The Best KitKat Flavors In Japan

Why are Japanese KitKats so special?!

KitsKats are associated with the Japanese phrase "Kitto Katsu" which translates to "You will surely win". That makes the KitKat brand tied to good luck charms, especially with students. There are over 300 flavors with many being sold only in Japan as seasonal release flavors, limited edition flavors, and in KitKat pop up stores. Finding KitKats isn’t hard, but finding special flavors is surprisingly tough sometimes!

Where did you find these?

By and large these are from Don Quixote.

Don Quixote is a store you visit once in every major city just to experience. Think of it as the offspring of Party City and a Japanese hoarder that’s a garage sale of costumes, cosmetics, liquor, anime, and snacks that KitKats manage to survive in. There is usually a massive wall of KitKats in the back of the store, and tubs of them near the entrance hoping to escape from the controlled chaos.

Sometimes drug stores carry fun flavors. They tend to have the basic bars like original, basic strawberry, dark, and in Japan, orange, and matcha. Fun flavors are rarely stocked but buy them in drug stores if you find them because they’ll be cheaper there than at Don Quixote. Just don’t get your hopes up.

Duty free shops in major cities and airports have fun KitKat flavors and are the only places we found the banana bars. However, prepare to pay top dollar!

Did you try all the flavors?!

Absolutely not. A big part of budget travel is budgeting and KitKats ruin your budget and belly. Boxes and bags of KitKats cost around $10 each. Most bags and boxes have at least 7 bars inside meaning you’re probably locked into a ~$10 purchase of at least 7 KitKats when sampling flavors. Eventually we had to stop buying KitKats in favor of real food. The chocoholic spirit was willing but the wallet was weak. We also missed out on tons of seasonal flavors that weren’t available during our two month visit.

These are the flavors of KitKat bars we tried ranked from least favorite to the best!

Number 11: Ume Sake

Many first-time drinkers get to experience their first sip of alcohol as a cold cheap beer that tastes like flavored water and regret. If you missed out on that life experience, fear not, for you can live it now by tasting an ume sake KitKat! It’s a bad bar.

If an ume sake KitKat is your first taste of a Japanese KitKat then you’ll think you don’t like sake. Or KitKats. I’ll give them credit for having a really nice scent but that’s where compliments end. The taste isn’t flattering starting out, going down, or as an aftertaste. The alcohol tastes like a fake additive leaving a spiked white chocolate aftertaste. Other sake KitKats exist that I’d try but after this bar I sadly don’t expect much. Thankfully, this is the only bad Japanese KitKat we tried.

Number 10: Strawberry Cheesecake

You know that feeling when someone argues a point so vague that you say, “I guess so” but you really don’t understand? That’s how it feels being told by Nestle that this KitKat is supposed to taste like strawberry cheesecake.

This bar tastes neither like strawberry nor cheesecake. Instead, it managed to find a confused taste between the two. It embraces a white chocolate base like the ume sake bar, but unlike that one this isn’t a mess of a flavor. It’s just a weird tasting white chocolate that’s trying to be smooth, but much like middle school me, is not. Overall it’s a nice idea for a bar that falls flat thanks to not having an interesting smell, taste, or memory tied to it. Try it if you want to check a new flavor off the list, but ideally someone gives you one for free.

Number 9: Strawberry Chocolate

This is where the “standard” KitKat flavors fall such as original, strawberry, matcha, and orange. A notable exception is the dark chocolate KitKat (a much better bar) which could claim the #6 rank. However, those bars are readily available in the US so we didn’t buy them in Japan. That puts this strawberry chocolate bar in line with those as a basic bar from abroad.

By Japanese standards this is a boring KitKat. It’s an ole reliable with two flavors you know work well together before biting. It doesn’t elevate either and sort of throws them together in a “good enough” way. That doesn’t make it bad - it makes it predictable. It’s a good bar to buy if you don’t trust more the “exotic” flavors you’ll find or if you aren’t an adventurous eater. In which case I’m not calling you boring, just safe.

Number 8: Melon

Melon is the first bar we opened that had a fun citrus scent. That made it more interesting than all the bars in the number 9 ranking but that was also its peak.

This KitKat tastes okay. The flavor comes across as a test batch trial that they settled on without being happy about. That impression could be due to there not being many cantaloupe flavored things in the world to compare it to. True to the packaging, this somehow tastes like a shade of cantaloupe which I’ve never experienced outside the real fruit. It’s not a flavor I recommend unless you really like cantaloupe - Japan simply makes better KitKats so put your money towards those other bars.

Number 7: Banana

Banana is a polarizing flavor because it overpowers everything you put it in. That doesn’t happen here. This bar manages to find a nice balance between banana and chocolate even though you’ll still be skeptical right up until you bite in.

If you’ve ever had a a chocolate covered banana and a peanut butter banana sandwich then this bar will taste like a familiar average of the two. It starts out as a chocolate forward banana but melts into a thick banana flavor overload which isn’t for everyone (especially not Chandni). That could also explain why is comes standard in a box of 6 instead of 7. It just a very in your face KitKat that will be a hit or miss depending on your preference. These appear to only be available in duty free shops within airports and in major cities.

Number 6: Apple Pie

This is the quintessential fall KitKat. Does it taste like apple pie? Sure, close enough. It’s more of a baked apple taste with brown sugar added that comes across as the gooey filling of an apple pie at room temperature.

Apple pie is a tough flavor to imitate, especially for a KitKat. The challenge is replicating the buttery crunchy crust of the pie. For a KitKat to do that it would need the wafer to take on that role which it doesn’t do in this case. If it did then this bar would be next level, but instead it’s a strong mid range KitKat that got it mostly right. Americans will love it as it does a good job representing a taste of home. I’d buy it again but you can bet this is a seasonal bar you won’t find during summer. Check that expiration date if you do.

Number 5: Sweet Potato

Now I’m getting serious! Chandni and I were first introduced to sweet potato KitKats in early 2020 when a friend returned with them from Japan. We did a blind taste testing and never got close to guessing this flavor even with hints. I ended up liking it so much that I actually began eating more sweet potatoes after trying this bar.

Ironically, this doesn’t taste like sweet potato at all! It tastes like an attempt at sweet potato frosting that came out just a bit too sweet in a good way. The Japanese don’t enjoy overly forward flavors so this is a very accessible sweet that’s also very smooth. It finishes like a sweet cream that tries to convince you to have another right away. It will probably succeed.

Number 4: Peach

If you said peach was your favorite flavor of KitKat then I’d kindly disagree but completely respect your opinion. This bar does everything it tells you it’s going to do and then ramps it up a notch!

The moment you open the packaging you inhale a peach orchard that takes root in you. The smoothest of peach flavors starts as a wonderful aroma, builds strength as you eat it, and lingers as an addicting aftertaste. After having one bar we turned around and bought another box. This bar elevated the smell, flavor, and aftertaste of fresh peaches way beyond what was expected. A few KitKat’s did two of those really well in their own right, but peach is the first flavor that achieved all three. It’s a great KitKat that I wish we found in a box holding more than 3.

Number 3: Sakura and Roasted Soybean

I said I was getting serious in number 5. Now I am serious. The sakura and roasted soybean KitKat could be my favorite KitKat on any given day. It is by far the smoothest bar and a completely new flavor that we loved. I have never tried roasted soy bean but if it always tastes like a sweet autumn memory then I will never turn it down.

This is the bar I think of when I think of a Japanese KitKat thanks to the subtle but tremendously important sakura notes and the smoothness of its texture. It’s fantastic on its own but I can even see it being enjoyed with tea. While peach certainly achieved a wonderful smell, delicate flavor, and great aftertaste, the sakura and roasted soybean KitKat overachieved all three.

Number 2: Tokyo Shima Lemon

This might be the best lemon flavored anything I have ever tried, but at the very least it’s the best lemon candy I’ve ever tried. If you were already a lemon fan then this will likely be your favorite bar. If you weren’t then welcome to the club because this KitKat is going to convert you!

Lemon is a frustratingly hard flavor to get right because every extra drop added to a mix is noticeable. How they managed to get a lemon flavor this strong in such a balance is nothing short of culinary wizardry. This bar isn’t amazing because of a complex flavor fusion or because a new ingredient gave you a new addiction. It’s amazing because it takes something you very well may love already and uses it to absolutely blow your mind with it anyway.

Number 1: Chocolate Strawberry Cake

We weren’t excited about this bar. A back alley drug store in Fukuoka is the only place we found it which made us wonder if people liked it. Turns out the chocolate strawberry cake KitKat is so good that it’s totally unfair to other KitKats!

This bar oozes decadence from start to finish. It smells like a bakery, tastes like their best dark chocolate cake, then knocks you out when a strawberry kiss kicks in at the end. Lemon perfects a single flavor, but this bar takes two fan favorites and maxes out their potential. Layering flavors for discovery like that is a trademark of Japanese cuisine but not one you expect from a candy bar. Chocolate strawberry cake is a beauty of a bar and the best Japanese KitKat flavor.