The Asia Trip: Japanese Kit Kat Bar - Kinako Ohagi Flavor

Nestle's Kit Kat Bar (licensed by Hershey's here in the U.S.) is very popular in Japan and comes in many varieties.  My cousin asked me to get her some while I was there and so I ended up buying quite a few different ones such as the Kinako Ohagi flavored Kit Kat shown here.

A package like this of four sticks wrapped separately in sets of two usually runs around 100 yen ($1.10) although certain flavors (like Green Tea or Cheesecake) cost a little bit more.  You can buy them online for $1.99.  I had to look up what flavor this was because I couldn't really tell from eating it.  It tasted mostly like milk chocolate with a bit of nuttiness which was weird to me because due to the picture, I thought it was croquette (breaded deep-fried mashed potatoes) flavored, so I was expecting something different..

Kinako Ohagi is actually a type of dessert in Japan.  Kinako is powdered, toasted soybeans.  Ohagi is sweet azuki (red bean) paste surrounded by a layer of pounded sweet rice (it's a type of mochi).  So Kinako Ohagi is an ohagi dusted with powdered, toasted soybeans which made sense to me upon closer inspection of the picture on the box.

It still just tasted like milk chocolate with a bit of nuttiness which isn't that special.  The ingredients (I also looked it up) do include glutinous rice puffs, powdered red beans, and soybean flour though, I just didn't really taste it.  Still, it's a pretty interesting idea for a candy bar.