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In Japan, the Kit Kat Isn’t Just a Chocolate

nytimes.com

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Re: In Japan, the Kit Kat Isn’t Just a Chocolate

#51

Post by koyote »

Yetanfou wrote: post #48
dejv wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of green tea, 1,5 - 2 litres per day. Not sure if thats healthy or not.

Same here, often jasmin blended with some Lapsang Souchong ("smoked tea") to give it a bit more punch. I've been doing this for decades and haven't noticed anything other than that it makes you pee quite a lot - a good thing as it serves as a natural screen/keyboard break.

As someone who also drinks litres of tea every day while at work, I have never tried blending two different types of tea.

Do you blend them 50/50 or have you found a better ratio? (I'd assume you don't need much lapsang)

Re: In Japan, the Kit Kat Isn’t Just a Chocolate

#52

Post by flocial »

janekm wrote: post #47
tokyodude wrote: post #9

This is just my personal observation with no data but AFAICT Kit Kat is *mostly" for tourists here in Japan. If there's an obsession it seems to me it's tourists buying them. I could be wrong but I've never personally seen Japanese people buying them (of course they must, just saying that I haven't noticed). I just walked over to 3 convenience stores that have a large candy selections. The 7/11 had no Kit Kats out of…

Tourists, yes, but to a large extent internal tourism due to the tradition of bringing back regional snacks for friends, family and coworkers. If you visit the gift shops along the highways in Japan they are stacked high with kitkat boxes of the local specialty flavours.

I was basically going to write the same but to avoid being a me too comment, here's the catalog to show you the diversity:

https://nestle.jp/brand/kit/gotouchi/

Re: In Japan, the Kit Kat Isn’t Just a Chocolate

#53

Post by [deleted] »

tokyodude wrote: post #9

This is just my personal observation with no data but AFAICT Kit Kat is *mostly" for tourists here in Japan. If there's an obsession it seems to me it's tourists buying them. I could be wrong but I've never personally seen Japanese people buying them (of course they must, just saying that I haven't noticed). I just walked over to 3 convenience stores that have a large candy selections. The 7/11 had no Kit Kats out of…

[deleted]

Re: In Japan, the Kit Kat Isn’t Just a Chocolate

#54

Post by wst_ »

ForrestN wrote: post #27
tokyodude wrote: post #9

This is just my personal observation with no data but AFAICT Kit Kat is *mostly" for tourists here in Japan. If there's an obsession it seems to me it's tourists buying them. I could be wrong but I've never personally seen Japanese people buying them (of course they must, just saying that I haven't noticed). I just walked over to 3 convenience stores that have a large candy selections. The 7/11 had no Kit Kats out of…

I saw a very popular seasonal KitKat stand within Seibu department store when I was visiting Japan, and I didn't notice any other tourist-looking people around. Is it possible that it's just not popular in the convenience store market, but is more popular in competition with all of the higher-end sweets people were constantly giving me, talking about, and eating while I was there?

Maybe magic of department store. You put the same thing in Tokyu Store and the same in depaato, make sure to overprice it. People will buy from depaato. Probably for a gift. It just works like that in Japan.

Plenty of KitKats is in my local Tokyu Store - no one is buying them. I never saw anyone in my office eating KitKat even once. They eat plenty of other sweets, often local. Also no one ever brought it as a travel gift (omiyage.)

Re: In Japan, the Kit Kat Isn’t Just a Chocolate

#55

Post by Yetanfou »

koyote wrote: post #51
Yetanfou wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here, often jasmin blended with some Lapsang Souchong ("smoked tea") to give it a bit more punch. I've been doing this for decades and haven't noticed anything other than that it makes you pee quite a lot - a good thing as it serves as a natural screen/keyboard break.

As someone who also drinks litres of tea every day while at work, I have never tried blending two different types of tea. Do you blend them 50/50 or have you found a better ratio? (I'd assume you don't need much lapsang)

A pinch of Lapsang is enough, I never actually measured the ratio. I do blend tea all the time, sometimes with Rooibos, sometimes with spices ('Yogi tea', cinnamon, cloves etc).

Re: In Japan, the Kit Kat Isn’t Just a Chocolate

#56

Post by kurthr »

wst_ wrote: post #5
kurthr wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes a boring but previously popular product finds a new niche in a different country/culture and booms. That boom could reach all the way back to the home country, because they innovated elsewhere (while protecting their base cash flow).

Is it less boring because they added few flavors? Not to mention that Kit Kat in Japan is really just another kind of cheap sweets among hundreds of others. Is there anything to learn here? Is the article thoughts provoking? I thought those are key points not to get flagged in the first place.

They are doing something new and it is spreading across cultures... https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/10/cryogenic-candy-in-ja...
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