Bourbon Mochi Chocolate Berry Fromage もちもちショコラ・ベリーフロマージ ュ

The box of this Mochi Mochi Chocolate by Bourbon attracted me from the very beginning. Bright pink and with a fantastic image of cream cheese and berries covered in sauce on the front. It looks very inviting.

The box has two individually wrapped packs of 4 mochi balls each. They don't look as appetizing as the cover of the box I have to admit.

The mochi on the outside however was soft and smooth to bite into. The fromage inside was light in flavour with a slight taste of white chocolate and a strong hit of both blueberry sauce and what we thought tasted like alcohol. Upon checking the ingredients we found that these do in fact contain alcohol!

Surprising, as I've never seen fromage or mochi containing alcohol. Interesting to be sure, but the alcohol and blueberry overpowered the fromage so in this case I really feel it wasn't needed as an ingredient.

Overall, these were not as good as the box promised, they didn't look anywhere as good and the flavour was a miss. But the mochi and fromage inside was soft and smooth, and the blueberry sauce was very nice. If you like strong alcohol in snacks then give these a whirl!

Tirol Papaya Lemon チロルパパヤレモン

Papaya is not exactly a fruit I eat very often. It seems very exotic to me, so I hesitated when this flavour was released. I was curious enough to purchase it though. 

I must admit I don't eat papaya very often, maybe once every few years, so I don't know much about it. But paired with the lemon I thought it would be interesting.

The packet is very bright and has images of both fruits. Inside there are 6 individually wrapped chocolates. Also inside the packet was a small package of lemon sauce or ジュレ. 

So to eat this I put the chocolate in a small dish and poured the sauce on top. 

The papaya Tirol itself is quite sweet. The orange chocolate on the outside doesn't taste much like anything, it's only when you bite into it that you hit the white fluffy meringue and papaya flavour sauce. Then you experience the papaya Tirol. 

If you then pour the sauce on top you get a very sour punch with the sweet chocolate and meringue, followed by the sweetness of the papaya sauce.

I wasn't too keen on this Tirol because I thought the flavours were mismatched. But my husband and son loved this one and exclaimed how yummy it was.

It really depends on what your taste is, if you like tartness then you would like this. Or if not, then don't put the sauce on top. But overall it was a fun experiment!

Dars Uji Matcha ダース宇治抹茶

Morinaga make a lot of yummy snacks and one product they do especially well is Dars. I'm a big fan of their white chocolate, it is so creamy.

Matcha is also another flavour I love in everything, I love it as a tea or added to savory and desserts. So I was excited to try it.

This Dars uses Uji Matcha from Kyoto that is ground up into a fine powder and mixed into the chocolate. The Matcha flavour is strong and blends well with the outer layer of smooth dark chocolate.

I definitely recommend this as within seconds of pulling out the tray half of the Dars were gone. My 5 year old son started gobbling them and wouldn't stop, he loved it so much. I think I got 3 pieces total, but would have loved more. 

Royce x Tirol チロル x ロイス

A while back Tirol teamed up with the famous Hokkaido chocolate manufacturer Royce to make a premium Tirol (which is a little larger than the regular size).

It sold out very quickly but I managed to buy some pieces online. Unfortunately because it contained Nama cream, most online stores would not send it overseas. Mine was sent during summer and leaked inside my parcel, and the Tirol ended up mutilated, but still edible - however I didn't take photos of the disaster so the above image is the result of a Google image search.

The chocolate itself was quite dark so it seems it had a rather high cocoa content. Inside it was soft and kind of chewy. Because of the Nama cream the chocolate was creamy and had a very milky taste. Even when melted, this Tirol was everything I expected it to be and was a really good representation of Royce. It's just a shame I only had 9 pieces because I could have easily eaten double that! 

I hope that like some of the other Tirol releases this will make a comeback in the future! :)

Meiji Matcha Azuki Chocolate 明治抹茶小豆チョコレート

When I saw these at napaJapan I knew I had to buy them. Two of my most Favourite Japanese flavours! How could I resist? 

The box is quite small, but it is attractive. A black background with pink and green and images of chocolate covered azuki. 

The chocolates are contained in a small foil bag which keeps them fresh. There were around 20 small beans, they reminded me of peas. 

(Please note: discoloration is from the chocolate melting in transit)

My 4 year old son loves matcha but not so much azuki, so I was surprised when he ate 3 of them and came back for more. My husband and I both loved them too. It was the perfect pairing. Just the right amount of chocolate to bean, and a traditional pairing, so how could anything go wrong.

This felt like dessert and satisfied a craving for Japanese sweets. I know that I will go back to buy more of these!

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 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.

Tirol White Marshmallow Assortment チロル マシュマロチョコアソート

A pack of 9 Tirol with a theme: Marshmallow. There are 3 pieces of 3 flavours each:

Strawberry Marshmallow

This one is light pink in colour and smells very strongly of strawberry. The fluffy white marshmallow inside is soft and surrounded by a strawberry sauce. The outer layer of strawberry chocolate is more like a mousse. This chocolate melts in the mouth.

Caramel Marshmallow

This has no aroma and tastes weird to me. Not exactly caramel, very creamy though. The mashmallow is very soft once again.

Cocoa Marshmallow

Dark chocolate surrounding the white marshmallow with a chocolate sauce trickling out. The dark chocolate is bitter and rich, over-riding the sweet soft mashmallow. 

The strawberry would have to be my favorite of the three, followed by cocoa. The caramel was not a hit with me sadly. 

Tirol Chocolat Au Confiture チロル いちごコンフィチュール

This is the second in my line up of premium strawberry Tirol. I was intrigued by the name - what does "chocolat au confiture" even mean?

Well luckily for me Google had the answer - confiture means confection or jam, and chocolat is the French word for chocolate. 

Tirol have created a chocolate featuring strawberry jam in the middle. Obviously the French word for it sounds much more exotic. 

The outside layer is white chocolate with a thick milk base followed by a large layer of strawberry jelly dead centre. 

Biting into this is like eating a cloud, it's so soft, the base is like a whipped mousse and the jelly in the middle is soft and tasty. The white chocolate outer layer is softer than normal, more like a ganache.

My only negative is that it is very very sweet and that might put some people off. In no way is it a fake strawberry flavour, the tartness in the jelly makes sure of that, but with the white chocolate and the strawberry jam, this was just tooth achingly sweet and I needed water after eating one.

Tirol Chocolat Au Orange チロル ショコラ オランジェ

I have a million Tirol reviews coming up! When I was in Japan this year I bought so many limited edition packs in Daiso and brought them home with me...but I haven't gotten around to reviewing them yet! Soon!

This Tirol was sent to me by a blog reader in Japan (thank you S!), and it's a flavour I did not see in my travels but is one of those classic flavours that just works. Chocolate and Orange.

Chocolat Au Orange as you can tell by the packaging is dark chocolate melded with orange. This is also a premium size Tirol so it's larger than the usual size.

I'm not usually a fan of dark chocolate, I prefer sweet milky chocolate over the bitterness that dark chocolate usually brings, and this Tirol smelled strongly of dark cocoa so I wasn't sure I would like it.
However, when I bit into it the chocolate was smooth and soft and the middle layer consisted of a sweet, mochi-like orange jelly that just melted in my mouth. The sweetness of the orange jelly contrasted well with the dark chocolate (which by the way wasn't bitter) and by the end of eating this chocolate I wanted MORE! Luckily S was kind enough to send me 3 pieces!

 

Chocolat Au Orange Tirol is not overly sweet, it is just right, a very stylish chocolat that you would expect to be in a fancy chocolate store. Tirol has made this really well, and I hope that you get to try this one, or they make it again some time in the future!

Country Ma'am Crispy Almond カントリーマアム クリスピーアーモンド

I have 5 more packs of Country Ma'am to review, and this is the next one in my stash. This is the "crispy" version of Country Ma'am whereby the cookie is very crispy and crumbly and as you can see by the photo below, falls apart quite easily.

These cookies are very dark and like the previous share pack, are individually wrapped. There are 6 in this bag, which I bought from Daiso for ¥105 (around $1). 

The flavour is "almond" but actually I can't smell any almond from the cookie itself. All I can smell is strong cocoa and a slightly burnt scent. There seems to be a theme with Country Ma'am in that no matter what flavour the cookie is, there are chocolate chips inside. It's more suitable for an almond cookie to have choc chips than a matcha cookie though, in my opinion so this cookie seems interesting.

Biting into the cookie it completely crumbles, as expected. The flavour is strong cocoa and the dark chocolate chips really shine here. Unfortunately there are only the smallest dots of almond to be seen in each cookie and they don't add anything flavour or scent wise. I think this cookie should be renamed "dark chocolate chip" or something like that. Really, what was the point calling it "almond" when the almonds are non-existent. 

I would have liked to have seen big pieces of almond in here so in that respect this cookie was a let down. However, I did enjoy the dark chocolate flavour and the crispy texture of the cookie, so it's not a total fail.

If you just expect a chocolate-chocolate chip cookie when you buy these then you won't be disappointed. As these have 6 individually wrapped cookies, they are also good to share with friends and family. 

Kabaya Hello Kitty Pretzel Chocolate カバヤ ハローキティー プレッツェル 『チョコ味』

I once was a huge Hello Kitty fan. Well that is an understatement, I was obsessed. The first time I went to Japan in 2004 I spent probably a thousand dollars or more at Sanrioland in Tokyo buying Hello Kitty character goods. In fact I shipped 17 parcels of Hello Kitty stuff home! Can you believe it? I still have most of those parcels sitting in our shed, the contents in pristine condition. My kitchen cupboards are mostly full of Hello Kitty cups, saucers, plates, bowls and glasses which I hardly ever use but can't bear to part with. My husband has learned not to say anything...he after all comes from the land of Otaku!

So when I opened the box from Oyatsu Cafe and found this box of Hello Kitty Pretzel in there, I immediately felt a fondness for the product, even though as a reviewer, it is my job to be unbiased. This is a stick snack, similar to Pocky, made out of a long thin biscuit with a milk chocolate coating.

It's obviously marketed towards Hello Kitty fans and fans of "kawaii" (cute) with all the hearts and cupcakes on the pack.

Inside the box contains one clear pack of chocolate sticks. They are about a third smaller than the size of a Pocky. The stick smelled like chocolate and strawberry surprisingly, and when I bit into it there was an audible crunch and the biscuit itself had a faint taste of strawberries. I thought I must be dreaming so I asked my husband to taste it too. He confirmed that yes, the pretzel stick tastes like strawberries. The chocolate coating on the outside is so thin as to be non-existent. It really doesn't add much to the flavour unless you eat the whole pack at once and even then it's vague at best.

 

I wondered why they called this pretzel snack "chocolate flavour" when in fact the dominant flavour is strawberry, and the fact that the pretzel stick tastes like strawberry is not mentioned anywhere on the pack so I'm wondering if it's meant to be a surprise, or just some wacky aspect of the snack.

The chocolate coating on the pretzel was a disappointment, it was too thin to even taste it properly. I really wanted to like this snack because Hello Kitty is on the front but it just didn't live up to what I expect from a pretzel stick. In saying that though, I think these would be ok for kids, especially if you want to limit how much chocolate they are having and the size of the snack.

Meito Puku Puku Tai 名糖ぷくぷくたい『チョコ』

 

In the previous post I blogged about monaka for the first time. Thanks to Oyatsu Cafe I have another monaka to review, this time in the form of taiyaki which is a traditional Japanese fish-shaped cake usually filled with anko (red bean) or custard.

This is an unusual snack made by Meito which consists of a monaka wafer on the outside and air-in chocolate on the inside. I was lucky enough to have the real deal on my latest trip to Japan but I can imagine that if you are craving taiyaki and you don't live in a place that has them readily available, then this snack would suffice.

Just like the previously posted about monaka, this taiyaki had a satisfying crunch when bitten into. The chocolate inside was like a soft fluffy mousse and had a strong chocolate flavour. The crunchy outer wafer and the soft inside was a very pleasant contrast in the mouth.

My husband breaking it open

My husband and I both enjoyed eating this but like Sakupan Monaka it was over too soon. Probably this is a snack that you just shouldn't share... However Oyatsu Cafe sell these taiyaki snacks in their store for $1.99 so buying more than one at a time is totally feasible and won't damage your hip pocket!

Puku Puku Tai also comes in Strawberry and Cheesecake flavour which both sound delicious. I definitely recommend this snack for it's wacky factor alone, but it also tastes great and it's not expensive, so in my opinion it's a winner!

Sakupan Choco Monaka カバヤ さくぱんチョコモナカ 『いちごミルク』

*My apologies to Oyatsu Cafe in getting this review up. Their parcel of goodies arrived just before I left for a 3 week holiday to Japan. Now that I'm back the reviews will start to flow again.

This is the first edition of a series of reviews I will do on snacks sent to me by Oyatsu Cafe (as previously blogged about). The first item that I really wanted to try was this chocolate monaka made by Kabaya. This monaka seems to be based on the same premise as the Saku Saku Panda biscuits, because they use the same character but the whole head makes up the shape of the monaka.

For those of you unfamiliar with monaka it's basically a wafer cookie on the outside and a type of sweet like red bean or custard in the middle, and resembles a kind of sandwich but is a sweet. It's quite popular in Japan to have a red bean (anko) monaka or icecream monaka. (Google monaka in "images" to see some examples).

This monaka however is one-sided. The wafer is on the bottom and the air-in chocolate (very similar to a mousse) is on the top. Unfortunately my monaka melted on the way to me so the face of the panda was distorted.

 

The flavour written on the wrapper of this product is "strawberry milk" however the air-in chocolate was milk chocolate and strawberry flavours, represented by the brown and pink areas.

The wafer part of this monaka made a satisfying crunch when bitten into and the chocolate was soft and fluffy. The flavour was very strong on both the chocolate and strawberry. My husband also had a couple of bites of this and unfortunately it was over too soon. We would have liked more!

It's a delightful treat, and very cute too. It's easy to eat and comes on a tray inside the package so you can eat it over the top of the tray without making a mess.

I think this snack would appeal to people of all ages from children to adults. Even if you aren't into "cute", the flavours are there and it's a snack that's quite different to anything we can get in Australia.

The Kabaya website states they have two more flavours of this monaka - Chocolate and Strawberry. In all I was very pleased with this snack and would definitely like to try the other two flavours.


Thank you to Oyatsu Cafe for providing this product for review. You can buy this chocolate monaka at their store for $1.99 by following this link.

Fujiya Strawberry Shortcake Chocolates 不二家 苺ショートケーキチョコ

I've been saving this box of chocolates. I received it from a friend in Japan a while back but I held onto it because the box is so pretty.

These chocolates are based on Japanese style strawberry shortcakes which are usually made from a soft sponge cake with layers of strawberries and cream. I find a Japanese shortcake to be much less sweet than a Western version.

Japanese style Strawberry Shortcake courtesy of Google

They are made by Fujiya - a well known sweets manufacturer in Japan. Their mascot is Peko-chan - a girl in pigtails with her tongue hanging out the side of her mouth.

The top of the box is one big photograph featuring shortcakes. In the middle is an image of what the chocolate is supposed to look like. A biscuit layer on the bottom, followed by cream, then a layer of strawberry, covered in milk chocolate with a fleur-de-lis imprinted into the top.

Inside the box, each chocolate is encased in a bright strawberry red packet, there are 9 in the box.

The chocolate is quite a good size, 3cm diameter, and 1cm high. It smells milk chocolate mixed with strawberry. Biting into it the first thing I tasted was strawberry, but it wasn't very sweet. In fact the second flavour I tasted was the chocolate, and although it looks like milk, it tastes quite dark. The chocolate was much stronger than the strawberry so it was overpowered. In regards to texture, the biscuit on the bottom is crumbly, so biting into it there is the taste of strawberry and a texture of crumbly biscuit, then the dark chocolate. I couldn't really taste the cream element, that was somewhere in there with the strawberry and probably contributes more to the texture than the flavour.

Although it didn't have nearly as much strawberry in there as I expected, it's actually very accurate to what a Japanese style shortcake is like (minus the chocolate). I find the sweetness in a shortcake is downplayed, to the point of being non-existent.

If you find strawberry flavoured chocolate, or chocolates in general are too sweet for your tastes, then I'm sure you would like these. I would like these when I'm dieting because they don't make you crave for more. Each chocolate will set you back 38.8 calories, which I think is pretty good.

Caramel Nuts Tirol (Premium) キャラメルナツ チロル

So here is my last blog about Tirol for now. I've managed to review quite a lot of different Tirol flavours during 2012 and that's all thanks to a very kind friend in Tokyo who sent them over to me during the year. So I'd like to take this opportunity to thank her so much for her kindness, not just for the Tirol and all the other snacks she sent me but for her friendship and support. Thank you so much S! :)

Caramel Nuts....it sounds pretty good and it's one of those combinations that is used over and over by confectionery makers the world over. Just think of Snickers and Picnic for starters. 

When I opened this Tirol I couldn't smell anything but a sweet scent. However when I bit into it I could smell Snickers! It smells just like it!! The chocolate on the outside is a caramel colour and there is a layer of dark chocolate on the bottom followed by a biscuit piece, peanuts, caramel and then chocolate. There is a lot going on in this chocolate, that's for sure!

Sadly, the flavour just wasn't as good as a Snickers. The chocolate and caramel were just so sweet, that even though the nuts were plentiful, it just wasn't that good. I really feel like the peanuts needed some salt to balance out the sweetness, then we could have had that salty peanut butter and chocolate combination going on.

I'm kind of sad that this one didn't live up to my expectations either. I usually really enjoy the Tirol chocolates. I will be looking forward to trying some new ones in 2013.

If you have tried some Tirol chocolates this year, what were your favourite?

Choc Banana Tirol (Premium) チョコバナナ チロル

Sorry for my absence (again). Christmas happened, and then New Years, and life has been so hectic. I've just gotten some free time to blog and I thought I should get around to blogging about two more Tirol chocolates that I have.

This one is Choc Banana and the image on the wrapping shows some fireworks in the distance and a big banana covered by chocolate in the foreground. It's really quite cute. This is a premium Tirol so it's a bit larger than the usual size.

The chocolate is a banana yellow colour on the outside but doesn't really smell of banana at all. I can only smell a sweet chocolate scent. On the inside of the Tirol is a layer of dark chocolate on the bottom, followed by some white marshmallow sandwiched in the middle, then a thin layer of chocolate coloured banana flavoured sauce followed by the banana coloured chocolate.

The dark chocolate inside doesn't look really dark but it has quite a bitter taste to it, so much so that it overpowers the banana sauce. It's only really after swallowing that I get the taste of the banana sauce but the dark chocolate lingers on my tongue for a lot longer.

Overall I was disappointed. This could have been an amazing Tirol if not for the bitter dark chocolate. Who puts dark chocolate on their bananas anyway? I don't know why the marshmallow was in the middle either, it would have been better with a banana mousse or even a banana marshmallow. I'm sad, I was expecting so much more.

Will my next Tirol be a winner? Stay tuned!