Wafer Thin: Wafer Chocolate and Cookies in Japan

I will confess I like Japanese KitKats. Kinda obsessed. You hear good things- better ingredients, variety of flavors, even some that are exotic, created by a master patissier (Takagi).

And I look out for Kit Kats when I’m in Japan. Apart from milk chocolate and "adult" otona dark, they are harder to find than you’d think. (Although I found the most varieties together at Narita airport.)

So what I’m saying is there’s good things to be said about putting together some wafers and chocolate. I found a few other wafery things to try. 

Wafer 1: Fujiyama Home Pie

These things looked promising…and even a no-kanji reader like me can tell these things are both chocolaty and wafery (and clearly not pie), but they were the croutons of the wafer world. A hard crunch with a very light chocolate taste, like they just spritzed a layer of chocolate-flavored lacquer on. Okay for a snacky munch attack, but not memorable.

Wafer 2: Cara-Mate

I don’t know if these guys are related to Calorie Mate, possibly the most boring-yet-popular food in Japan.

But it looks a heck of a lot yummier. And who doesn’t like the smooth mellow taste of caramel? It’s probably a caramel palm kernel oil, and I wish I could read the ingredients to find out…

But it’s good stuff. 6 individual bites, lots of wafery crunch with a clear caramel flavor. The caramel layer is nice and thick. This I could get again. It’s a good Kit Kat-like-but-different product.

 Wafer 3: Not a Wafer?

Well, it certainly looked like a wafer to me…waffled shape and all. And I didn’t read it till I took it home- it says “senbei”. As in those soy-sauce glazed crackers. Ack, what the heck is this? It was clearly in a dessert counter at the foody mall part of Tokyo station. So it turns out to be more of a thin Milano-like cookie with whipped plain frosting sandwiched in. So…actually light and yummy, but not as wafery as I hoped.

Wafer 4: Kit Kat

Then there is the original, the star, Kit Kat. In its Japanese form. 3 mini 2-bar hits. And this one was just the plain milk chocolate variety (I’ll look at the complete range I have horded later). Elegant little bites of airy light wafer with sweet creamy chocolaty enrobed over top. Smaller than the American form, but I like the daintiness.