More than 300 flavors of KitKat have gone on sale in Japan since the chocolate snack was introduced. It's now one of the country's best-loved candy bars.
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Flavor explosion —
Wasabi, green tea, lemon vinegar and sweet potato are among some of the more unusual flavors.
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Exotic tastes —
Chef Yasumasa Takagi has been recruited to create gourmet limited edition KitKats with ever more exotic flavors.
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Mixing it up —
Chef Takagi uses high quality couverture chocolate to create his gourmet KitKats.
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Hungry for more —
Takagi has been advocating for new flavors and pushing out new products, from the single-finger Sublime range to "special" flavors that include fruit or tea-infused minis.
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Limited editions —
Ingredients are sourced from regions across the country, often produced and sold to coincide with food seasons in limited edition boxes of KitKat minis.
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Tasty treats? —
To some palates, the latest flavors might border on the bizarre. Butter KitKat, anyone?
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KitKat stores —
The gourmet KitKats can only be found in Takagi's shops and eight of Japan's high-end department stores through KitKat "Chocolatory" concessions.
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Iluminated chocolate —
Even the chandeliers are KitKat-themed in the Chocolatory shops.
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Cooking Kitkats —
Among those on sale are KitKats that are designed to be cooked before consumption.
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Language quirk —
Japan's love for KitKats has been attributed to their use as gifts betokening friendship and good luck to students sitting exams. In Japanese, "kito kato" translates as "to surely win."
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Gold fingers —
Close to 1.5 billion KitKat fingers are produced and consumed in Japan each year, making it one of the country's best-selling chocolate snacks.
