomato Pretz in the box. These showed up on my receipt incorrectly as GLICO ICHIGO PRETZ, but I think the price is the same – $2.59.

Tomato Pretz are a uniquely flavored, yummy, crunchy snack. And like other pretzel snacks, you can pretend you’re being somewhat virtuous because you’re having pretzels, not chips, so it’s practically health food. Recommended.  4/5

Note: Photos in this post are provided by the author/photographer and copyrighted to her. Do not reproduce without written permission from the author/photographer.