Hokkaido Azuki Apollo

This Hokkaido Azuki Apollo was a limited release, along with other flavours like Muscat, and Peach.

On one side of this box is a photo image of Clark, as in "boys be ambitious". The other side is a normal Apollo box with a square stamp on the top showing the product is from Hokkaido.

The Area of Tokachi in Hokkaido is well known for the tasty Azuki they produce. The fact that this Apollo is made from those Azuki is meant to make this all the more attractive to Azuki consumers.

The box is the regular size and holds 22 pieces inside. They are contained only in the box without other packaging, and because of that I think that the pieces look abit rustic. As in, they have rubbed together and been thrown around in the box, so they are somewhat dusty with bits of chocolate.

The colour is somewhat different than I expected. I thought it would be a dusky rose colour on top and brown on the bottom (though the box has a picture of a light pink on top, brown on the bottom). In actual fact, the chocolate is light brown on the top with flecks of darker brown, with a dark brown chocolate on the bottom.

The smell when I opened the box was similar to that of the Oshiruko Kit Kat. However, when I pop one into my mouth, the taste is a fully flavoured Azuki bean, and the texture is exactly the same as if I popped a spoonful of Azuki beans in my mouth. You know that crushed up texture of Azuki, it's very hard to describe. The chocolate at the bottom is very lightly there, and is a very good match for the Azuki that takes centre stage.

I loved this version of Apollo, it was fantastic and tasted great, and very true to Azuki. The chocolate was a very good combination, offering a slight bitterness at the end to offset the sweetness.

If you see these I recommend you pick up a pack, you won't regret it!

Heart Apollo

Apollo is one of those great Japanese chocolates that has been around for years and is ever popular with kids. It was one of the first Japanese chocolates I ever tasted, and it has continued to be a favourite of mine.

Imagine my delight when a friend of mine in Japan included this box of Heart Apollo in a care package she sent to me! This box of Heart Apollo I was told, was brought out to celebrate Mother's Day in Japan.

The box is really sweetly decorated, and the Apollo themselves are in the shape of hearts (when looking from above). The only thing that bothers me about this box of chocolates is the packaging. The box makes it seem like you are getting alot, when in fact there are only 8 individually wrapped Apollo chocolates. They are bigger than normal, but one individual wrap could fit two Apollo inside. The box is large enough to accomodate twice the size, so it is abit annoying to find such a small amount inside.

The box says 47 grams, but I think half of that we could safely say is the cardboard box and wrapping.

Each chocolate wrapper has a message in English on it. There are four themes:

Thanks
Love
Happiness
Cheer

I did not get any wrappers that said Cheer in my box. The variety of chocolate is also not even. There are 4 strawberry, 2 banana, and 2 vanilla. In terms of messages I got 4 good luck, 3 happy, and one thanks.

Each chocolate is 2 cm wide x 2 cm high. Each has a very strong scent.



Strawberry

Looks like the original Apollo but bigger. It also has flecks of strawberry in the chocolate. It tastes like strawberry mousse with tart strawberry sherbert. The milk chocolate is creamy, but has some bitterness, reminscent of dark chocolate.

Banana

Out of all the chocolates this one smells the strongest. I found that the banana chocolate broke off the top of the milk chocolate at the bottom join, making me realise that they were made in two separate molds and stuck together. The banana flavour tastes like overripe bananas with a hint of vanilla, and a vague tartness not unlike the strawberry Apollo. The milk chocolate is a bit waxy, but seems more buttery.

Vanilla

This smells like a vanilla candle. The chocolate has flecks of vanilla bean. A very light flavour of vanilla icecream here, but the chocolate is waxy, so I felt like I actually was eating a vanilla candle. The milk chocolate is waxy but tastes alot more like cocoa.

It's interesting to note how the top flavour affects the milk chocolate below. I like the strawberry the best, only because it's very close to the original and has no funky waxy chocolate. I like the taste of the banana, but I'm not keen on the vanilla.

It was an interesting idea from Meiji, but probably best to keep it to limited edition sales.
I would like to know if anyone else out there tried this and what they thought about it.

For anyone who is interested, you can get free downloads for Apollo at http://www.meiji.co.jp/sweets/okashi-land/download/index.html and a Meiji character directory is here. They seem to have a lot of fun online activities for children.