Meiji Chelsea Hokkaido Milk Scotch Caramels 明治チェルシー北海道ミルクスカッチ

Another Chelsea review! Can't help myself because I found this new flavour at napaJapan and just HAD to try it. You know I love all things Hokkaido, and they're usually pretty good.

This flavour is Hokkaido Milk Scotch and it comes in the same format as always - a small box with a slide out tray of 10 individually wrapped hard caramels. The box is cream and maroon and looks very smart. I was really surprised by the colour of the caramel, I thought it would be a cream colour, but it looks like an average caramel colour.

 

 

The caramel itself doesn't really smell like milk, it smells of a very rich and strong caramel, almost smoky.

At first the caramel is surprisingly sweet and there is a slight coffee flavour which deepens into a rich creamy caramel. There is no coffee listed in the ingredients so the taste is probably just a fluke, but, it really is yummy. It has a really "milky" taste in the caramel which gives it a really creamy flavour that I love. The words that popped into my head while eating this were "cream caramel"...it tastes like a dessert of the same name would.

Yum! I thoroughly recommend these... a candy that is rich and decadent.

Brand: Meiji Calories per box: 188 Website: http://chelsea-agetai.jp Buy it now at napaJapan

Hokkaido Yubari Melon Chocolate 北海道夕張メロンチョコレート

I received this bag of Yubari Melon Chocolates from a friend in Tokyo. They are made by Sapporo Gourmet Foods. Actually on the pack gourmet is spelled "gurmet" and I know why they made such a mistake because in Japanese gourmet is "gurume", so it's easy to get confused but still you would think they would use a translator at least to get the right spelling.

Anyway, these chocolates are half melons, made to look exactly like the real thing. Each half melon is individually wrapped and there are 12 in the packet. Each melon is green on the outside and textured to look like the outside of a Yubari melon. The inside is bright orange just like the real thing.

The melons really smell like melon and the green textured shell has a kind of sour melon soda effect which is really nice, and gives it a nice kick. The chocolate is soft, and biting in I got a hit of the soda effect, followed by the sweet chocolate that tastes *exactly* like a real Yubari melon. Yum!

The soda flavour is present in the background right until the end and really intensifies the flavour. I am so in love with these! Not only are they extremely cute, but they also taste great, like the real thing. So addictive!

If you love Melon like I do, and you see these, I definitely recommend that you get some :)

Brand: Sapporo Gourmet Foods Calories per pack: 570

Bourbon Elise Hokkaido Milk Cream Wafers ブルボンエリーゼ北海道ミルククリームウエハース

This week is all about Hokkaido. For some reason the products I've come upon in the last month all claim to be from Hokkaido or have Hokkaido milk or cream in them, so I decided it was time to have a themed week!

This first product was bought on impulse in a Japanese supermarket. Yasu and I were killing time waiting for the restaurant next door to open and we came across these on a shelf. Yasu immediately got excited because he always ate these when he lived at home and said they were the yummiest. So I bought a pack for him to have but I think it made him a little bit homesick.

This pack contains 10 wrapped packets containing 2 sticks each. The sticks themselves are the same kind of texture and colour as an icecream cone. They smell very creamy from the outside and the wafer texture is hard and crunchy. There is white chocolate cream in the centre made using Hokkaido milk, and it's a really pleasant flavour, not overly sweet like some white chocolate.

Yasu complained that there was less chocolate in the middle than there used to be, and it did feel a bit lacking I have to say, but apart from that these were absolutely delicious!! I love the creaminess of the white chocolate cream and the crunchy texture of the wafers, it all goes together wonderfully. Better still on a hot day, the cream inside melts and it's almost like eating an icecream.

I'd say these are mostly put out in people's homes when guests come over (I saw a lot of these types of wafers/biscuits for afternoon tea when I visited family in Hokkaido), and Bourbon in particular seems to be the afternoon tea snack of choice in the Tokachi area from personal experience.

Brand: Bourbon Calories per pack: 19 Website: http://www.bourbon.co.jp

Tirol Chocolate Mix 8 Pack チロルチョコミックス

Tirol Chocolate is one of our family's favourites. It's great that a chocolate so cheap is so good, and there is so much excitement when a new flavour is released.

I purchased this Mix pack of 8 Tirol chocolates from napaJapan. I have already tried 3 out of the 4 flavours. The one I wanted to try in this pack is the Matcha Milk. I have tried a similar Tirol before called Uji-Matcha with mochi in. This one seems to be a bit plainer though and is just a mixture of matcha and milk.

You can see reviews for the other 3 flavours in the pack here and here.

The chocolate on the outside is a very matcha green which is nice and authentic. It also has a very faint smell of matcha. Biting in, the chocolate is smooth and melts easily and has a very creamy flavour that ends with a bitter but very familiar flavour of matcha. The milk is the first flavour to appear and then melds into the matcha. The chocolate inside is softer than on the outside and almost reminds me of a mousse.

I really enjoyed this Tirol. While it doesn't knock your socks off with matcha flavour, it's more of a subtle flavour that builds up towards the end but not overly so. I imagine this would go well with some Japanese tea, as it would not overshadow but complement.

Brand: Tirol Calories per box: 280 Website: http://kinotake.jp Buy it now at napaJapan

Morinaga Chocoball Double Choco 森永チョコボール・ダブルチョコ

I like to buy the new flavours of Chocoball for Yasu when they come out as it's his favourite childhood snack. I find that napaJapan always has the latest flavours of Chocoball too, which is really good!

This Chocoball is called "double choc" and it's white chocolate on the outside, with milk chocolate and rice crispies on the inside. The outside smells really creamy and like white chocolate and biting into it you can immediately taste the white chocolate followed by the inner crispy shell, the smooth milk chocolate and lastly, some crunchy rice crispies.

The flavours all go well together, and I like having the crunchiness in the middle. It kind of reminds me of coco-pops cereal because it has a similar chocolatey flavour with crispy texture.

I'll definitely recommend these as a nice light chocolate hit or snack on the go. :)

Brand: Morinaga Calories per box: 145 Website: http://kyorochan.jp Buy it now at napaJapan