We picked up this Nestlé KitKat Iyokan during our visit to Japan last spring. The iyokan is a Japanese citrus that looks like a mandarin and is a cross between the Dancy tangerine and the kaikoukan mandarin.
The name ‘iyokan’ is a near-homophone for ‘good feeling’ in Japanese, and featured as a seasonal springtime KitKat flavour with each package featuring messages of good luck to students studying for exams.
These KitKats contained iyokan powder from Ehime Prefecture where most of the fruit is grown and after which the fruit was named (Ehime Prefecture was once called ‘Iyo-no-kuni’ (literally, Iyo Country)).
They’re a light orange colour and consist of wafers sandwiched between the iyokan powder and enrobed with white chocolate flavoured with iyokan.
The KitKat has a strong sour and zesty aroma that came through on tasting as as initial acidity that builds to prominence by mid bite before the white chocolate melts to add sweetness that recalled mikan ahead of a hint of bitterness — stronger than an orange but less than a grapefruit — emerging in the finish and lingering with the zesty acidity in the aftertaste.
This KitKat lacked the depth of flavour found in the Golden Citrus Blend that mixed mikan, lemon and sudachi in one bar, and instead delivered the distinct flavour of iyokan.
This Nestlé KitKat Iyokan contained 12 mini bars. It was produced in Japan and purchased in Tōkyō, Japan in 2018.