“Sakura saku” literally means “Sakura bloom” but it’s also code for something else.
Japanese often feels like a deeply poetic language, where even everyday expressions carry layers of imagery and cultural meaning. A beautiful example is the phrase “sakura saku” (“cherry blossoms bloom”). Beyond its literal meaning, it has long been used to signify success, or passing an exam, evoking the image of blossoms opening in spring as a metaphor for achievement and new beginnings.
Due to its short length and codified nature, the phrase first became widespread when it was used in telegrams to notify students that they’d passed their entrance exams, with “sakura ochiru” (“sakura fall“) being the phrase used to signify failure. It still lives on today, and is especially prevalent at this time of year, when the sakura bloom and students await the results of their entrance exams.
▼ Now, KitKat is keeping the poetic tradition alive with its latest limited-edition variety, “Sakura Saku Sakura Flavour“.
KitKat has already positioned itself as the chocolate of choice for exam season, due to the way it sounds like “kitto katsu“, which means “surely win“. With connotations of “surely win” and “sakura will bloom for you” in the name, this release is doubly fortuitous, making it the perfect gift for test takers and sakura lovers this season.
In keeping with the gift-giving theme, the nine KitKats inside each pack come in specially designed packaging. Some have messages like “キット心配ないよ” (“Kitto shinpai nai yo” [“Surely there’ll be no worries”]) and “キット出し切れる!” (“Kitto dashikireru yo” [“You can definitely give it your all!”] on them, while others are left blank for you to write on.
The ones with messages printed on the front have space for you to write a personal message on the back, while the blank ones have the words “Kitto Sakura Saku Yo” (“The blossoms will surely bloom”) on the back.
▼ While the packaging shows careful thought in its design, so does the chocolate inside, which contains beautiful flecks of pink.
This is due to the cherry blossom leaf powder that has been mixed through the white chocolate coating and the crispy wafers within, which are made with cherry blossom-flavored dough and contain pink feuilletine (crepe pieces) for extra sakura flavour.
All these cherry blossom ingredients combine to create an incredibly well-balanced treat, with hints of saltiness from the cherry blossom leaves intermingling with the sweetness of the white chocolate to help draw out the floral aromas, leaving a refreshing, springlike aftertaste on the tongue.
Every ingredient delivers perfect measures of flavour to create one of the best sakura KitKats we’ve ever had. It’s as if Nestlé has fine-tuned its sakura expertise after years of practice, giving us more nuanced flavour than the Sakura Sake variety we previously tried in 2019 and less punchiness than the Sakura Mochi KitKats released in 2020. Now we can’t wait to see what type of sakura KitKats will be coming our way when the cherry blossoms bloom in future years.
Images©SoraNews24
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