Amazake KitKat Review

Hello! My name is Yen 🙂 And I’m Kanji Guy’s little sister!

Every time my husband (Ton) and I go to Japan, we always get Kit Kats in different flavours. To be honest, finding Kit Kats feels like doing Easter Egg Hunt around Japan as we would just randomly spot different flavours in different prefectures. My top favorited flavours before the recent trip were Rum & Raisin and Sake. Both can be found in Tokyo. I quite like the slight alcohol tang into these flavours. I don’t actually like Sake the drink, but I do love Rum & Raisin ice cream growing up!! I thought these 2 flavours couldn’t be defeated until..

I got to Hakata. At one of the underground food hall (where you can buy heaps of food souvenirs/ omiyage), I found a bag of a flavour I hadn’t tried before.. Amazake!!! I was ecstatic! 

Amazake (甘酒)  is a fermented Japanese rice drink. Amazake literally means sweet (甘) sake (酒). This drink can be either made low alcohol or non alcohol. Low alcohol version (around 8%) is made with sake lees, steamed rice, and water. Whereas the non alcohol version is made with steamed rice, water, rice koji (rice that’s covered by koji mold/ fungus, a certain mold contained in miso, soy sauce, or sake). Non alcohol Amazake is usually served during Hina Matsuri (Doll Festival held annually on March 3) as children, pregnant mums can safely consume the non alcohol version. Sometimes, amazake is topped with shredded ginger. It’s a perfect warm drink for cold weather!! 

 

When we were in Shirokawa-go in December and it was freezing -6 degree Celsius, there was this tiny kiosk that sells some rice cakes and home-made amazake. I think I had about 3 cups of Amazake! I kept on going back for more. I even bought some instant amazake sachets, but I’m keeping these precious until winter hits Sydney (can you see me hugging the packets and hear me scream “MY PRECIOUSSS” in croaky voice?)

Now, back to the Kit Kats!!

Tha packaging gives an expensive feel, you see, gold foil and that steaming amazake picture.. Mmm~!

The inside is quite similar to that of Rum & Raisin and Sake : White chocolate covered wafers with the normal Kit Kat logo.

But the flavour.. BOOM! Whilst slightly similar to the Sake flavour, it has that zing of sweetness of fermented rice smell. I really like it!! Hands down the best kitkats for me! If you are not a ginger fan, don’t worry, these Kit Kats has no hint of ginger flavour at all. 

This bag of 11 mini packets costs about 500yen. It’s a reasonable price 🙂 

Whilst Amazake is great for winter, Amazake Kit Kats is perfect for any type of weather! Even for Sydney’s autumn (that feels like summer at the moment)!

Ja mata!　じゃ、またね！

– Yen