But is it still chocolate?

I was taken aback to read of the new flavors of a popular chocolate bar being offered in Japan.

Nestle has given one of the most popular and long-established chocolate bars in the world a uniquely Japanese make-over.

Kit Kat bars are now available in 19 new flavours that reflect specialities from regions across Japan, ranging from sweet potatoes from Okinawa to melons from Hokkaido, strawberries from Tochigi, green tea from Kyoto and soy sauce from Tokyo.




Launched late last year, Nestle said it hopes people will buy the lines - which are only available in Japan - as souvenirs or as gifts. The company has also teamed up with Japan Post to produce boxes that can be sent through the mail when a Y140 (€1.14) stamp is attached and one side of the box has a blank space for a message - in much the same way as people send postcards from a holiday destination.

"Giving gifts is an important part of Japanese culture and we like to travel, so we wanted to combine these two things together," Miki Kanoh, a spokeswoman for the Kobe-based company, told Relaxnews.

Other flavours include pungent wasabi - a green horseradish that is more commonly found in sushi - apple, chili, miso, cherries and strawberry cheese cake from Yokohama.

And with the school and university exam season upon Japanese students, Kit Kats have also been finding their way into school lunch boxes as a good luck charm. Kit Kat, an expression invented in Britain in the 1930s, sounds close to "kitto katsu," a Japanese exam-season mantra that literally means "I'll do my best to make sure I succeed." Tens of thousands of students will find the snacks in their lunch boxes over the coming weeks, mostly placed there by ambitious parents anxious for their success.

There's more at the link.

Green tea? Melons? Wasabi??? But . . . but . . . what happened to the chocolate? I think I'll stick to the original flavor, thanks very much!





Peter