Tigers and Cranes

It just goes to show you, that in the wacky world of blogging, there are websites that cover almost any subject. Case in point, a blog dedicated to… candy. It’s called “candyblog”, appropriately enough, and well, it’s a wealth of information about candies and other sweetstuff.

I had fun reading some of the entries, but one of my favorites is Matcha Kit Kat.

What exactly is “matcha”? well, let’s consult the good ol’ Wikipedia, shall we?

Matcha:

Maccha (抹茶, Maccha) [matʲːɕa], sometimes spelled matcha, is a fine, powdered green tea used in Japanese tea ceremony and to dye and flavour foods such as mochi and soba noodles, green tea ice cream and a variety of wagashi (Japanese confectionery). The most famous Maccha-producing regions are Uji in Kyoto (tea from this region is called “Ujicha”), Nishio in Aichi (tea from this region is called Nishiocha) both on the main island of Honshū; Shizuoka, and Northern Kyushu.

Maccha is generally expensive compared to other forms of tea, although its price depends on its quality. It can be hard to find outside Japan, as can the implements traditionally used to prepare and consume it.

There you go.

Now, shall we see what this “KitKat” is?

KitKat:

KitKat bar is a confection first created by Rowntree Limited of York, England and now made by Nestlé, which acquired Rowntree in 1988. It consists of thick bars composed of three layers of creme-filled wafer, covered in an outer layer of chocolate. Each finger can be snapped from the bar one at a time.

Wow, what doesn’t Wiki know? Anyway, Nestle has decided that for the Japanese market, it simply must bring these two disparate ingredients together in a candy bar form, thus giving birth to a matcha KitKat.

The author of “Candyblog” even has a ranking system for sweets, and according to the site, the best that matcha KitKat can muster is a rather mediocre “tempting”. Not to tell how others to run their business or anything, but the rating system used seems kind of wacky. Highest rating is “superb” at perfect 10, but 6 is “tempting”? and 9 a “yummy”? I guess.

I haven’t had the chance to try the said confection, but I think I will go out and buy a bar, in the interest of scientific and cultural research.

from CandyBlog

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 21st, 2007 at 2:50 am and is filed under food, japan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.