Tirol Mix 9 Pack チロルミックス9

This is a Tirol Mix pack of 9 chocolates, one of each different flavour.

Out of the 9 I have already tried 5 so the 4 below are:

Milk Nougat 

Strawberry

Hot Cake

Lemon Cookie

Milk Nougat

Semi-dark chocolate covering chewy milk nougat. The chocolate is overpowering and wipes out the flavour of the nougat which is so soft and sticks to my teeth.

Strawberry

Hard chocolate strawberry centre covered in milk chocolate. The layer of strawberry is thick and has a subtle tartness to it, I like the flavours and unlike some strawberry chocolate it doesn't taste fake.

Hot Cake

It smells like maple from the outide and the chocolate is a buttery yellow. The centre has a soft crumbly biscuit with a very sweet maple syrup mousse and jelly covering. This reminds me of hoecakes but is sickeningly sweet. I could only eat half as my throat was burning.

Lemon Cookie

Smells faintly of lemon and is a light yellow colour. The centre has a chunky biscuit that is hard. The lemon chocolate on the outer layer is creamy but the lemon is not very apparent. From the Hot Cake to here is one extreme to another.

I can't say that any of these were my favorite but if I had to choose then if have to say that the strawberry was the most enjoyable.

Yuraku Black Thunder Cocoa Cookie Crunch ユーラク ブラックサンダー ココアクッキークランチ

I first learned about Yuraku's Black Thunder Bar when I reviewed the Yuraku x Tirol in May of this year (2012).

This bar strikes me as a kind of mix-up of an Oreo, Malteasers and some chocolate all mixed together and made into a slab. It is called Black Thunder for one reason, it literally is black inside, with little bits of white biscuit pieces scattered through it.

Biting into it is like being in heaven, if you're a cookie lover like I am. It's so crunchy, and it's like eating crushed chocolate biscuits coated with chocolate. The biscuit inside is so chocolatey and rich. There is a strong hit of cocoa with every mouthful.

I'm really surprised this exists in the Japanese market because they are not really known for their strong, slap-you-in-the-face flavours, they seem to prefer more subtle tastes. This is a chocolate bar that says HELLO! when you eat it.

The only downside is it's quite crumbly and breaks easily.

This is a very simple bar...it's just chocolate on chocolate, there are no other flavours. So if you're a chocolate fan then you'll love this. It's the perfect size really, because it's so rich. You wouldn't want any more than this 22 gram pack at one time.

Have a look at the Yuraku website here.

Rilakkuma Picnic Tirol リラックマ ピクニックチロル

Tirol have teamed up with Rilakkuma, everyone's favourite lazy bear to bring out this pack of "Picnic Tirol". It has 9 pieces of individually wrapped Tirol featuring cute pictures on the wrapper. There are 3 pieces each of 3 flavours - Pudding, Caramel Cookie, and Choco Marshmallow.

On the front of the pack Rilakkuma is sitting holding a bunch of flowers and he has his friend Korilakkuma (so called as she resembles a smaller version of Rilakkuma). Rilakkuma and Korilakkuma also feature on the chocolate wrapper design along with their birdie friend Kiiroitori (Yellow bird).

I was pleasantly surprised to find this pack contains 3 new flavours, and I'm especially excited about the pudding flavour.

It's such a shame to open this pack, really. As the tear line is situated both sides of Rilakkuma's head, so it literally tears open across his forehead. If you're a big fan of Rilakkuma, you might down the side of the pack.

Pudding

This Tirol has two different kinds of wrappers, one with Rilakkuma holding a glass of lemonade, and the other with Kiiroitori holding a glass of lemonade. They're both very cute. The chocolate is a cross between a custard and caramel yellow colour. The chocolate smelled like coconut and caramel and was quite sweet. The chocolate breaks easily when bitten into and there is a soft jelly inside that tastes like caramel, even having a sauce left behind from the jelly that has a slight burnt sugar taste. The chocolate complements the burnt flavour by bringing back the sweetness and the flavours mixed together reminds me of a classic creme caramel pudding. I think they have done this well, although I'd prefer a little less burnt sugar in mine.

Caramel Cookie

The wrapper designs for this flavour are either Rilakkuma playing a guitar or Korilakkuma riding a scooter with Kiiroitori on the back. The chocolate is a toffee colour and smells like hard caramel. Biting into it, the chocolate is soft and sweet and the inside consists of biscuit pieces and caramel chocolate all melded together into a hard block. The caramel flavour isn't as strong as I expected on this, but it's really crunchy and I enjoyed it.

Choco Marshmallow

The design for these chocolates featured Korilakkuma holding a bunch of flowers on all 3 pieces. The chocolate is quite dark and smells like chocolate brownie. Biting into it there is a strong dark chocolate flavour, the bitterness is the first thing I taste, then there is the soft centre of marshmallow and dark chocolate sauce. Although I'm not a dark chocolate lover, I liked this one as the marshmallow centre was sweet and offset the bitterness to make it very enjoyable.

Overall, I probably liked the Choco Marshmallow the best, the Pudding second and the Caramel Cookie third. They all have their good points. I liked the jelly in the Pudding but not the burnt sugar flavour. I liked the crunch in Caramel Cookie but the flavour was too weak. I am not a fan of dark chocolate but the Choco Marshmallow somehow complemented that with sweetness of marshmallow.

I think this is a really sweet pack of Tirol and I'm sure it was probably popular in Japan because of the design and the interesting flavours. The fact that it has 9 pieces means it's great to share with friends.

Have you tried this? If so, what did you think? :)

Boy's Day Tirol こいのぼり チロル

Turned on its side the pack resembles a carp windsock.

 I'm fashionably late once again. This pack of Tirol was brought out for Boy's Day in Japan, which is celebrated on the 5th of May every year. In Japan it's called Koinobori which literally means "carp streamer" otherwise known as a "wind sock". The pack design features such a carp streamer on the front.

Boy's Day is usually celebrated by putting up a pole and hanging windsocks from it such as in this picture, and depending on how many children are in the family, extra carp are added.

This pack of Tirol has 9 individually wrapped chocolates and 3 flavours, each set of 3 flavours has a unique design.

Bis is red with a picture of a bow and three arrows. It is a crumbly white biscuit coated with milk chocolate. I believe this is one of the original Tirol chocolates, and is probably very popular. The biscuit inside was so crumbly that it broke into very minute crumbs when I bit into it, and the chocolate coating on the outside fell off. It was kept at room temperature so I don't know why that happened. The chocolate just didn't stick well to the biscuit.

Bis

Bis

Milk has a red and pink design with the Japanese character for money in gold (Kin). Imprinted into the top of the chocolate is the word "choco" but I am not sure why. This is a white fudge covered in milk chocolate. The chocolate is smooth and sweet but has a slight bitterness at the end. The fudge is so creamy and sweet and it reminds me of condensed milk.

Milk

Milk

 White & Cookie is in a mustard colour wrapper with a black, red and yellow Kabuto (helmet) on the front. This is white chocolate filled to the brim with cookie pieces. I think this is meant to be like "milk & cookies", the white chocolate featuring as the milk and the cookies are dark like Oreos. The white chocolate had a flavour that reminded me of coconut, but I couldn't taste very much because there were so many biscuit pieces inside. The biscuit pieces were quite hard to eat as they are small and rough and afterwards I had a waxy texture left over in my mouth. I don't think the biscuit pieces were that good quality, so that may account for the waxy texture.

White & Cookie

White & Cookie

In all, this pack had a lot of potential but the execution of the chocolates let it down. Bis is quite plain but still nice, except for the crumbliness of the cookie. Milk was the standout here with it's creaminess and smooth chocolate, and unfortunately white cookie was my least favourite despite me thinking it would be my favourite. It could have been so much better and in this case, quantity (of biscuit pieces) does not win over quality.

Did you try this Tirol pack? If so what did you think about the flavours? :)

Yuraku x Tirol Black Thunder (cocoa cookie crunch) ユーラク x チロル ブ ラックサンダー 「ココアクッキークランチ」

Another Tirol sent from a friend, the packaging looks very masculine but in a weird sort of way reminds me of KISS the rock group, with that golden lightning bolt down the middle.

I had no idea what Yuraku was until I looked it up online and found they are a company that make a black thunder bar. (see bottom of photo for an example)

So this is a Tirol chocolate and a Black Thunder Bar all rolled into one.

When I opened the wrapper the chocolate had a house imprinted into the top of it - somebody care to explain? No idea why that is!

I could smell the cocoa immediately. When I bit into it I bit straight through a round white cookie and some dark crumbled cookie at the bottom, which had a strong cocoa flavour but had sweetness, kind of like an Oreo. The milk chocolate surrounding the cookie was just dark enough to complement the cookie and not too sweet as to overpower it.

This is enough to give you a taste of a black thunder bar and I enjoyed it. But I want MORE! So it's safe to say that Yuraku's little campaign has worked and I am intrigued enough to go and buy some black thunder bars! (if only I could) :)