For the longest time, I’d avoided foods with chilli like the plague. It wasn’t only recently that I started to appreciate heat in my food. I’m still not – and probably never will be – enough of a fan to commit to a box of Red Pepper KitKats (a flavour limited to the Shinshu region), but add passionfruit and I’m game.
So, this is Nestlé KitKat Special Chilli & Passionfruit, exclusive to the KitKat Chocolatory stores in Japan. It consisted of fragrant wafers sandwiching a passionfruit cream and enrobed in a chilli infused dark chocolate.
The dark chocolate notes are the first to hit your tongue in these KitKats, followed by the sweet and tangy passionfruit as you reach the wafers. The heat from the chilli becomes apparent in the finish of the first bite and builds with surprising vigour by the second bite, creating a richer mouthfeel for the chocolate. The burn from the chilli is not shy or subtle, but neither does it ever become mouth-numbing or overwhelming. As the heat builds, the sweet and tangy passionfruit notes become welcome relief, complementing the darkness of the chocolate and the burn of the chilli, both of which linger in the aftertaste. This KitKat is balanced perfectly and immensely enjoyable.
This Nestlé KitKat Special Chilli & Passionfruit contained 4 mini-bars. It was produced in Japan and was purchased in Ōsaka, Japan in 2015.