HE'S BIG IN JAPAN - Kit Kat

By Kosuke Jeter

Here's a response to my Kit Kat post last month. This is from an American in Japan. With all these exciting flavours, I must start a "Japan fund" now. However, gel-filled, apple flavoured Kit Kat? You're a braver man than I, Mr. Jeter.

KitKat is huge in Japan. In Japanese "kitto" means surely, and "katsu" means win, so I guess students here think if they eat one before some test or competition they're "sure to win". Therefore, people buy the hell out of them and almost any flavour imaginable is available. I've had melon, caramel, orange and dark chocolate, apple, strawberry, green tea; and I've passed on white chocolate, cookies and cream, mango, chestnut, and sweet, red bean paste (and probably more). It should be noted that with a certain herbal medicine I'm sure I would've tackled them all, probably in one or two sittings. Also, the caramel doesn't contain real liquid caramel here, just the flavor of caramel somehow mixed into the chocolate. If the flavour is from real caramel or chemically produced I have no idea, but it's easily the best one I've had. Also, there are two super special (more expensive) KitKat flavours, green tea and apple, that do provide liquid filling kind of like a gel. The apple I mentioned having tried above was this kind. It was pretty good.

BEERNADA - Invitation Accepted!

When Johnada asked (conned) our friend into writing a fun beer review column, we didn't expect him to spend ten hours researching each beer (that's supposed to be our job). So after being contacted directly by Steam Whistle after his first review, we would have gladly accepted the following answer from him, "I did not sign up for this, why don't you take your 'blanking' blog and shove it up your 'blank'. Also, get a real job, hippie." Instead we go this:

Considering that I clearly didn’t take the time to do the background research before launching into my first-ever Canadian Brew Review Debut, Zach Aromyces proudly accepts the invitation to Steam Whistle for a second tasting. If I’m lucky, I’ll even get my facts straight for my follow-up review...or at least a t-shirt. I wear a small, no kidding. (It's a large small - Johnada)

So get excited Johnadians, because some time very soon, we're heading to Steam Whistle! And we will document the experience for your reading pleasure. Also, Zach is already working on his next review of a local brew, so Ontario, consider yourself warned!

P.S. After searching around the web, I can not say whether Steam Whistle is available anywhere in the U.S., but I promise that will be my first question upon our arrival.

BEERNADA - Steam Whistle Responds!

The kind people at Steam Whistle Brewery sent Zach an email earlier today (we hope to put it up, with their permission, in the near future), inviting him to meet one of the owners and try Steam Whistle for a second time. We're still trying to get a response from Dr. Aromyces, (last we knew he was heading to Bar Volo), but we will let you know if he accepts or declines (which we highly discourage if he wants to get paid).

Will he or won't he? While you wait for the answer, we encourage everyone to try Steam Whistle for themselves. (Johnada loves free t-shirts, and we're willing to take it all back for a green one.)

Johnada, despite our beer review, has no problem giving the Steam Whistle Brewery 5 Hortons as an organization, especially for their astute PR department. (We wear medium, unless they shrink, then better make it a large.)

BEERNADA - Response to Reader Comments

It's been an exciting morning here at Johnada. We posted our first Beernada column about Steam Whistle and got a serious response right away. In fact, the comment was so good that we've devoted an entire post to it and Zach's response.

I think that if you are going to write about the beer you should do some background research. Steam Whistle trucks their water in from a spring up north of the city. They do have a Czech brewmaster but make a Bavarian Style Pilsner so you wouldn't necessarily get the Saaz hops. And this is just being picky, but UV makes beer go skunky, not green bottles. I love to see reviews but if you claim to be a beer expert and want to write good reviews you should probably do some reading first. -Gino

Here at Beernada, I don’t pretend to get it all right. Fortunately or unfortunately, when I form my subjective and decidedly non-academic opinions about beer, I don’t cross-reference with George Stombopolous [sic]. And sometimes, apparently, I’ll have to learn to read between the lines. Given the prestige of Steam Whistle beer (check out their long list of good reviews: http://www.steamwhistle.ca/ourbeer/awards.php), you might be surprised that the only information they provide on their website about their brewing process is ‘We use traditional brewing techniques and only four natural ingredients including spring water, malted barley, hops and yeast - all GMO-free.” Update: There is a virtual tour that explains more than this: http://www.steamwhistle.ca/tour/virtualtour.php. After tasting their beer, I’m not likely to take a tour. Wherever their water comes from (the contents of the water are what’s important), whatever hops they use (you can’t tell by smelling it), the fact remains that the overwhelming aroma of this beer is dimethyl sulfide (non-GMO, in fact). Maybe it’s a Bavarian-style pilsner according to some, but in my opinion it’s not worthy of the association.

And, not to bore our readers any more than is required, but I thought I should clarify: Green glass is a bad idea for beer bottles because the photo-oxidation reaction that produces 3-methylbut-2-ene-1-thiol production (“skunky” aroma) occurs at wavelengths of VISIBLE light from ~350-500nm. Yes, the low wavelengths are in the UV range, but the point is green light is around 500nm. The Steam Whistle I’ve tasted doesn’t have too much trouble with this, but it might actually improve the aroma. Not that I really want to push anyone’s buttons, but Steam Whistle still falls short of that 3rd Molson.

We at Johnada did some fact checking (perhaps a little too late?) and Steam Whistle is advertised as a Bavarian-style pilsner. We can't confirm or deny the part about the spring (update: we can confirm), but we have no reason to believe it's not true. We should also mention that all the opinions expressed in Beernada are those of Zack Amoryces, and Johnada does not necessarily endorse all of them. For example, we love George Strombolipoulus and he will probably be awarded a Canadian Hero Award before we're done here. However, in the case of this review, despite some misleading facts, we stand by Beernada. Steam Whistle ain't no good, whatever the reason . . .

If this doesn't settle things, we might have to do this the old-fashioned way.