Nestle KitKat Mango Pudding

At a grocery store in Kyoto, I bought what I thought would be a bag of mango pudding KitKats, but I forgot to read the front. If I had, then I would have known that this bag was half regular chocolate, half mango. It was kind of a let down when I got home.

But in any case, this KitKat has been reviewed a few different places (Japanese Snack Reviews and Jen's KitKat Blog, for example), but I thought I might as well throw my opinion into the pile as well.


The KitKat has a strong mango smell and it reminded me of mango sherbet. The flavor was very bold and fruity, and definitely mango. It was sour and tart, but it still went pretty well with the white chocolate.

It was different from other KitKats I have tried in the past, and definitely one of the best fruity KitKats I've ever tried. It was very sweet, but I am a big fan of mango, and the flavor was fairly authentic overall (for a KitKat).

B+

KitKat website

Summer Tirol

These summer Tirol chocolates came in a fancy cup, and I bought them in a grocery store for about 300 yen. There were 12 designs (one for each Zodiac sign), but only 3 flavors: acerola, lemon, and coconut.

I love the pastel metallic colors, and even though I'm not into astrology, the package designs were pretty neat. Also, there were a lot of chocolates in this. Eating the whole cup would set you back about 1000 calories. On their own, they are about 30 calories each.


Coconut was half white and half milk chocolate. It smelled like coconut, but a little bit too much like sunscreen. Thankfully, it didn't taste like sunscreen, but the coconut flavor was very mild. Actually, I wished that the coconut flavor was stronger. It had a biscuit center, adding a nice texture. B

Acerola (cherry) was my favorite of the flavors. It smelled very fruity, and had a bright, strong cherry Starburst-like flavor. The white chocolate was light and smooth and didn't get in the way of the delicious, tart cherry gummy center. The gummy texture was sticky and chewy like a fruit gem. A+

Lemon smelled a little bit like cleaner, but tasted good. It reminded me of a lemon bar, because the chocolate was buttery and the gummy center was sour. The gummy had the same texture as the acerola. My sister didn't like the combination, but my husband and I did. B+

The lemon and acerola were nice and bold, so the coconut was disappointing by comparison. Overall, though, this was a nice variety pack, and there was something for everyone.

Tirol Chocolate website

Tirol Choco Crunch (Namco Edition)

My husband and I both like video games a lot, so when we were in Japan, we spent some time (and money) in arcades. In particular, we played a lot of UFO Catchers (also known as crane games), where players can win toys, candy, or pretty much anything (I've seen lobsters and Kobe beef).

These machines really aren't ever a good value. Maybe I'm just not skilled enough, but I'm fairly convinced they are rigged, or at least very hard to win. Usually, by the time I won something, I've spent more money trying to get it than the prize was actually worth. Amazingly, my husband won these Tirol chocolates on his first try, so it was just 100 yen. I won't mention how much we spent trying to win other things, but let's just say the house won.


The special Namco Pac-man box alone was pretty neat, as were the wrappers. Even though there were 6 package designs, they were all the same flavor: Choco Crunch. They were similar to the White & Cookie Crunch, but with milk chocolate instead of white.


The chocolate smelled very rich and a little bitter, which was fine by me. They were a very pleasant sweetness with a nice cookie texture. The overall chocolate flavor was mild, with a bit of bitterness from the darker chocolate cookie bits. I enjoyed these as much, if not a little more than their white chocolate siblings.

A-

Tirol Chocolate website

Tirol Mitarashi Dango

Sorry for the recent lack of updates, but I've been on vacation in Japan. So, as a result, I have a lot of candy to review! I was able to find a ton of Tirol chocolate, so I'll start with the Mitarashi Dango deluxe Tirol. It cost about 20 yen at a convenience store.

Mitarashi Dango are made with syrup from soy sauce, sugar, and starch. I ate some at the Mitarashi Festival in Kyoto during this trip, and they were quite tasty, especially washed down with blessed spring water from Shimogamo Shrine.


The treat smelled like rich, slightly toasted white chocolate, and inside, there was some of the mitarashi syrup over a mochi gummy center. The mochi itself doesn't have much of a taste, but the syrup was tasty, with a slightly bitter flavor.

It definitely wasn't as good as the real thing, and the sweetness of the white chocolate was a little much. It wasn't too sweet, but having tried it after trying the real thing, I thought the syrup went better with mochi than with chocolate.

B

Tirol Chocolate website

Ferrero Tic Tac Pink Grapefruit

My older sister and I were big Tic Tac eaters when we were younger. We both liked the orange ones best, even though it was common knowledge that they actually made breath worse.

I first heard about these from a candy blog, but when I searched the Internet, I couldn't find it, so I can't remember which it was. Anyhow, they were released a while ago, but it takes some things a while to get to my town.


They look like standard Tic Tacs, despite coming in a bigger box. At first, the taste is very similar to orange, but once a little of the coating is gone, the grapefruit notes really kick in. It's sour, a little bitter, and fairly authentic ("dry pink grapefruit juice" is listed in the ingredients). There's also a mintiness in the background, but I wouldn't choose these as a breath freshener.

The taste was very similar to grapefruit Jelly Belly jelly beans, or grapefruit e-ma, which also has a minty kick. The mintiness did remind me of a throat lozenge, but I still enjoyed these. They went over well at work, too.

B+

Tic Tac website