I’m something of a fiend when it comes to special Kit Kat flavors, to the extend that there was no way I was going to miss the Kit Kat Chocolatory in Tokyo when I was there last in 2014. When I heard they opened another location in Melbourne, Australia, back in October, I knew I had to make the pilgrimage! Luckily, I had the perfect excuse when I was down for an academic conference earlier this month. Read on for a full report!
Located in Melbourne Central near the iconic clock tower, the Melbourne Kit Kat Chocolatory is the first location to open in Australia and is actually bigger than the one in Tokyo! While the Tokyo Chocolatory is a small stand at the bottom floor of a department store with some memorabilia (and really cute Kit Kat chandelier), the Melbourne store is its own self-contained shop.
Not only did they have boxes of exclusive prepackaged flavors, but you could hop on an iPad and design your own unique flavor, too!
Since I went before Christmas, they had a bunch of holiday-themed gift boxes. One was a sampler containing 30 bars! I might’ve been tempted if I was sure it wouldn’t melt in my suitcase… (since it’s summer in Brisbane right now and all my chocolate is melting)
In the end I just went for a couple boxes from their prepackaged special edition section. They were priced at $6 per bar, which is about the same as the ones in Tokyo.
The flavors I decided on were the reimagined Australian lamington and and almond brittle and sticky salted caramel popcorn! For those not familiar, a lamington is a white cake covered in chocolate and coconut, often with berry jam inside. They’re super tasty!
The packages are certainly different from the ones at the Tokyo Chocolatory! I think the Tokyo ones look a little more fancy, but I like how these have a window in them so you can actually see what the bar looks like.
When I opened them up, I was really surprised to see how much texture they had! And they would, since the reimagined Australian lamington one had actual desiccated coconut and pieces of dried fruit on the back, while the almond brittle and sticky salted caramel popcorn had bits of popcorn and almond brittle stuck to it.
The reimagined Australian lamginton Kit Kat had a pretty mild flavor, and unlike the various Japanese Kit Kat flavors featured a regular milk chocolate bar with just the additional bits of fruit and coconut mixed in. The almond brittle and sticky salted caramel popcorn was my favorite of the two – popcorn goes so well with chocolate! But again, it was a plain milk chocolate bar with pieces of popcorn and almond brittle slapped on the back. It definitely wasn’t bad, just not exactly what I expected after all the Japanese Kit Kat flavors I’ve tried.
It’s too bad I don’t live in Melbourne so I can go back and try more of the special edition flavors, as well as make my own! On the plus side, it’s a much shorter trip than flying to Tokyo for some Kit Kats. I definitely recommend stopping by if you’re ever in town!
