Kit Kat – Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream
What’s the first thing you think of when you hear or see the term Japanese snacks or candy? There’s a good chance the first thing to come to mind is Kit Kat. I don’t follow Kit Kat too closely, but I have been around long enough to have personally witnessed the rise of Kit Kat in Japan. It’s one of the few brands that started as a big thing in America, but managed to grow far bigger in Japan than it has here. There are countless news articles detailing how the phenomena happened. I won’t bore you with the details, but suffice to say it was a long term, intentional strategy that has worked out very well. So much so that odds are you have to pay a premium for Kit Kats coming from Japan, than you do for the standard North American ones. It almost feels weird seeing how slow the North American versions are to react to changes and new flavours in comparison.
Today I’m reviewing the Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream flavour. Boy, is that a mouthful to say out loud. In the past, there were a lot of regional varieties that were prohibitively hard to source in the Frigid North here. But with the onset of various websites and eCommerce, you can still source them, just at a premium. I went old school and grabbed this bag on my trip to Japan. I wasn’t sure what this flavour had in store, but my friend told me what it was and I couldn’t say no.
The label seems to suggest that you put them into the fridge or freezer to enhance the enjoyment. I tried to look for temperature instructions by finding a number, but I couldn’t do it successfully. Nor could I manage to get a translator app to figure it out so I just stuck it in the coldest part of my fridge. I figured freezing it might break a tooth.
Anyone who has put food into a company fridge that is shared with others knows that the risk of someone stealing your unlabelled food is high. In fact, even if you label it, you are liable to lose your food. It just deters the people who have a modicum of conscience, which as it turns out is not many, at least not where I work. I’m sure the folks at Kit Kat know this, because on the back they have a section for you to write a note or a name. Useful for at least putting some effort into deterring thieves.
Moving on…I stuck my piece in the fridge for about 3 to 4 hours. When I took it out, I accidentally dropped it on the desk and it made a sound similar to dropped an ice cube. It sounded hard as a brick. To my surprise, it thawed very quickly. It was hard at first, but the second you put it into your mouth it gets all melty, much like actual ice cream.
The exterior has the appearance of a strawberry ice cream, lots of little red and pink flecks, and a nice albeit artificial strawberry smell. The cheesecake is not present in the smell, at least not as far as I could tell.
The cross section is much as you would expect, it has the pink wafer, along with the flecks of strawberry. I still don’t really see/smell cheesecake, but maybe that will change when I actually taste it. Flavour is delightful, and has that distinct strawberry, with a hint of ice cream flavour. The cheesecake is very mild, and serves to cut the sweetness of the strawberry and round the flavour out. It’s quite nice, and I’ll try another piece later without putting it in the fridge to see if it affects the overall flavour or not.
One thing I did notice is how quickly these begin to thaw/melt, so don’t leave them sitting around. They appear to be best consumed immediately after leaving the fridge. Given that this is a less common Japanese flavour (as far as I can tell), there is a good chance it will cost a pretty penny. As much as I enjoyed it, I’m not sure that a premium is justified for this, over say, a normal strawberry flavour. If you can find this cheap at around 6 dollars for the bag, go for it. Otherwise I’d say you can skip it. Unless you really like Kit Kat. In which case, I can’t stop you.