Thursday, November 23, 2006

KitKat Pumpkin

Things to be thankful for: I apparently rebound from weariness rather quickly! After my declaration that I will not try any other limited edition KitKat bars, I’ve been sucked back in. And by a Pumpkin version no less.

imageIn honor of American Thanksgiving, I had to review them. So I met Santos, of The Scent of Green Bananas at the Farmers Market yesterday for some lunch and a huge and generous mess ‘o candy (like trick or treating for grown ups! - more on that in the coming week). I rushed home afterwards to photograph them so I could give them a try.

First thing to know about these is that they are Japanese. Second thing to know is that they are pumpkin flavored, not pumpkin pie or pumkpin pie spice or pumpkin custard. They’re pumpkin flavored. Ever eat a pumpkin?

image

They’re milk chocolate covering the normal bland wafers with a pumpkin creme inside. Lest you think that they’re subtle, they smell quite distinctly of pumpkin. In fact, when I opened the bag (not even any of the packets, just the bag that they were in) it smelled like baby food.

It takes a little getting used to, but the pumpkin KitKat has a nice toasted, caramelized flavor. It’s not as sweet as the usual grainy sugar cream, so it offsets the cheap and greasy chocolate quite well. I can’t quite put my finger on it, except to say that the flavor is Pumpkin (or perhaps simply squash). The package is all in Japanese.

There is a long and strange aftertaste to this candy, a pumpkin aftertaste and not something I’ve ever experienced in my life before. I kept walking around the house thinking of baby food. Baby food. Look at the package - there’s a family of pumpkins on there. Daddy pumpkin, Momma pumpkin and of course little baby pumpkin with his two front teeth just growing in. (Does he eat this pumpkin puree KitKat?) I keep thinking ... Babies with faces caked with strained squash. Smelling of squash, a smidge of fabric softener and of course that baby smell.

They are, in fact, strangely addictive. I don’t know how, because any gourd and chocolate has never sounded like a good combo to me, but here I am, eating another. I hesitate to give them a high score, but the fact that I continue to eat them means the have to get at least a 7 out of 10.

(Here are Santos’ thoughts on the latest KitKats.)

Final thought: thank you all for reading and commenting in the past year.

Name: KitKat Pumpkin
    RATING:
  • 10 SUPERB
  • 9 YUMMY
  • 8 TASTY
  • 7 WORTH IT
  • 6 TEMPTING
  • 5 PLEASANT
  • 4 BENIGN
  • 3 UNAPPEALING
  • 2 APPALLING
  • 1 INEDIBLE
Brand: Nestle
Place Purchased: gift from Santos (thanks!)
Price: unknown
Size: unknown
Calories per ounce: unknown
Categories: Chocolate, Cookie, Japan, Nestle, KitKat, Limited Edition

POSTED BY Cybele AT 6:58 am Tracker Pixel for Entry    

Comments
  1. We really want to try these, but so far all we’ve found at Mitsuwa is bags of the new lemon Kit-Kats (of which we have bought several, as they are extremely delicious).

    Comment by Grace on 11/23/06 at 7:38 am #
  2. I love pumpkin, these sounds pretty down to earth compared to some of the wilder Kit Kats available. They just re-released the “Kit Kat Fine Dark” here in the UK - Listing this time, it’s cocoa content.

    I tried the 4 finger variety tonight and it was very, very good. The cocoa content is 52% and with a flawless, shiny coat, it was beautifully simple - Very nice.

    Comment by GTO on 11/23/06 at 8:36 am #
  3. We very rarely get new chocolate flavours here in England, and Kit Kats are certainly no exception to the rule. The Peanut Butter variety came out about half a year ago and seems to be a permanent fixture, and as was mentioned above they launched a dark chocolate variety a few weeks ago as well.

    Nothing like this though, where are our Almond varieties? Green tea? Coconut? Coffee?

    The list goes on…

    Comment by Terry on 11/23/06 at 11:48 am #
  4. Terry, I’m in the UK too. If you’re looking for forgein variety, check your local “Home Bargains” - They always have cheap, american/european variants (Almond Snickers etc…)

    Market stalls are always good too, as it’s often cheaper for small sellers like that to get chocolate from Europe - I recently got some Snickers Cruncher and Nestle “Snack” from Poland. Aswell as those little ‘Baci’.

    Comment by GTO on 11/23/06 at 1:15 pm #
  5. I tried the mini pumpkin Kit-Kats when they first came out in Japan (perhaps a month ago or more) and thought they were extremely vile - like chocolate covered squash.

    The reason they are different is that they are kabocha, not U.S. pumpkin. Kabocha is green-skinned Japanese pumpkin and doesn’t taste the same as orange-skinned American pumpkin.

    Comment by Shari on 11/23/06 at 2:12 pm #
  6. Oh Cybele! I had a smile that rivaled the Chesire Cat’s when I saw that you reviewed the Pumpkin Kitkat for Thanksgiving! :D

    I’m really happy to see you liked them so much, heck, I’m relieved! They are *strangely* addictive…..I can’t stop eating them either. Although I am biased, since I a) adore pumpkin in all forms and b) sometimes eat pumpkin baby food. wink

    Comment by Sera on 11/23/06 at 2:45 pm #
  7. Hey I have a really really awesome recommendation for you! The candy is called e-ma by UHA and I believe you can find them at Mitsuwa…they are a bit pricey but I think they’re worth it :]

    Comment by Tochi on 11/23/06 at 7:46 pm #
  8. GTO

    Home Bargains? Is that an actual store or something? I’ve never heard of it if it is, the only stores near me are an ASDA and a Waitrose.

    And the local town doesn’t have a market either, I’d have to wait until I was home (I’m at University at the moment).

    Comment by Terry on 11/24/06 at 12:58 am #
  9. Pumpkin?  I think that I just threw up a little bit into my mouth.

    Comment by Dave on 11/24/06 at 11:37 pm #
  10. Terry - http://www.homebargains.co.uk/ you can see if you have one near you. I was in there today, they have US flavours of Wrigley’s - Aswell as Bubblicious and Chiclets.

    Comment by GTO on 11/25/06 at 8:22 am #
  11. Hmm, there’s one in the local town centre, but I have no idea how to get there and aren’t really that bothered about it. <.<

    Comment by Terry on 11/25/06 at 1:07 pm #
  12. I heart all things pumpkin so these look yummilicious to me! But i haven’t seen them anywhere! Are they only sold in certain locations?

    Comment by jaynie on 11/26/06 at 9:19 pm #
  13. Well, I said over and over that these pumpkin kit kats didn’t taste like anything at all to me. And then today I had a roasted pumpkin pizza, and it didn’t taste like anything either. So I guess I just don’t know what pumpkin tastes like.

    Comment by Robin on 11/29/06 at 3:07 pm #
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