Glico Pocky Midi Butter Custard ポッキーバター華やぐぽってりカスタード

The name of this Pocky basically translates to "Brilliantly fat butter custard". The fat is probably referring to the thick layer of chocolate over the pretzel stick.

This packet of Pocky contains 3 bags of 4 short and stubby sticks each. Unfortunately mine melted in transit because here in Australia they arrived at the tail end of summer which is still quite hot.

The chocolate on the Pocky stick is a light yellow colour and it smells sweet and salty. 

The taste is quite light, there is a tiny hint of custard. There is some sweetness and again, the salt. But for me, these were disappointing as I thought the custard should have been stronger. The flavour was too vague here, and not what I expected.

Not recommended if you want a hit of custard flavour, but if you like sweet and salty chocolate on a stick then you'll probably like this. 

PS - at the top of the box it states that these would taste good while drinking Royal Milk Tea, so if you try it let me know. Maybe the pairing of tea brings out the custard flavour?!

You can buy these at napaJapan 

Tirol Premium Chou Cream "Sweet Custard" チロル シュウクリーム

Chou Cream how I love thee. In Japanese it's pronounced "shoe cream" although it's much lovelier than the image it conjures up!

It's basically what we refer to as a cream puff, but the Japanese style is to have a crunchy outer pastry and a soft cream custard flowing from the middle. It's a match made in heaven! Beard Papa's is probably my most favourite place in Japan because they make such divine "shoe cream".

So imagine my excitement when my friend announced she saw a Tirol Chou Cream released at the supermarket, and not only that but she was going to send me some! Oh man...that made my day that did!

So to cut a long story short this Tirol is amazing, it's soooo yummy. I'm so glad that I've got 3. Hubby stole off with one which leaves me 2 for myself!

 

The chocolate is like a light yellow custard colour and when I sniffed it, it reminded me of a vanilla candle. The chocolate is soft like mousse. There is a biscuit in the middle that is soft but also crunchy and there is a big hit of vanilla. This is like a reverse chou cream with the cream being on the outside and the crunchy pastry on the inside. I'm hooked, this Tirol is amazing! It brings back so many memories for me. It's nice just to savour it in my mouth.

Hubby thought it was too rich. Boo hubby. So maybe it's not for everyone, it is also quite sweet from the white chocolate, but the creamy vanilla custard distracted me.

Definitely.Try.This.One.

Get yours at napaJapan (limited quantities left)

Visit the Tirol website.

Pocky Dessert Strawberry Custard Cake ポッキー・デザート 苺のカスタードケーキ風

Introducing the latest flavours in the Pocky Dessert range courtesy of Jason @ napaJapan, a plumper and more elegant version of the original Pocky. I reviewed the Mont Blanc version back in March when these were also released.

Like the Mont Blanc version, these have a double coating - a layer of yellowish white chocolate coating the pretzel stick and a weave-like design of strawberry chocolate over the top.

The smell is very sweet and all I can smell is strawberry! Biting in, the strawberry chocolate on the top is very soft and the texture reminds me of icing on a cake. The flavour is like that of a strawberry sponge cake. The custard chocolate underneath has a flavour of vanilla, it's buttery and rich like a good sponge cake.

The pretzel stick underneath is crunchy without being overly so. The blend of custard and strawberry is absolutely gorgeous and I can't stop eating this Pocky! It really is like a nice dessert, in fact I could eat this for dessert any day! It's decadent without being too rich. The strawberry is mildly sweet and has a few tart notes bursting out without making the chocolate sour.

Yum! is all I can say on this one! I definitely recommend these! 

You can find another review of this Pocky at 8tokyo.com 

Brand: Glico Calories per box: 97 Website:  http://pocky.jp/products/dessert/index.html Buy it now at napaJapan

Kobe Custard Melon Pan 神戸カスタードメロン

Supermarkets in Japan have a an aisle or two dedicated to pan (sweet buns). Usually half of them have been baked fresh, and the other half have been made by various companies and have a long shelf life, sealed in packaging to keep them fresh.

I am a melon pan girl, and I also love custard, so I thought a combination of the two would be great. It also comes from Kobe from a company called Kobeya, who I had never heard of before. A glance at their website tells me they specialise mainly in bread, cake, and pan.

This pan was shaped like a regular melon pan, round and with the criss-cross design on top, though it had some kind of clear glaze on top that made it sticky to touch.

Breaking the pan open revealed a dry bread bun with a yellow custard cream in the middle. The custard had little black dots in it which turned out to be vanilla beans. The custard was really nice, very flavourful, I liked the presence of the vanilla beans for presentation and for flavour.

The pan itself was quite dry, reminded me of bread which is a few days old. A look on the ingredient list reveals no butter, only eggs and shortening and wheat in regards to the batter. I think this is why it was so dry, no good quality butter to give it that soft texture.

I also couldn't find any mention of melon on the ingredients list, and I couldn't taste any either. Quite a letdown in regards to that, as I thought this would be both melon and custard in taste. I guess they think that it's melon pan to look at and custard pan to eat? I don't know. Strikes me as false advertising really.

Despite the fact that the pan was packaged in a really nice way, and the package itself says it is a "long seller", it comes from Kobe, and the custard was really yum, I wouldn't buy this again because I wanted melon pan, and I don't like dry pan. I think next time I will go fresh, and I wouldn't recommend this at all.