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? :)

(Premium) Rilakkuma Lemonade Tirol リラックマ レモネード チロル

Rilakkuma (which translates to relaxing bear) is a character made by San-X, rival of Sanrio (maker of Hello Kitty and My Melody), which is becoming more and more famous. Him and his pals just kind of laze around everywhere and look like they're relaxing.

So now Tirol are featuring Rilakkuma on their chocolate, I guess for the cute factor. I mean who doesn't like to eat chocolate with their favourite character on the front, right? ;)

This flavour is Lemonade and on the wrapper Rilakkuma is holding a glass of liquid that looks like lemonade. This is a premium Tirol too, which means it's slightly bigger than the regular size.

The chocolate is bright yellow, almost fluoro. I was really surprised. I couldn't really smell anything from the outside except the white chocolate. When I bit into this chocolate it crumbled. I tried to bite half but there is a soft white meringue and lemon sauce inside and it was so chewy my teeth couldn't slice through. So that's why it looks a bit mangled in the picture!

 

Is this really lemonade or lemon meringue pie?? Because to me the flavour is lemon meringue pie. There is the white meringue on the bottom layer and on the top a lemon sauce, just like the pie. It was actually really nice. It reminded me exactly of the dessert. But lemonade?....err no. For one, there was no fizz, so you can't have lemonade without fizz can you? Also, what's with the meringue and sauce?

I think this Tirol is having an identity crisis, or the head honcho at Tirol got mixed up.

As a lemonade Tirol it kind of sucks. But as lemon meringue Tirol it's a winner!! I loved the flavours here, it reminded me of dessert, and I could eat many more.

Kabaya Rilakkuma Butter Pretzels カバヤリラックマプレッツェルバター味

Here's one for the cool Japanese character fans (like me). Rilakkuma or リラックマ in Japanese is a bear who loves relaxing. Rila comes from "relax", and kuma is the word for bear in Japanese. This character and many other cute characters are the product of a company called San-X (who are also responsible for Tare Panda, Mamegoma, Kogepan, and Afroken amongst others). How do I know this? Well, I have been a fan for many years, and this website is one of my favourites. I can just see the anti-cute lovers rolling their eyes right about now.

Anyway, Rilakkuma has become a favourite with Japan-lovers, Otaku, and of course, children. Kabaya has had much success teaming their products up with the Rilakkuma character and especially around Valentine's day these type of character gifts are very popular. They also have a Rilakkuma Kit Kat, and chocolate biscuits.

The box itself is very cute and has many images of the characters on all sides. On one side is bookmark that you can cut out and use. I suppose if you got creative you could cut out all the images and paste them onto a card or whatever activity you wanted to use them for.


The pretzels themselves are the regular butter flavour. They come in a sealed foil pack with 32 grams of pretzels (approximately 30 sticks). The packaging is also the image of cute!

The pretzel sticks smell like buttery popcorn and taste like a nice fresh breadstick with butter. The butter has some sweetness to it, and it really is quite nice.

These are a good snack to carry around with you because the pack is flat enough to not take up too much room. I can imagine lots of kids and OL's snacking on these on the way to and from home/school/work.

I'm giving these a thumbs up. Cute and light, what more could you want? :)