Author Archive for risu

Nestle Japan makes innumerable regional variations of the Kit Kat chocolate-covered biscuit candy, usually borrowing the flavor of the coating from the local specialty food, whether that be strawberry, green tea, melon, wasabi, sweet potato, or even soy sauce! While killing time at the airport before my return flight, I saw some boring flavors that I’ve had before or are available at Don Quijote on Kaheka, then I saw these. From the get-go, the katakana “otona” for “adult” caught my eye. Adult? What, is it like naughty or something? I couldn’t read the kanji, though it seemed vaguely familiar. The package was dark, and the images of the candy seemed darker than the usual milk chocolate, so I figured what they meant by “adult” was these were a less-sweet dark chocolate version. I threw them in my Kifaru after buying them and forgot about them until a couple days ago. Continue reading ‘Edible Briefs – Nestle Japan Otona no Amasa Kit Kat’

Kirin is generally the last of the major Japanese commercial beer manufacturers on my list, so you can guess how desperate or bored I was to pick this one up. I’ve had several of the Kirin premium line bottled beers before, and in general these are distinct in flavor profile from the standard Kirin Ichiban Shibori, but they still fall short of impressing me. The Grand Kirin is no exception. The label calls out, “rich malt and dip hop,” but this is not mirrored anywhere on the label in Nihongo in any writing system. I find this odd. There was another similar bottle labeled, “aroma hop,” or something, so the Japanese consumer has to differentiate the two (or possibly more) of the Kirin premium products by the English or label color? Continue reading ‘Beer is Good – Grand Kirin’