Photo: Takaski

With fall finally here, the days growing shorter, and Halloween just around the corner my thoughts and appetite turn to Japanese Cranberry Almond KitKat. Or at least they do now that I found them at H Mart in Manhattan’s K-Town.

Japan’s obsession with KitKat is legendary.  My personal obsession with the Japanese version of one of my favorite American chocolate bars  almost approaches that level. I’ve tried the green tea, wasabi, and Japanese pumpkin varieties and I’m always on the lookout for new flavors. So when I saw the package emblazoned with a bowl of cranberries and almonds I immediately grabbed two. Unsure as to how they would taste, I was drawn in by the blond wood and green-leaved cranberry stems.
Once outside, I tore open a package, eager to try this heretofore unseen flavor. As is customary with Japanese KitKats each bag contained several miniature bars, 16 to be precise. The dark chocolate coating topped with toasty almonds and chewy sweet bits of cranberry gave way to the crunchy wafer, calling to mind crackly fallen leaves trodden under foot. Well not really, but I do have to say that these are the best Japanese KitKat I’ve tried in a long time, and not just because the last flavor I had was wasabi.

Somehow I made it home to Queens from K-town without devouring two dozen Kuranberi Almond KitKat. A Japanese friend helped decipher the package whose legend, キット “Mainichi No Zeitaku KitKat” translates to KitKat Everyday Luxury. At $6.99 a bag I have to say it’s an affordable fall luxury, and way better than a Pumpkin Spice Latte.

Incidentally the copy on the back of the bag reads “To fulfill a women’s daily break with further perfection and satisfying her spirit with luxury.” I know I was certainly satisfied.

H Mart, 38 W. 32nd St., 212-695-3283