Showing posts with label Morinaga. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Morinaga. Show all posts

Monday, April 13, 2009

Chocoball Salt Vanilla チョコボール 塩バニラ

2 comments
This small box of Chocoball was a part of a giftbag of Easter chocolate I gave to Yasu this year. As Yasu loves white chocolate and Chocoball in general, I didn't hesitate in buying this at the Japanese supermarket for $2.00. It is a little bit more expensive than normal but I figured it may turn out to be a very interesting flavour.

First Nestle Japan ran the salty chocolate theme with their French Rock Salt & White Chocolate Kit Kat around the middle of last year, now many other Japanese sweets are jumping on the bandwagon, the latest to be Chocoball.

Unfortunately, my high expectations were not met. The balls themselves are small, round, and quite glossy, like they have been given a polishing before being inserted into the box. The box smells creamy and sweet but the outside of the ball tastes like nothing. I could have been sucking on a marble, the texture and taste was probably the same. (I say that because I can't remember sucking on a marble, but if I were to suck on one I would expect it to be the same as this).

When the gloss melted away the chocolate emerged mildly creamy and vaguely sweet. It didn't have that super sweet white chocolate taste that I expected. The ball inside was very malty and did not really have a lot of salt. You get more salt flavour if you crunch down on the ball rather than sucking off the coating.

All in all this was a big disappointment for me. Neither of the two flavours shone through, and it was like an effort in mildness. If you want to enjoy white chocolate without the screaming sweetness and you love a bit of malt then this Chocoball would be for you.

Yasu was happy with it, but I suspect if it had white chocolate on the outside and worms on the inside he would still be happy with it. No matter how lame it is, if it's white chocolate, he's there.

I do love my white chocolate and I would rather have throat-burning sweet than no taste at all.

Monday, January 5, 2009

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

5 comments

kokutoumilk



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.