everything you need to know about japanese regional kitkats;

I’m doing a GIVEAWAY! In honor of the rebranding of tipsychocochip to Best With Chocolate, I want to giveaway CHOCOLATE. I mean was it ever going to be anything else? And the prize? 6 mini Japanese regional kitkats that come in flavors you can’t get in the US! How cool is that!

Update: GIVEAWAY CLOSED! Thank you to everyone who participated.

To win, head over to my Instagram @bestwithchocolate and check out the post. I will be revealing the additional 5 flavors in my Instagram stories throughout the day! So check back to see the additional flavors. The rules are simple, but you’ll need an Instagram account:

🍫 Follow @bestwithchocolate
🍫 Like the giveaway post
🍫 Tag 2 friends in the comments who’d love to win this too!

Want extra entries?
🍫 Share an IG KitKat flavor reveal story for extra entries!

Unlimited entries. Continental US only. Giveaway will close Saturday (8/22/2020) at 11:59 PM EST. Winner will be announced on Sunday and shipped next week.

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Have you heard of these crazy Japanese regional KitKat flavors? There are some wild ones out there, and I feel like this giveaway embodies the best parts of everything I love. Travel, a culture I love, and CHOCOLATE. What more could you want?

The fun part about KitKats in Japan is that they have seasonal, regional, and all-around so many more flavors than we have here in the US. I’m talking raspberry, I’m talking pudding. I’m talking Tokyo Banana. But they also have some crazy ones like soy sauce and wasabi flavored KitKats! If you’re wondering why they’re so popular there, the answer is that it’s a perfect storm of culture and novelty.

For one, Japanese culture is huge on regional products. Called meibutsu, areas have local specialties, often foods or local cuisine you can’t find anywhere else. For example, if you’ve read my post about visiting 5 cities in 10 days in Japan, you’ll know that yatsuhashi are one of my favorite meibutsu from Kyoto.

Yatsuhashi are a sweet mochi triangle stuffed with delicious fillings. We scoured downtown looking specifically for choco-banana ones when we visited last year. Not to mention I even planned our trip around visiting Kyoto later so I could take them home as omiyage (souvenirs). It took some hunting, but I did find them and I was so happy! But we also hunted KitKats across all the cities we visited on our trip. Being my second trip to Japan, I knew I wanted to bring back as many KitKats as I could!

Second, you pronounce KitKats “kitto katto” (キットカット) in Japanese. The phrase is strikingly similar to “kitto katsu” which means “to surely win”. Because of this, KitKats are often given to students taking exams as good luck charms. Nestle has capitalized on this, adding areas to write names or good luck messages on the KitKats themselves.

If you have the opportunity to travel there, and want to collect Japanese regional KitKats, you’re in luck! I’ve made a quick and easy infographic about some of the regional flavors. This infographic pulls information from the current Nestle Japan website (in summer 2020) and makes use of my limited Japanese.

It’s by no means a comprehensive list because there are over 300+ flavors that have been released in Japan. I did a lot of research but there’s not a lot of resources that document what flavors were released when. Of course, I’m limited to English or rudimentary attempts at translating Japanese. So this infographic is by no means comprehensive. But I personally have eaten quite a few across my two trips to Japan.

But here’s another fun fact you might not know—do you know what company produces KitKats for the US? The Hershey Company. If you notice, I said that Nestle has capitalized on the Japanese market. It’s this discrepancy that means it’s super hard to find these same flavors in the US.

Not only are a lot of these local to only Japan, but they’re not produced by the same company in the US. So you pretty much have to import them from the other half of the globe if you want them in the US. But lucky for you, I’m sharing the goodies! So all you have to do is enter the contest on IG and you could be tasting the flavors of Japan for FREE!

To name a few of the flavors I’ve had (you can see even more flavors and photos from my last trip on Instagram):

• Wasabi
• Tokyo banana
• Mint dark chocolate
• Strawberry cheesecake
• Sake
• Citrus
• Sakura blossom
• Apple
• Toasted pudding (these were meant to be toasted in a toaster!)
• Purple sweet potato

And that’s definitely not all of them. But they’re pretty fun to collect while you travel. KitKats are a familiar product in the Western world, but with a Japan-specific twist! I know there are some foods and snacks that might be considered exotic or less approachable to some Western sensibilities. But since you can’t find Japanese regional KitKats anywhere else, it feels like a fun piece of Japan to take home.

What are some of your favorite flavors of Japanese regional KitKats? Or flavors you wish you could try? Leave a comment below! And when you make it to Japan, use this infographic to make sure you hit up some areas with fun flavors!

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