Alfort Chocolate Biscuit

These were given to my husband and I as part of a gift pack. I had seen them before but they are the kind of thing I would usually pass over in the supermarket, in favour of a chocolate bar or actual biscuit. I'm not sure when you are supposed to eat these. I would say it is as a small snack in between meals because of the biscuit content, or with a hot drink.

I'm not so much of a chocolate-and-biscuit-together fan, besides the odd Wagon Wheel. These strike me as odd in that the biscuit is on the other side of the chocolate, but it not covered by the chocolate. This is a whole new idea to me, I've certainly never encountered that kind of idea in Australia.

Inside the box is a gold foil package, which opens up to reveal a tray of 2 x 3 cm rectangular milk chocolates with an image of a ship imprinted on it. The website doesn't give any clue about what the ship means so I am guessing it's only an image.

It does say however, that the biscuit is made from whole wheat flour, basically a digestive, and fragrant milk chocolate, and is a perfect combination of the two.

The milk chocolate smells sweet, but tastes alot darker than it appears. It has those bitter notes that dark chocolate has, and if I hadn't read the package I would say this was dark chocolate. The biscuit is slightly sweet and very much the same as an average wheat biscuit. Both singularly not very exciting.

When eaten together, the flavour seems to take on an almost malty quality. Underneath the bitter chocolate is the humble sweetness and grainy goodness of the biscuit, a good match as far as I'm concerned. I really like the texture of the two combined, the bitterness of the chocolate is matched by the sweetness of the biscuit.

I didn't think these would be a winner, but I was wrong. These are a surprisingly great little mini snack for on the go. Abit more filling than the average Japanese chocolate bar too.

Alfort is something I could definitely see myself eating again in the future, if I come across them.

Kabaya Pudding Chocolates カバヤ なめらかプリンチョコ

Pudding or プリン is a very popular dessert in Japan and is usually what they refer to as Creme Caramel. I am quite a fan of it myself, so I didn't hesitate in grabbing this box of purin chocolates in Yamanaka recently for ¥118.

On the box it says that these are better eaten straight from the fridge, I can see why as I had them in the cupboard and they melted quite easily, even just being on the table.

They are small and round, about 2.5 cm in diameter. There are 8 individually wrapped chocolates in the box, which is so-so value, I guess these are more aimed at kids, who have smaller mouths and to them, 8 small pieces would seem a lot.

The top is milk chocolate but is a little bit darker than the average milk chocolate colour. The bottom is a yellow coloured white chocolate which smells like caramel.

Biting into the chocolate, the outside stays firm and the middle is a light yellow mousse with lots of caramel flavour. The milk chocolate has a distinct chocolate flavour and the yellow chocolate has a caramel and slight coconut oil flavour. Combined with the caramel mousse inside, they all blend in well together.

I can't really say this is an accurate pudding flavour. The body of a creme caramel is custard, and this chocolate lacked any custard flavour at all. It seemed to focus mainly on the caramel flavour, usually a small part of the actual pudding, but no less apparent.

I am sure kids would enjoy this for the flavour and appearance just as much. I would buy these again, as they were a lighthearted and fun way to enjoy chocolate, and a nice change from the usual flavours around.

Choco & Rose Kit Kat [チョコ & ローズ キットカット]

Rose and Chocolate is a flavour that Nestle Japan released that did not make many ripples in the Kit Kat world. I don't know why. It could have been the wrong time of the year, I think Mother's Day would be far more appropriate. But hey, who knows what those flavour guys are thinking at Nestle.

I managed to get 2 mini bars of Rose & Choco from a friend, I couldn't find anyone selling them on ebay, it seems that it wasn't that easy to come by. The packets are pink with light pink roses all over, very sweet.

When I opened the small 2 finger pack, I could only smell the normal chocolate sweetness and a smell of "something else", but it was very vague, and faint. I couldn't smell anything florally, or rosey.

Alot of other reviewers on the net said this tasted like soap to them. To me, not at all. The chocolate itself carries more of a rose scent that starts off in the nose when eating the Kit Kat. It is a very unusual way to experience a chocolate.

However, I really liked the way this Kit Kat smells. The taste is of a regular chocolate Kit Kat, but as I chew it, the smell wafts into my nostrils. It is a very light rose scent, almost as if it were in the air I was breathing.

I thought this Kit Kat is so ingenious! It's almost as if it's a treat for the nose, rather than the mouth.

If you pass this Kit Kat in your travels, don't hesitate in buying it, it's an amazing experience.

Tirol Assorted

I thought I better finish off reveiwing the bag of assorted Tirol chocolates I have so here goes.

White & Cookie Crunch
Smells very creamy and looks like it's filled to the brim with cookie. The white chocolate is sweet but not overly so as the cookie is the main flavour that shines through. Lots of crunch on this chocolate, really nice

Milk (with rare cream)
I expected it to be white chocolate to be honest, so was surprised when I opened it and there was milk chocolate. Biting into it I realised the milk is in the centre, as a creamy filling. The chocolate is a little bit bitter, like dark chocolate, but is offset by the creamy rare milk centre, which is like a paste. Quite nice, and the two flavours match each other perfectly.


BIS Milk Choc
This comes in two wrapper colours, pink, and blue. They are both the same chocolates inside however. The "BIS" is short for biscuit. The chocolate coating is slightly darker than regular milk chocolate and has that cocoa flavour. The biscuit inside is just a plain biscuit. There is more chocolate here than biscuit and right at the end, the last bite there is a sweet and bitter flavour from the chocolate. I'm not really a fan, maybe because it's just too plain.


Tirol Chocolate aka Coffee Nougat
Yasu told me that this one, and milk, were the only flavours available when he was a kid. Back when they sold them for 5 Yen each. I thought this would be just a chocolate square because the wrapper says "Chocolate" but I was wrong. It has a coffee toffee-like substance which according to the back of the pack is coffee nougat in the centre! It's quite nice, the coffee is the main flavour in this one.


Out of all of these I would have to say that the White Cookie & Crunch, and Milk were my favourites. I was not really a fan of the BIS. The coffee is ok, but I don't like it in toffee form.

Cacao Time Blueberry & Yoghurt Chocolate

I picked this box up at a Japanese supermarket in the city for $2.69. It was on special, $1.30 off.

It looked interesting, and I like both flavours.

The brand is Careme which is a sub-brand of Kabaya. The box weighs 38 grams and has 7 pieces inside, individually wrapped. There is alot of space in there and not much content.

Each square is 2.3 x 2.3 cm. It doesn't really have straight lines either.

I expected the chocolate to look like the box, pink on top, white on the bottom, but I got a surprise when I opened the wrap to find it was light purple on top and yellow on the bottom. And yes, the box is well and truly before the due date in september.

It smells okay. There is a floral tang coming from the top and a milky scent from the bottom.

It's not easy to break in half either, even when I cut it with a sharp knife, it crumbled and didn't slice easily.

The insides are meant to be blueberry sauce and yoghurt cream. However there was no sauce, just a very very thin layer of blueberry jam, and white powdery yoghurt.

The taste is not that impressive either. The first bite does not reveal a whole lot of flavour. Then there is a slight blueberry tang, followed by the yoghurt powder, which tastes more like icecream, then a tang on the end, followed by a milky white chocolate flavour.

It's not really sweet, I think its tangy more than anything, but definitely a let down.

The chocolates may have melted on the way over from Japan to the store, but that would be no reason why the taste should change. And I don't see why the colour would either, not to that effect.

I wouldn't buy this again. And it seems as if Careme are not making this anymore as It's not to be found on their website. Maybe it bombed.

The Kabaya chocolate website can be found here.

Tirol Chocolate Almond

I ordered a Variety Pack of assorted Tirol chocolates from J-list and the package arrived today. There are meant to be 27 chocolates in the pack, but I got 28. The spread of chocolates is not even either.

There are:
Chocolate Almond x 4
Strawberry Shortcake x 6
Nama Milk x 4
Chocolate x 5
Bis Milk Choco x 5
White & Cookie Crunch x 4

All of which I will review over the next few days.

The Chocolate Almond packaging is cute, and looks like an American flag and has a little almond guy poking his head over the side.

The smell that hit me when I opened the wrapper was of sweet sweet milk chocolate. I can smell the almond though, and when I bit into the chocolate I discovered a whole almond inside.

The chocolate has a good nutty flavour but is very very sweet with a dark chocolate flavour underneath. It ends on a slightly bitter note. This is quite a nice chocolate if you can get past the inital sweetness.

焼きもろこしと北海道じゃがいも Roasted Corn & Hokkaido Potato Kit Kat Mini's

I bought these two Kit Kat mini bars on ebay (with a few others like Yuzu and Daigaku Imo). These mini bars are regional releases, so they are not available everywhere, and they come in a box of 12 mini's for US $19.99 on ebay, I'm not sure what the regular price of these are in yen, only that they would be less as the seller makes a profit on these. Each mini with 2 small fingers amounts to one regular size finger, so if you buy a box of these you are getting the equivalent of 4 regular boxes of Kit Kat. I would say these are more premium than the average Kit Kat, especially at that price! But for taste? Let's see...

Roasted Corn 焼きもろこし

Upon opening the wrapper I got a very strong cream stew smell. Sort of like sniffing the blocks of cream stew before putting them into the pot. The chocolate was a light yellow coloured white chocolate. First bite revealed a very sweet flavour followed by more of the cream stew flavour. There was a very faint taste of canned corn kernels but overall it was like cream stew with lots of sugar, not really a great combination.






Hokkaido Potato 北海道じゃがいも

When I opened the wrapper I was struck by how artificially white the chocolate was. I guess it was made to look like a potato without skin. The smell was like that of a raw potato just after peeling one. There was a vague smell of potato chips from a packet. As I bit into it there was a huge rush of sweetness, and aftertaste of salt. A bit more into the bar and I could detect a very faint taste of potato, but mostly it was covered by the sweetness and salt. This was very weird! I expected a full-on potato flavour but this was like a flavourless potato covered in sugar and salt.


Neither of these bars met my expectations. What is with that sweetness in both of them? I can understand that corn can be sweet but not like it has been rolled in sugar. Both of these mini bars had very little of the flavour in them that they were represented by. A great let down, and I'm really glad that I didn't buy the boxes of them, that would be a total waste of money. It just goes to show that premium is not always better in this case.

Black Sugar Kit Kat 黒糖キットカット

I picked up this bag of 14 mini's at the same time as the double berry. We have eaten down to the last 3 and so I thought this was also relevant to my blog as an interesting flavour.

The flavour, 黒糖 (kokutou), or black sugar is a common ingredient in sweets that hail from Okinawa. It's also started to become widely used in products throughout Japan probably to give it that 'exotic' feeling. It's like a souvenir from some distant land without going anywhere.

This is simply a milk chocolate bar thankfully, I couldn't imagine what it would be like with white chocolate, but never fear, that may be just around the corner knowing how Nestle Japan's mind works!

The packet states that these are better eaten when refridgerated. I found that the smell was stronger when it was left out of the fridge for a while. Overall, it didn't make much difference to the flavour.

The smell when opened is a very strong smell of molasses. The first bite is not as strong as the smell but it does build up quite rapidly. You can definitely taste the black sugar component between the wafers of this kit kat. Thankfully the milk chocolate is just plain without flavouring, otherwise it would be too strong.

The aftertaste to me is like a black licorice flavour. If it wasn't for the crunchiness of the wafers inside, I would think I had just eaten a strap of black licorice.

This flavour is really nice for black sugar lovers like my husband, but for me it's an aquired taste. I like the black sugar caramels, but i'm not sure if I like the mixture of black sugar and chocolate together. Although I love licorice, I would rather eat licorice because after eating this chocolate I don't feel satisfied. I feel like I want to go eat some licorice! Make sense? Probably not.

Kit Kat Double Berry 星に願いをダブルベリー

I bought this sometime last year and my husband and I have been slowly snacking through them. We are just about at the end of the pack of 14 mini's so I thought I should immortalize them on my blog.

I'm not sure why this is called 星に願いを (wishing on a star), but the wrapper in a royal blue colour with a kind of fruity instead of milky way running through the middle is quite pretty.

The two flavours that make up the double berry are Strawberry and Cranberry.

Unlike alot of strawberry Kit Kats made in Japan this is made with milk chocolate instead of strawberry flavoured white chocolate. I think this is because it is paired with cranberry.

When I opened the wrapper of this chocolate there was a nice smell, it reminded me of a chocolate coated turkish delight. I couldn't smell either berry individually, and as i've never had both berries together i can only assume this is what it smells like combined.

The milk chocolate is plain and the flavour stems from the filling in between the wafers. The flavouring is very light on the first bite, but builds up as you eat more. The scent then, is much stronger than the initial taste of the chocolate. I bet these would be nice to put in a bowl on the kitchen counter or living room to freshen the air, pity I didn't think of that sooner as I only have about 3 left!

I'm not usually a fan of berries but i really enjoyed this Kit Kat flavour. I'm not sure how often cranberry is used in Japanese products but here in Australia it is next to nil unless it's a cereal bar. This was a very nice summery chocolate and if it was released again I would definitely buy it.

Black Sugar Milk Chocoball 黒糖ミルクチョコボール

I picked this box up in the city for $2.00, just above the usual price ($1.69) for Chocoball. Chocoball by Morinaga is a great little treat which my husband also loves, and seeing as it was a flavour we had not tried, i decided to take it home.

Kokutou or "black sugar" is from Okinawa and is popular in sweets made in Japan. I guess it gives regular sweets that exotic feel without having come from outside of Japan.

The black sugar flavour is in the milk chocolate which coats a cocoa biscuit. The chocolate layer is not very thick and the ball is made up mainly of biscuit. I actually couldn't taste the black sugar at all, it was more of a malt flavour. My husband said he could taste the black sugar flavour but it was very light. Usually black sugar candies are strong and have that definite black sugar taste, so this was a little unusual in that respect.

The box was also different, more like a tin of sardines where you peel the lid back, than the usual corner opening.

This is ok for a one-time tasting but i wouldn't buy it again as the flavour is more malt-cocoa than anything else. I think if you are going to make something that is inspired by such a popular flavour, then do it right and make it strong, than the way Morinaga have done this Chocoball.