One thing Japanese people do so much better than anyone else (in my opinion) is how they elevate desserts and sweets to the next level. They even make a simple snack, KitKat to something fancy and elegant! We went to visit one of their KitKat “Chocolatory” locations in Tokyo.
The store was decorated like some kind of expensive boutique store. It didn’t look like a store that sells “snack” that you can buy at a convenient store. It screamed some thing that is more decadent and fancy. But yet, all they have is KitKat.
Just how fancy are they? How about a 7 tiered “cake” made with colorful KitKat? Or about the gorgeous red chandelier, top-half of which is made with KitKat wrapper? If that is not enough, how about a photograph taken by a professional photographer of a pâtissier, who creates all the fancy KitKat?
If that is not enough, you can just browse at all the amazing selection of KitKat, made only in Japan! I wonder why they can’t be made available everywhere…or at least in the USA. But then again, that exclusivity is another thing that makes this shop so desirable.
They had several boxes of special selections, and we decided to get a sample box called Special Series (1,000 yen). I mean, we are special (in so many ways…LOL), so why not get a box that was calling our names? It came in a super cute box with a drawing of ingredients in these KitKats.
It came with four flavors of mini KitKat, two of each. It was described that this Special Series offers unique flavors, created with uncompromising ingredients and playful spirit of pâtissier.
Inside the box, it said that the KitKat Chocolatory is under the direction of renown Japanese chocolatier, pâtissier Takagi. Each KitKat is made with unique ideas and uncompromising ingredients. This is where you can meet you own special KitKat, that can bring you amazement and excitement. Who knew KitKat can mean so much…
The flavors in this selection are: Pistachio & Raspberry, Strawberry Maple, Butter, and Green Tea & Kinako. Very interesting indeed.
Pistachio & Raspberry had a nice bright green color, and had really nice raspberry flavor. The exterior chocolate had good, nutty flavor of pistachio, hugging the strong raspberry interior. I could clearly taste the high quality ingredients, real flavor of the ingredients instead of artificial flavors.
Strawberry Maple was good, but it was mainly strawberry… It was better than regular strawberry KitKat I had in the past though. And it had a hint of sweet maple sugar, which elevated the flavor of this KitKat. It made the tart strawberry flavor more soft and round, warm and homey.
The most interesting and unique one was Butter. I know, butter flavor KitKat! Who in the world came up with this one? No, it didn’t taste like a stick of butter, but more like birthday cake. Very rich, and creamy birthday cake, with buttercream frosting. Yum! It was surprisingly delicious!
The last one was Green Tea & Kinako. They sure are creative. This one was very Japanese, both in flavor and ingredients. It had strong flavor of green tea which was a bit bitter, and kinako with sugar which went pretty nicely with green tea.
Our visit to KitKat Chocolatory was pretty cool. I wanted to go visit another location in Tokyo as well, but we didn’t have time… I am glad that I got visit at least one of the KitKat Chocolatory and taste some of their exclusive KitKats. They are always coming up with more interesting flavors, so it will be fun to go back and try some other fancy KitKat in the future.
KitKat Chocolatory – 5 Chome-24-2 Sendagaya, Shibuya, Tokyo Japan