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KitKat Pairing Bar, manned by AI pairing sake with Kit Kats, to appear in Tokyo this month

Dale Roll Apr 17, 2019
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If you’ve ever wondered what kind of booze goes best with what kind of Kit Kat, here’s your chance!

If you’ve been following us for very long, then by now you probably know that Japan’s selection of KitKats puts almost any other country’s to shame. Between their exclusive Ruby Chocolate and Sublime Volcano lines, their traditional Japanese flavors, and their luxurious bars with toppings, it seems like every few months a new flavor is coming out that we are just dying to try.

Perhaps one thing we should have been doing with our KitKats all along was pairing them with sake. The regional KitKat flavors, called “Gotouchi no KitKats”, which are made using locally sourced ingredients to taste like regional specialties from all across the country, would pair especially well with Japanese sake, but it never occurred to us to try. Now that there’s going to be a temporary stall entirely dedicated to it, however, we have no reason not to!

The stand, called “Gotouchi no KitKat Pairing Bar”, will be in Roppongi Hills from April 19 to 29, as part of CRAFT SAKE WEEK, from 12 to 9 p.m. But not only does it provide suggestions for pairing alcohol and Kit Kats, but the stand is manned entirely by robots, who will give you a pairing based on your own personal preferences!

It works like this: When you approach the bar, you pay two “Craft Sake Week Coins”, which you will purchase at the event entrance along with your tasting glass for 3,500 yen (US$31.25). Then, the AI will ask you five questions to determine what you like, and it will select one of the 10 types of sake available for the day to pair with a regional KitKat flavor.

▼ The flavors include Okinawan Purple Sweet Potato, Tochigi Strawberry, Hiroshima Momiji Manju, and many more.

Each day, the robots will have 15 kinds of KitKat and 10 different kinds of sake to pair with them, with 150 possible pairs available per day. You could go every day, or go back multiple times a day, and get a totally different pairing each time! There will be 110 different kinds of sake offered over the 11-day event, and each brand was carefully hand-picked by former Japanese soccer player and current sake connoisseur Hidetoshi Nakata, who oversaw last year’s KitKat Bar pop-up, so you can rest assured that there will be good sake on hand.

Since you’ll be at CRAFT SAKE WEEK anyway, you can then branch out and explore other kinds of Japanese alcohol, but if you don’t know where to start, use this handy chart to help you. And if you find that you have a taste for sake and you can’t get enough of it, this ramen bar has all-you-can-drink sake! Why not bring some Kit Kats with you to find your favorite pairing?

And if you don’t actually drink alcohol but you’re curious about how sake tastes, well, Nestle Japan has you covered there, too, with their Sakura Japanese Sake Kit Kats. You’re welcome.

Stall Information
Gotouchi no Kit Kat Pairing Bar / ご当地キットカットペアリング BAR
CRAFT SAKE WEEK at ROPPONGI HILLS
Address: Tokyo-To Minato-ku Roppongi 6-9-1 Roppongi Hills Arena
東京都港区六本木6-9-1 六本木ヒルズアリーナ
Open daily from April 19-29, 12 p.m. to 9 p.m.
CRAFT SAKE WEEK website

Source, images: PR Times
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