Tirol Tsum Tsum Honey Lemon チロル はちみつレモンチョコ・ツムツム

If you're not familiar with the Japanese game Tsum Tsum made by the creators of the chat program LINE, then you should be because it's everywhere!

I was introduced to the game mid-2015 by some Asian friends who had been playing for ages, and I quickly became hooked. 

The characters are all from Disney and are very cute. It's simple to play, you just have to link up lines of the same character to erase them from the screen to earn coins within 60 seconds. If you add friends on LINE you can send each other hearts (lives), and try to beat their score.

It's only natural with the game being so popular that Tsum Tsum related products would soon follow, and now collaborations with Japanese snack makers. The first one of which I have seen is Tirol - one of my favourite snacks.

This bag is covered in popular Tsum Tsum characters and contains 7 individually wrapped chocolates. The wrapper is represented by different characters but the chocolate remains the same - Honey Lemon.

It is a very simple concept; a biscuit covered in flavoured white chocolate. The chocolate has a light yellow colour, and smells like a mixture of soap and honey. 

The biscuit is quite firm but crunchy and biting into it I immediately get a feeling of nostalgia. The honey lemon cough drops from my childhood, these are exactly the same flavour! I'm not sure whether that is a good thing though, it is chocolate after all. It's a weird combination. I can't quite get used to it. I do like the strong hit of honey though. 

I can see this is probably aimed at kids or to bring up a feeling of childishness, the flavour is something most people are familiar with. 

My 4 year old son loved them and had great fun choosing which character to eat next. Our bag had an uneven amount of characters, but the one Mickey Mouse was saved until last by my son because he's so special. 

I would recommend these simply because the concept is simple and fun for all :)

Kellogg's Brown Rice Flake Brown Sugar & Honey ケロッグ 玄米フレーク 黒糖＆ハニー

I was browsing at Japanese snacks on Rakuten when I came across this packet of brown rice flakes made by Kellogg's. Kellogg's are familiar to me as the brand of cereal my son most likes, they make a lot of breakfast foods that are popular in Western countries. I was a little bit surprised to see that they make this kind of snack for the Japanese market and in such a Japanese flavour!

This pack weighs 40g and I'm pretty sure it's just one serving. Brown sugar, which in Japanese is pronounced "kokuto" and originates from Okinawa, is made by boiling down sugar cane until it has a deep rich brown colour. In Okinawa it's known as a health food and lots of people take it to ward off fatigue. Added into this mix is honey which on the packet it is said to match with the brown sugar very well.

What I thought of as a snack when I purchased it, is actually a type of breakfast food and on the back of the packet they refer to it as "cereal". I'm not sure if Kellogg's want you to eat it with milk, with a cup of tea, or by itself. But as they refer to it as a "biscuit", I think I might just eat it that way.

Opening the packet there is a strong smell of molasses and a sweet scent. Each biscuit is quite flat,
and measures 3cm long x 2.5cm wide. There are 14 biscuits inside. When I bite into a biscuit there is a satisfying snap and crunch. The first thing I taste is oats, and sure enough when I look on the ingredients list there is oat flour used.

The big punch of brown sugar and honey flavour that I expected is not there. The brown sugar is only apparent right at the very end, with a vague sweetness that must be the honey. The smell of the brown sugar is actually stronger than the flavour in this biscuit which is a disappointment. The oat flour here is the star of the show, and although I don't mind it, it reminds me more of a muesli bar than what it is supposed to be.

It does taste healthy, so if that is what Kellogg's were going for then they nailed it. It just doesn't live up to the image on the pack of a big pile of brown sugar covered in oozing honey. It's only a vague representation of that.

I must admit, I ate the whole pack. They were somewhat moorish, I do like oats, and I don't think anyone else in my house will eat them. Personally, I would have to eat these while having a drink as they made me quite thirsty. I guess a nice cold glass of milk or a hot cup of tea would do the trick.

If you have tried these, what did you think? 

Tirol Minashigo Hutch Honey Toast and Yoghurt Honey チロルみなしごハッチ・ハニートーストとヨーグルトはちみつ

Tirol is one of those snacks that I have only discovered in the past year but that I fell in love with instantly. It's a small bite-size chocolate that you can buy at supermarkets and convenience stores for around 20 yen (20 cents).

My husband grew up with these and so he was delighted that I discovered them as he is a long-time fan as well. These are cheap and good as a single time treat for kids. There is alot of sentimentality surrounding these snacks for kids in Japan.

The thing I love the most is my husband's reaction when I get a new flavour. When he was a kid they only had the coffee nougat, and the almond and now, just like Nestle Japan (with their many varieties of Kit Kats), Tirol are churning out new flavours all the time.

He was especially stoked when I pulled out this bag of Minashigo Hutch, a favourite cartoon of his from childhood. This cartoon or anime, was made in the 1970's and is the story of an orphan bee who is searching for his mother.

My husband said "if you watch that, you will cry alot". I guess it is something the same as Lassie, in that it pulls at the heartstrings.

This bag of Tirol has 8 pieces in it, and two flavours. Four each.


Honey Toast

This flavour makes my mouth water without even trying. I think of hot buttery toast with honey drizzled over it. In reality the light yellow chocolate on the outside has a buttery flavour. The inside is comprised of a biscuit matching in colour with a light glaze of honey flavoured liquid. This is not really quite what I had in mind. It's really sweet and the honey doesn't really have the depth of flavour that I like. The butter flavour is not exactly on the money and tastes abit strange, I can't put my finger on it.


Yoghurt Honey

I didn't know what to expect with this one. The white chocolate outside has a floral flavour, it reminds me of jasmine tea. The middle has a white jelly that tastes like yoghurt but it is much sweeter and has those floral notes too. The jelly is covered with a layer of honey liquid that escapes when you bite into the chocolate. The honey and floral notes are very overwhelming and once again, this one is very sweet. The yoghurt in this is very underwhelming and a disappointment.

Although these both deliver in regards to the theme of bees and honey, they fail to make the mark in regards to the flavours they are paired with. I feel as if they should have just made a honey flavour instead of getting elaborate and trying to create something that really should have been simple enough in theory but just didn't compute in the final product.

I think my husband will eat these regardless of the flavour, but unless he really loves them I won't buy them again.