Morinaga Bake Sweet Potato 森永ベイク スイートポテト味

A big thanks to Jen for sending this over to me in a big box of goodies :)

Sweet potato is a seasonal flavour of Japan, usually for Autumn and Winter, and we don't really ever see it related to any sweets or snacks in Western countries. For this reason I was kind of taken aback when I saw the packaging and flavour, but I do like sweet potato, so I thought this would be an interesting review.

Firstly, the packaging does really stand out but it has a lot going on. It has a lot of text and a big W on the front. If you don't read Japanese then you wouldn't know what is going on. But it is saying that it's sweet (as expected), and it has been baked to perfection, like one of those roasted sweet potatoes that street vendors sell.

Inside the packaging there was a black tray containing 10 pieces of Bake separated by a thin divider. 4 pieces on one side and 6 pieces on the other. I'm not sure why they were separated like that, there seems to be no real reason why.

There were a lot of crumbs in the black tray and I guess while making it's way to me in the parcel it was bashed around a fair bit. The piece of Bake is quite crumbly though, and even picking it up crumbs fall off the side.

The Bake pieces smell very sweet and there is a scent of sweet potato but also an odd smell...I just can't put my finger on it. It's crunchy on the outside and soft and cake-like on the inside. What I wasn't expecting was such a high level of sweetness. It tastes only of screamingly sweet cake with a hint of fake sweet potato. Oh, this is bad. Sorry, but it's so so bad. 

I love the crumble and the softness of the cake inside, but the taste is horrible. They have tried too hard and delivered the "sweet" part of the potato way too much. This is an odd tasting snack and you will need a big glass of water after eating a couple of these.

I would recommend avoiding these altogether.

Chocoball for Adults Rich Strawberry 大人のチョコボール濃い苺

We've always been a big fan of Chocoball, so when I saw this Chocoball for Adults I knew I had to try it.

I was expecting it to be bitter, but it was much nicer than I expected. The outside was a glossy red and pink mottled colour.

Unlike the usual hard shell that Chocoball usually has this version had a think crispy layer that gave way to the same colour chocolate inside with darker chips of strawberry.

The chocolate was very creamy and tasted like real strawberries do, not the usual fake "flavouring" that some companies use. 

My husband liked the flavour but asked me why do I think it's called "Chocoball for Adults? What makes it so?" And my response is that the glossy exterior makes it look sophisticated. As well, the strawberry chips add another dimension to the strawberry chocolate and this is what sets it apart from the usual Chocoball that is aimed at children. The packaging also looks premium with the black packaging and bright red and gold graphics.

I might add that my 5 year old son also loved this so they appeal to not only adults but children too - which might make it hard to have your own snack if you're a parent! ;)

In all, a very good product from Morinaga and highly recommended.

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. 

Morinaga Bake Creamy Cheesecake 森永 ベーク クリーミーチーズ 3種のチーズ

Thanks to Jenny-Sama for sending this to me from Tokyo! :) 

This pack of Morinaga Bake uses 3 kinds of cheese in the snack: camembert cheese, cheddar cheese and cream cheese.

The pack is foil wrapped inside the pack, and for the some reason was very hard to get open. But once I did open it, the smell that wafted out was divine. 

I could smell the cream cheese, and a very creamy cheesecake aroma. My husband also had a sniff and declared that it "smelled yum".

There are 10 pieces in the pack and they are a light golden colour and brown around the edges. 

They are very soft to bite into and inside resembles the texture of baked cheesecake when you bite into it.

Each piece has an initial sweetness, with a quite strong hit of cheese, creaminess and also a slightly bitter flavour at the end. I can't distinguish all three flavours individually, but I can taste the cream cheese most. I think the bitter is from the cheddar cheese. The camembert is represented here mainly in the very soft texture.

I would recommend this to cheese and cheesecake lovers alike. If you have a craving for cheesecake and for one reason or another you can't fulfill that need, then this Bake would suffice. 

A big thumbs up for Morinaga Bake Creamy Cheese!

Have you tried it? What did you think?

Kinako Mochi Chocoball きなこもちチョコボール

Kinako is one of my favorite flavours so I was delighted to see this release when we were in Japan last year. I bought about 5 boxes of them and just discovered I had one box left and thought I better review it!

These Chocoball have a thick layer of kinako flavored white chocolate around the outside of an oval shaped mass of kinako mochi. The thick chocolate is divine when chewing together with the mochi in the centre.

It's a small packet and I had to share with my 2 year old son and husband as they both love kinako too, so it didn't go far! Now you can see why I needed 5 boxes... These were about 88 yen in the supermarket (just under $1.00) and very good value. Great as a treat for kids too as it has a small opening and a game on the lid.

If rate these as one of my favorite kinako treats and definitely my favorite Chocoball so far!

Morinaga Chocoball Double Choco 森永チョコボール・ダブルチョコ

I like to buy the new flavours of Chocoball for Yasu when they come out as it's his favourite childhood snack. I find that napaJapan always has the latest flavours of Chocoball too, which is really good!

This Chocoball is called "double choc" and it's white chocolate on the outside, with milk chocolate and rice crispies on the inside. The outside smells really creamy and like white chocolate and biting into it you can immediately taste the white chocolate followed by the inner crispy shell, the smooth milk chocolate and lastly, some crunchy rice crispies.

The flavours all go well together, and I like having the crunchiness in the middle. It kind of reminds me of coco-pops cereal because it has a similar chocolatey flavour with crispy texture.

I'll definitely recommend these as a nice light chocolate hit or snack on the go. :)

Brand: Morinaga Calories per box: 145 Website: http://kyorochan.jp Buy it now at napaJapan

Morinaga Hi-Chew Ichigo Daifuku 森永ハイチュウ いちご大福

When this pack of Hi-chew first came out, it really made me excited. I saw the image of the daifuku (a Japanese sweet made from rice with a red bean filling), and it looked so yummy.

I later asked Jason @ napaJapan (who I have known for a very long time) to send me one to try and he complied (thanks Jason!). The pack has been sitting with some other candy - developing a bit of a backlog here - waiting to be reviewed.

So today I finally got around to opening the pack and guess what? It's nothing like the image on the front. Now I know why they put "写真は味のイメージです" (The photo is an image of the flavour), because it is only meant to taste like the real thing, not look like it! Doh! :(

I had expected it to have the red bean filling and a strawberry type filling, but really Ladies & Gentlemen, it's just a hi-chew. It is white on the outside and a soft pink colour in the middle.

There is a very sweet smell of strawberry from the outside. When I pop it into my mouth there is a light strawberry flavour that is quite floral. The hi-chew is soft and chewy and the middle has a flavour reminscent of strawberry flavoured hubba bubba. The strawberry flavour reaches a peak at the end of the chew, but is not really tart. It's very refined in taste, has chemical notes here and there, but in all, quite nice. For what it is, it's a nice candy. A little bit bland, but hey, if you like Strawberry and you like it kind of plain, then this is for you.

Brand: Morinaga Calories per box: 225 Website: http://www.morinaga.co.jp/hi-chew/ Buy it now at napaJapan

Morinaga Dars White 森永白いダーズ

White chocolate is very popular in our house, and so is Japanese chocolate. So it's no surprise really that we would buy something like Dars White by Morinaga.

I've seen this around and also in Japan. I've tried it before but I've never blogged about it. I figure it's a stalwart in the snack world, it should be reviewed.

The pack is simple, light yellow with Dars in big blue letters. There is a sealed foil pack inside containing 12 individual pieces (aka Dars = "dozen"). They are a light yellow colour and have "Dars" stamped into the top.


They have that creamy sweet smell familiar to white chocolate. These are best eaten at room temperature as they have a soft centre, somewhat similar to a ganache, that you can't experience when the chocolate is cold from the fridge.

The chocolate is really sweet, but also really creamy and the ganache in the centre adds something a little bit extra to this but without fanfare. It's unexpected but delightful. There is a build up of vanilla flavour you get if you eat more than one, and it's really nice.


This is everything I expected and more. It's one of the best white chocolates I have ever tried.
At the moment because of Valentine's day they have a special page with recipes to make for your love using Dars as one of the ingredients. I'm not sure how long it will stay around for though.

Morinaga Hi-Chew Pom Juice ハイチュウポンジュース

If I was English I would take offence at this Hi-chew and the juice it originates from. Living in Australia, I often hear English people referred to as "poms" - a derogatory term. It's mostly said in good humour but most of my English friends think it's rude and take offence.

So bearing that in mind, I would never offer them a piece of this Pom Hi-chew. In Japanese this is pronounced "pon juice", but when Japanese is converted to English, it becomes "Pom", because Pom is short for Pomelo - a citrus fruit native to South East Asia, that is used to make the juice.

Each piece of candy is a light orange colour with white in the middle. Biting into this reminds me of Hi-C, that generic orange juice concentrate you can buy at the supermarket.


It's really a nice taste. Sweet like Hi-C juice with a light orange flavour. This is chewy and from the texture and taste, really close to gum. It's the kind of texture and taste than any gum manufacturer could make.

I really like this, and I recommend it to you. It has a flavour that is easy to like. :)

Morinaga Milk Tea Pie 午後の紅茶ミルクティーパイ

Gogo Tea (or gogo no kocha) is one of those Iconic Japanese brands that has been around for ages, in fact, 23 years. It's one of the more well known milk tea brands in Japan, that has a plethora of Japanese talents endorsing it.

Gogo Tea is actually produced by Kirin beverages, but these pies are made by Morinaga, in conjunction with Kirin. I couldn't find any mention of these pies on the Morinaga biscuit website and likewise the Kirin website.

The box has 12 pies, 6 individually wrapped packs of two pies each. Each pie is 2cm wide by 5cm long and resembles more of a flaky biscuit, than a "pie". The top of the pie is covered in a light brown layer of sweet milk tea coating. I say coating because it's smooth and warm, and very different in texture to icing. The texture of the coating leaves a pasty texture on the roof of my mouth, it's hard to get used to.


The pie itself is flaky, has lots of air in the middle when I take a bite, and reminds me of Pie no Mi, but a long flat version. I tend to think of this more as a biscuit than a pie, just because my idea of a pie, is round with something in the middle, and my idea of a biscuit is flat like this "pie".

Instead, Morinaga have, what should be in the middle, on top of the pie, which seems topsy-turvy to me.


The pie pastry has no discernable flavour, it's made with shortening, milk, flour, and rice flour. It's quite unremarkable, I could almost say "cheap". The coating is made with 100% gogo milk tea, salt, cocoa butter, and cocoa powder.

This is a cheap, unflattering tribute to Kirin, a product which falls short of Kirin's consistent quality of products. I think Morinaga have really let themselves and Kirin down with this pie, and I'm really disappointed.

I definitely wouldn't buy this again.

Morinaga Mango Milk Kyorochan Cake マンゴーミルクケーキ

When I was in Japan a month ago, I began to see Kyorochan - of Chocoball fame - gracing the shelves in the form of cookies and cakes. The cookies and cakes all had one flavour - Mango Milk.

One box will set you back 158 yen, or about $1.50. I viewed the cake as more of a dessert treat than the cookie, so bought the box of cakes.

The box states キョロちゃんが作った, meaning that the cakes were made by Kyorochan. I guess it's another ploy to rope kids into getting their mum's to buy a box!

In true Japanese style, this box contains 6 individually wrapped mini cakes. They are round like cookies but are made from chocolate sponge cake, with a mango milk cream filling.


The cakes really are quite small, but great for portion control. They smell really nice, the mango filling is the most prominent scent when opening the pack. The chocolate sponge is so soft that it crumbles when picked up, you really have to be careful when holding it, and not press too hard.


The chocolate sponge is somewhat bland, there is no real 'chocolate' flavour present, but this is ok for me as I don't like strong chocolate tastes. I really like the soft texture of the sponge though, despite the crumbly texture.



The cream is whipped, like a mousse, so it's very light and fluffy. The taste is really strongly mango, and I think the milk component is in the whip texture because it gives it some creaminess on the end notes.

In all, I really liked these cakes. They are great little snacks for lunchboxes and for on the go, light, and well priced. :)

For Loyal Readers - Win a pack of Matsuri Hi-Chew!

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Chocoball Milk Pudding チョコボール牛乳プリン味

Kyoro-chan stowed away in my hand luggage and took a trip down under, or that's what Yasu would like me to think. More likely he stuffed it in my suitcase when I wasn't looking, in order to chomp on it later.

This box is back to the original style, unlike the recent flavours that have a tuna-can like opening. I wish Morinaga would make up it's mind about packaging.

Milk Pudding is not something I have ever heard of in Australia. In Japan, the land of pudding or "purin", it is one of the many popular flavours, in good company with mango pudding, almond pudding, and caramel pudding.

It's another white chocolate Chocoball, how different could it be from Yoghurt or Cream Cheese?

The balls themselves are rather small, in fact smaller than usual, round, white, and glossy. They smell faintly of vanilla and musk. It's a pleasant scent, but more suitable for perfume than chocolate.
The chocolate on the outside is creamy, only slightly sweet, has some taste of white chocolate, but the creaminess is the overall flavour, like a powdered milk flavour mixed with real milk. The let-down with this chocoball though is that because the ball itself is smaller than usual, and the biscuit is about 80% of the ball, the chocolate coating is too small to really get a big flavour hit.

You have to eat a handfull of these all at once to even get a vague sense of the milk pudding flavour. Obviously it wasn't intended for me, Yasu bought it for himself, and he gives it a big thumbs up, but then, he would eat anything Chocoball...he's a dedicated fan.

Big on flavour, these are not. Good for children and husbands, yes.

Chocoball Cream Cheese チョコボールクリームチーズ

I found this box of Chocoball in Lawson, and I thought it was the salt flavour as the box looks almost the same, but on closer inspection I found it was Cream Cheese.

I have never been a big fan of cheese but I thought for my blog and because I have a history of reviewing Chocoball I would try it out.

Unfortunately as it was a really hot and humid day when I bought it, the little balls melted on the way home and stuck together. I don't think it affects the flavour though, just the shape.

This box also opens like a tunacan and can be resealed by tucking the tab back into the slit.

The chocolate on the outside is white chocolate and smells extremely sweet. It tastes like sweetened condensed milk, exactly like the Japanese version, with a little bit of saltiness.

The chocolate is actually softer than usual, and after sucking it off, I find that the biscuit in the middle is just a regular biscuit with no flavour. So where is the cream cheese flavour then?? Oh, am I mistaken, there is no cream cheese flavour, it is just made with cream cheese for the softer outside texture. Though the ingredients does list 'natural cheese' as 6th on the ingredient list, though does not say anything about cream cheese. So thoroughly confusing or misleading.

In any case, despite all that, it really is a very tasty treat and I am in love with the flavour. I will definitely be taking a few of these home to enjoy at a later date.

Festival Hi-Chew Toffee Apple

I just received a parcel of yummy treats from Japan and this was in the box. I was disappointed to find that this Hi-Chew is smaller than the average packet, and has only 7 pieces.

As a kid, Toffee Apples were one of my favourite sweets. Whever we went to the local vegetable shop there was always a big tray of toffee apples, one for 50 cents, and my mum would buy me one.

So seeing this Toffee Apple flavour or what Japanese refer to as Ringo Ame (Apple sweets) made me feel abit nostalgic for the old days.

Each pieces is a light pink colour on the outside and white in the centre, and has pieces of chewy toffee inside. From the outside there is the very same smell of the toffee on the outside of the apple. Oh the memories!

Biting into the Hi-Chew is a strange experience because on one hand there is the soft chewy chew, followed by a big crunch as I bite down on a piece of toffee. The flavour of the Hi-Chew is quite tart, like a green apple, and the toffee brings the sweetness.

I really like the flavour combination, but I'm not so sure about the bits of toffee. It takes some getting used to, crunching down on those toffee bits. I think kids would definitely love this because of the change in texture, but as a long-time Hi-chew lover, I just can't get my head around the crunch part and I would prefer it if there was two flavours but without the crunchiness.

Still, I am glad I tried this, so I could see what it was like. It gave me a nice trip down memory lane, if nothing else.

Hokkaido Yubari Melon Hi-Chew 北海道夕張メロンハイチュウ

Hokkaido is well known for it's Yubari Melon, in fact it's the most popular melon in all of Japan. They are named after the small town near Sapporo where they come from. Yubari Melons are the most expensive melons, costing anywhere upwards of $40 just for one!

The first time I ever went to Japan I saw this Yubari Melon Hi-chew and was in awe. I never tried it. That was 2004. Now, more than 5 years later I finally got my hands on a packet of it. Why did I wait so long? I don't really know, to be honest, it just panned out that way.

Yubari is dear to my heart. My husband's family are from Hokkaido and still live there, so I have a very personal relationship with melon in general. I've always loved the yellow fleshed melon that we call Rockmelon or Canteloupe.

The colour of the chew is a very pale orangey white colour with an orange strip through the middle. The melon scent is very strong even before the wrapper is entirely off.

The exact flavour of the orange flesh is present in the first bite. It's just like eating a real melon, albeit a rather chewy one. Further chews make the chew softer and more pliable in my mouth but the flavour doesn't increase or decrease but stays the same. Towards the end I get a flavour reminscent of an overripe banana, but it's not bad tasting, it just reminds me of that, but also reminds me so much of the Yubari I eat when I go to Hokkaido. Oh my goodness, it makes me feel so homesick for Hokkaido.

This Hi-chew is full of Yubari flavour and doesn't really deviate from the taste at all. I couldn't stop eating these, and I'm already on my third one. The only thing bad I have to say that would probably be true for all Hi-Chew's is that after eating a few it makes me thirsty, and the taste left in my mouth is like bubblegum more or less.

I think this Hi-Chew is probably more suited only to those who love this type of melon. It's very full-on, and offers nothing different in the way of new taste sensations. If you want a trip down memory lane, like I did, then this is your bet.

Morinaga Ichigo Caramel (Strawberry Caramel)

This Ichigo Caramel was released for Mother's Day (May) in Japan. It was only around for a little while before petering out. Fortunately for me I received it as a gift with a bunch of other food gifts, and it makes a change from the usual Milk, and Matcha flavours that Morinaga usually make. Not to say I don't also like those, but I do like to try new flavours of caramel when I can.

This box holds the same quantity as usual. 12 individually wrapped pieces 1.5cm x 1.5cm in size. When you push the bottom of the box, the top slides up, similar to a matchbox. You can also push down from the top and have the same effect.

Each piece of caramel is bubblegum pink in colour. It doesn't carry much scent, a very faint strawberry mousse flavour, if anything.

The first taste is a very floral, almost musk-like flavour. The caramel is quite hard and takes a couple of chews to reduce the size. While chewing I get a vague strawberry mousse flavour, but there is still quite alot of floral flavour in there. The strawberry flavour never really builds up in intensity, while the floral notes are extremely strong and overwhelming. After swallowing this caramel I'm left with a taste similar to having chewed pink bubblegum for a few hours. It's not a pleasant taste, and the floral taste has burnt my throat.

This caramel was not enjoyable. Where was the strawberry?? I can just imagine the poor mum's that got saddled with this for Mother's Day. They probably hid it in the garbage when their kids' weren't looking. I guess Morinaga should stick to the basics.

Luckily this was a seasonal thing so I don't have to warn anyone off trying it. It's unlikely you will come across it, but if you do, buy at your own risk! And don't say I didn't give you fair warning. If you have tried this, let me know what YOU thought about it!

Hokkaido Lemon Cheesecake Hi-Chew

The fact that a product or ingredients in a product are derived from Hokkaido always has some kind of extra sales force in Japan. Hokkaido- land of nature and all things natural. Premium dairy products, fresh fish from the ocean, that sort of thing. It has serious selling capacity.

I picked up this Hi-Chew not because it says "Hokkaido" right across the front over an image of Hokkaido, but because of the flavour - Lemon Cheesecake.

I'm having a bit of a cheesecake craving lately and this just seemed to call me. 'Hmm lemon cheesecake hi-chew, that should be interesting' I thought.

The pack has 12 individually wrapped pieces of chewing candy about 2 x 1 centimetres.

The candy itself is a yellow colour, like a pat of butter. It smells like lemon cheesecake.

The flavour at first is like a lemon tart flavour and then half-way through chewing a dairy like flavour, cheese, then milk, emerges. The lemon tang stays present all the way through with the dairy flavours mixed in. It really is a nice chew. The flavours are strong but not overly sweet. The lemon taste is really nice, and not at all fake. Because it's really chewy, it's hard to imagine you are eating cheesecake. Nevertheless, I think it is a great flavour for Hi-Chew, interesting and different from the usual fruit flavours on offer.

If you see these around and you are a fan of cheesecake, I recommend you pick up a pack!

Chocoball Yoghurt

Image used from J-List
buy Chocoball here

This box of Yoghurt Chocoball was in Yasu's Easter gift bag and the last chocolate left. He told me he was waiting for me to review it so he could eat it! I had no idea until he told me tonight.

I have to say, I usually like Japanese yoghurt flavoured items but these chocoballs were way off the mark.

The outside is coated in a very thin layer of white chocolate, which is nice and creamy, but way too thin. The inside is a round ball of sherbet. It is quite sharp and sour, and after sucking the chocolate off the outside, is quite a nasty surprise.

Exactly where in this chocoball the "yoghurt" is I have no idea. There is no yoghurt flavour in the sherbet, it's just plain sherbet.

I have to give a big thumbs down to the crew at Morinaga, what were they thinking? Were they drunk when they came up with this? How can you put white chocolate + sherbet together and come up with yoghurt?

Morinaga Milk Cocoa

I came across this small 150 gram box of Morinaga Milk Cocoa in my local Japanese supermarket. For $3.35 I thought it wasn't too much of a risk if I didn't like it, it's a small box and so not much wastage.

The front of the package has an announcement that says "30th Anniversary" and "Oishisa up" or in other words they've upped up the level of flavour. It also has the slogan "Cocoa is Morinaga" in small print above the cup of cocoa.

The cocoa is sealed in a foil bag that is folded over underneath to fit in the box. Upon cutting the top I got a whiff of chocolate cocoa, and it smelled quite nice.

To make hot cocoa you need three small teaspoons heaped of cocoa and 120 mls of hot milk. As Yasu was also having some I heated up 240mls of milk. It didn't take very long on our gas stove. I poured the milk into the cups and whisked it all together with a small whisker.

The effect was a cocoa with a nice creamy froth on top.

I did not add any sugar, nor did I need to. It was chocolatey, sweet, and creamy but not overpowering. I suppose that if you wanted to make it stronger you could add more cocoa in the cup.

I didn't expect to like this cocoa but I became a big fan very quickly. Yasu also loved it and asked for another cup! This can also be made as an iced drink.

I guess the slogan is true, Cocoa IS Morinaga!