Ikinari Dango Kit Kat

What an interesting looking Kit Kat! It's themed after a Japanese dessert consisting of mochi filled with sweet potato and red bean. That sounds like a wonderful combination and I'd like to scarf some of those down right now, but at least I have the next best thing right here. It also features Kumamon on the package, what a cute bear! I bet he'd like some of this too.

True to the source material, this Kit Kat has a white exterior. It also smells very strongly of sweet potato, almost too strongly. I don't get any other flavor so it's a very "raw" smell, almost savory. I wonder if the red bean is lurking inside somewhere?

The taste definitely contains a few other things besides sweet potato. The most noticeable thing is the mochi part which just comes across as creamy and soft, without too much of any other flavor. Maybe it's because it's actually flavored like mochi, or maybe it's just some very light white chocolate. There is definitely some red bean in there too, though it's not extremely noticeable first, just comes across as a cushion of sweet earthiness. The sweet potato portion like the smell is quite raw tasting, so if you love sweet potato you'll love this. But if you're on the fence, it doesn't offer too much else besides that sweet potato sensation. Unlike a lot of other snacks, I do actually feel like this could use a bit of extra sweetness.

Rating: 6 - Aruff!

Kit Kats: Caramel Pudding, Tokai Red Bean Sandwich, Strawberry Cheesecake

What an interesting trio of Kit Kats! I'm stoked for all of these flavors, but particularly the pudding one, as anyone who's seen me review a pudding snack would know. The red bean sandwich one is certainly a mystery in taste to me as I've never had a red bean sandwich myself. The cheesecake one of course I have a good idea of how it'll taste, having had snacks in this kind of flavor before.

The caramel pudding flavor doesn't appear to have much caramel with the pudding judging by the color, but the smell seems to tell otherwise I get some eggy pudding deliciousness in the smell, but also lots of caramel, almost overshadowing it completely. I hope this doesn't upset the balance of flavor, as these two are amazing in ths right proportions.

Looks like I didn't have to worry too much about that. The caramel dominates the smell but I get more pudding in the taste, though something seems off about this pudding flavor. It's a lot more gritty and shallow, and I'm not too much a fan. The caramel also seems that way, being way too sweet rather than rich tasting. It could be the adaptation to this crunchy wafer texture, but they could've easily done a way better job even on the flavor with that in mind. As it is now it's not too pleasant to eat.

Rating: 2 - Awrr

Ginbis Shimichoco Corn - Milky Red Bean

My stomach is growling more than I ever do right now, and of course because of that I grab the largest, most appetizing, filling snack I can find in the TokyoTreat box - this one! I know shimichoco corn has had a really nice texture and flavor, with a puffed corn base on the inside and icing on the outside, and I hope this red bean flavor will take it up another notch. I love red bean normally, and combined with the milky white chocolate flavor? It seems like it's set up for success with this type of combination, and the image on the bag of red beans drowned in milk looks tantalizing.

The corn itself takes on the white color of the milk more than the red bean, but you can see the red bean in there through red flecks mostly on the tips of the stars. The smell however seems to be an even distribution of milk and red bean, the red bean adding some earthiness and substance, and the milk adding creaminess and richness. They seem to go well together.

Biting into it, I once again experience the nice texture of the shimichoco corn, with the the inner corn part providing some real substance, and adding a new flavor to what I smelled before that works quite well, in this case the starchy base. This snack seems to have everything going for it: sweetness, earthiness, richness, a bit of fruitiness actually that I wouldn't expect from having the red bean in here. There's also some grittiness that the dust on the surface adds to it that I'm really enjoying.

In fact, it's hard to write this review because I can't stop eating this. There's so much depth of flavor and a ton of sensations that I'm getting here, and it's a really satisfying bite all the way through. I may have developed some self control from some of my canine brethren but I'm losing all of it here, because this is too good. Maybe I'll need to go out and hunt for more!

Rating: 10 - AWOOOOOOO!!!

Odangoyasan DIY Kit

Oh boy, finally a legitimate diy kit! I wagged my tail excitedly when I first saw it, and now it's going into hyper drive as I'm about to try it. Like a propeller. I've really wanted to build things and then eat them for a while, and while I've received DIY kits from Japan Crate in the past, they've seemed a bit... simplistic. But this one has plenty of components to it--5 in fact, which are, in reading order, a matcha roll, strawberry daifuku, kuzu manju, shiritama anmitsu, and kashiwa mochi.

I definitely know what the first two are. The kuzu manju I thought was taiyaki, but seems that kuzu manju can have it as well. Although it seems to be about the same composition as taiyaki being a cake with red bean paste in it. The anmitsu seems to be your typical mochi, paste and dumpling combination. The kasiwa mochi is a red bean stuffed mochi surrounded by an oak leaf. Now that I know what all of these are, let's get into it!