Tirol Hokkaido Cheese Premium チロル 北海道チーズ

Jason @ napaJapan kept teasing me with the line "I've got some Hokkaido cheese chocolate coming in soon". Music to my ears... and SO tempting.

If you love Hokkaido as much as I do then I know you will be thrilled about trying this Tirol Hokkaido Cheese premium chocolate.

This Tirol chocolate is larger than the regular size. Yasu couldn't get over it, because Tirol is his favourite childhood chocolate and they didn't have premium size back then. Plus, he's a Hokkaido-jin so the Hokkaido cheese factor makes it even better for him.

The cheese Tirol to the left is bigger than the regular size.

Hokkaido Cheese is the best! I've seen a few reviews online and people have trashed it - I totally disagree with their taste. This Tirol is the essence of Hokkaido, creamy, dairy, cheesy, fromage-y. :)

It has a lovely yellow coloured outer chocolate that tastes creamy and chocolatey. The inside is a strong cheese taste in a biscuit - but the biscuit is soft and melts in the mouth. Yummm. Lucky I got given 10 of these beauties because one is just not enough!

If you're a wimp when it comes to cheese - don't try it. If you like your cheese rich and creamy with a big of strength then this is for you.

Brand: Tirol Calories per piece: 51 Website: http://www.tirol-choco.com Buy it now at napaJapan

Framboise Kit Kat フランボワーズ味 キットカット

I was delighted when I received this box in a parcel from Jason @ napaJapan. It's been a long time since I've reviewed a Kit Kat here on Tasty Japan and I was beginning to yearn to try another one soon.

Framboise - a flavour I don't come upon very often, I didn't even know how to pronounce it. On the box it is spelled out as furanbowaazu. Wikipedia states the pronounciation as franbwaz, which is French for Raspberry. The picture on the box is of a cake with cream and raspberries.

I had the box open while I have been typing this and the smell is divine. It smells like a cake shop. If the kit kat tastes anything like it smells, then this will be a winner!

As usual there are 4 sticks, 2 packs of 2. The wrapping paper is pink with light pink circles and it looks very French. Very stylish.

The chocolate on the outside of the kit kat is milk chocolate, but it has a slight raspberry flavour. When I bit into the kit kat it had a very strong flavour in the middle, like yoghurt and cheese mixed together, it is very creamy. There is also a small sourness from the raspberry powder, but it combines together with the yoghurt to create a very nice dessert experience. The chocolate on the outside is so creamy and goes so well with the flavours inside. It's delicious.

I would recommend trying this Kit Kat, it's something just a little bit special. I have a feeling there will be more flavours that are from well known sweets as there is a little logo on the box that says "sweets concept". So keep your eye out for more desserts into kit kat's in the future.

Brand: Nestle Calories per box: 97 Website: http://www.breaktown.com/ Buy it now at napaJapan

Calpis Soft Candy Grape Flavour カルピス ソフトキャンディー ぶどう味

I think everyone is pretty familiar with Calpis - a yoghurt flavoured drink that sends all gaijin into fits of uncontrollable giggles when anyone actually says the word, which sounds like "cow piss" to foreign ears.

My friends and I always laughed when Yasu said it and he could never work out why - until I let him in on the joke, and even then he didn't think it was funny. I guess it's just gaijin humour.

Anyway, Calpis have the original yoghurt drink and they also have various takes on the original by mixing it with grape, apple, orange, and various other fruit flavours.

I've had the grape flavour Calpis drink and I quite liked it, so that is why I bought the soft candy in the same flavour. They also had another flavour which was apple & honey, but I thought it seemed too much like something you would have when you're sick with the flu.

The pack has 22.1 calories and 10 pieces inside. That works out to 2.21 calories per piece which is pretty good.

The soft candy resembles a high chew piece except it's a bit wider and flatter. It's a light taro purple on the outside and it has white on the outside. The outside of the pack has a picture and indicates that the purple outside is "budou" (grape), and the inside is plain flavour.

The outside of the candy is in between soft and hard. It's called soft candy, but it's not as soft as it could be. The grape flavour is really strong at first but then the "plain" Calpis flavour in the middle kicks in and starts to overtake the grape flavour. The yoghurt taste is overpowering and the grape ends up taking a backseat to the yoghurt.

I was slightly disappointed by this candy because I thought it was going to be like eating Grape Hubba Bubba, with that total grape experience. I don't mind the original Calpis flavour but why have something called Grape, if it's actually Yoghurt with a hint of grape? Rather confusing.

If you like yoghurt with your grapes then this won't disappoint you. If you are expecting loads of grape flavour then forget it.

Brand: Calpis Calories per pack: 22.1 Website: http://www.candypark.com

Amanoya Kabuki Age Curry Flavour 天乃屋歌舞伎揚カレー味

I chose this little bag of senbei from my local Japanese supermarket because the pieces shown on the packet resemble Age Ichiban but smaller. It was only 50 cents for the bag which I thought was very reasonable! Sometimes Japanese products tend to be very expensive, even when they are small, so this was a nice surprise.

I've never come across the brand - Amanoya - before, but a quick search of google reveals that they do have a website, although I'm not familiar with any of the products. They don't have Kabuki Age listed on their site, so whether or not it was just a temporary line, I don't know.

The packet itself is pocket or palm sized. It's quite small. The senbei are also small, but there are quite a few in the pack.

The pack really smells like curry inside, this beautiful aroma wafted out when I opened it. The senbei are really crunchy and there is a lot of spices on the outside that bring the curry flavour to life in my mouth. It's not a super hot curry flavour, mild but also with sweet notes at the end. It does leave a hotness in my mouth afterwards. If you eat the whole pack at once the hotness builds up so it's that much hotter too.

The best thing about these is the crunch. They are just so satisfyingly crunchy. Yumm. I'm just sorry I didn't buy a few more packs!!

I definitely recommend these if you see them around - a great snack to fill a hole or to munch and walk. :)

Brand: Amanoya Calories per pack: 83 Website: http://www.e-amanoya.co.jp

Itoen Teas’ Tea New York Style Herb Darjeeling 伊藤園ティーズティー ニューヨーク ハーブダージーリン

I was looking for a refreshing drink and this bottle caught my eye. It looks modern and well designed.

It was also on special for $2.99 so that persuaded me to give it a try.

I only noticed after purchasing it that it is made by Itoen, a company who's drinks I rarely like. They are well-known for their healthy drinks, mainly with fruit and vegetables.

At the top of the bottle near the brands logo it has "New York Style" written. I'm not sure what that actually means, the bottle or the contents.

The flavour of the tea is Herb Darjeeling. I'm not a fan of herbs but since herbs and tea resemble the same kind of leafy greens I thought they would probably go well together. The bottle also mentions that Lemongrass is an ingredient, it is unsweetened and there are no calories.

A look on the back of the bottle also confirms this.

The first smell when I opened the lid was very medicinal. I could really smell herbs. However when I took a sip, I couldn't really taste any herbs, but more a flavour of straight black tea.

I'm not a tea conoisseur, I'm really only familiar with a few styles, and I've never had Darjeeling before, but it doesn't taste like it has a definite flavour more than other tea.

There is definitely no sugar in here, there is no sweetness at all. The tea reminds me very much of Straight Tea by Kirin, the same kind of tea flavour persists. There is a bitter component when swallowing the tea and I attributed this to the herbs until I looked on the back of the bottle and found the only herb ingredient is lemongrass. The only other ingredient is "black tea" but it doesn't say it's Darjeeling in particular, so I am not sure if they are just calling it Darjeeling or it actually is.

I'm very familiar with the taste of lemongrass and there is absolutely no taste of that in this tea, so I'm pretty sure they used a minute amount if only so they could put it on the label.

Weird.

I'm not sure if New Yorkers drink tea this way - I searched the internet and couldn't find any evidence of a particular recipe or way that they drink it, so I will leave that up to my readers to inform me, if they know.

So in all, it's like drinking straight black tea with a bitterness, and no sweetness. It turned out to be pretty bland. It doesn't refresh me, but it doesn't make me thirsty either. It's just very plain.

It=t was a disappointment to be sure. There was no noticeable lemongrass flavour as per the bottle, and the bottle and it's "herb" statement was a little bit misleading anyway. I do like the bottle - it's pretty funky, but that's the only part of this drink that is.

I guess I'll just mark this down as yet another Itoen drink I don't like.

Brand: Itoen Calories per bottle: 0 Website: http://www.itoen.co.jp

Meiji Kaiten Zushiya-san Gummy 回転ずしやさん グミ

Kaiten Zushi is basically conveyor belt sushi. As in, sushi on small round plates go around on a conveyor belt in front of diners who pick up whichever plate they want to try.

This gummy is based on that concept, but instead of tasting like fish and rice, the flavours are apple, melon, and strawberry.

There are 7 pieces of "shari" (rice) and 7 various pieces of ingredient that goes on top of the rice. In this case the rice is apple flavour, 4 of the ingredients are strawberry flavour, and the other 3 are melon flavour.

When you open the packet, there is a sealed section containing the gummy. You peel the plastic off, somewhat like plastic cheese, and the rubbery little pieces of gummy sushi come with it, so you have a kind of clear plate with "sushi" on it.

There is also another component to this gummy. When you place the ingredients on the rice, it combines both flavours and turns into a new one.

Apple + Strawberry = Peach
Apple + Melon = Banana

Each piece is quite small, 2cm x 1cm. The rice base is a very weak apple, and quite chewy. The melon is more like gummy in that it is a transparent orange. It has a strong flavour of melon and is enjoyable. The strawberry is also a transparent red colour, but this one tastes like watered down strawberry concentrate with more water than concentrate.

Combined together, the melon and apple tasted like banana while still maintaining the original flavours. However, the strawberry and apple really didn't taste much like peach until I had swallowed it.

Yasu and I ate this together, and while we found it interesting and quite fun at first, the flavours just didn't do it for us. We felt the flavour was too weak, and the base was too rubbery.

We don't want to eat it again but it was fun and quite unique for a one-time snack. The packet has a lot of cute graphics and there is a quiz on the back. The website also has a lot of fun interactive games and downloads to keep kids entertained online.

Brand: Meiji Calories per pack: 71 Website: http://okashi-land.jp Buy it now at napaJapan

Bourbon Milk Roll Cake ふわまき ミルクケーキ

I'm a big fan of roll-cake. Especially the roll-cake from Japan. It tends to be very soft and moist, with a light fluffy cream in the middle.

This roll-cake from Bourbon is no exception. When I was a kid, when my mum made sandwiches for me she used to cut off all the crusts, and then I used to pound it down so it was really flat. This roll-cake reminds me of that because it has a similar texture to flattened white bread that has just been baked. It is perfect.

The cream inside is combined from two types of cream. It doesn't say exactly which types of cream on the packet, but it does say it has butter, full cream milk, raw cream, and cream powder. The cream has been whipped and is light and fluffy - hence the "fuwa" part of "fuwamaki" on the pack. "Fuwa" meaning fluffy and "maki" meaning roll, literally "fluffy roll".

The roll cake has the scent of vanilla and it looks like a cow. Not in shape, but in colour - it has the pattern of a dairy cow on the outside - white with dark brown spots. The brown parts have a slightly bitter cocoa flavour. The cake is soft to eat and the fluffiness of the cream goes with it perfectly. The cream tastes very milky, so in all it's a party of vanilla and cream in my mouth.

I shared this with Yasu and we both really enjoyed it, but it was over too soon! Wish I had more of these... I definitely recommend trying it!

Brand: Bourbon Calories per pack: 179 Website: http://www.bourbon.co.jp

Lotte Plus X Mango Mint Gum プラスエックスガム マンゴーミント味

Wow, two posts in two days, am I on a roll or what?

Plus X is pretty much the same format as the Lotte Xylitol Gum. It's the same small chiclets, and the same super bright gum.

In this case though, the flavour is tropical. Mango Mint to be exact. Not totally out there as far as gum goes. It could be a flavour in Australia or America, not some oddball creation we know they can usually come up with in Japan!

I had no trepidation about trying this flavour, in fact I thought it might be a little mundane. The colour of the gum was anything but mundane - very bright orange in colour.

This gum, like the Lotte Xylitol gum, has xylitol in it so it so it's sweet without sugar. Supposedly better for you too. There are 14 individually wrapped chiclets, and the pack is worth 37 calories.

The taste is very tropical. The first bite tastes like a mixture of tropical fruits, and then it blends seamlessly into a full mango flavour and then again a blend of mint comes in with the mango. But the mint part of this gum is not very strong, it's more mango than mint.

I was surprised that the mango and mint is still around and it's been more than 5 minutes. Mind you, it's not as full flavoured as it was at the beginning but that's because I have probably gotten used to it.

When you're on a diet, getting used to sugar-free, xylitol and sweetener infused products is hard at first, but then you get used to it. I'm now at the point where I can say I actually like this gum. Before, the sweetness would have been too fake, and too bland. It's not as sweet as other Japanese gums I have tried, so if you like your gum on the sweeter side (for example Juicy Fruit) then this gum is probably not going to be for you.

On the otherhand, if you're looking for a good option to have that's not going to stack up the calories, then this would be ideal.

Brand: Lotte Calories per pack: 37 Website: http://www.lotte.co.jp

Fujiya Caramel Milky Candy 不二家ミルキーキャラメル

I had another break from blogging over Easter - sorry guys. Copious amounts of sweets and chocolate meant that I was sick to the eyeballs of sweet stuff.

Now back to review this bag of Milky Caramel. It's not just the average Milky candy, as in a certain flavour. It's a caramel that has a milky cream filling.

Each pack has about 11 individually wrapped candies inside. They are small and glossy, about 2cm x 1cm.

These are best eaten at room temperature. I tried them out of the fridge and they were too hard and chewy and the inner cream didn't really make much difference.

But, when I had them at room temperature they were melt-in-the mouth, soft, and the inside was soft and melty.

This candy tasted like coconut when I first popped it in my mouth. It was quite sweet too. There is a vague taste of caramel flavour but not full-on like a butterscotch caramel. The inside tastes like an original milky, it's very creamy and I could taste the cream.

These were really sweet, so one was enough for me. Yasu really enjoyed these and ate nearly the whole bag, but even he only had one per day.

Overall, these are not the most special Milky around, but they do taste nice and are very creamy, but also very sweet, so if you like that combination and you see it around, I would recommend them to you. If not, it's nothing to cry about if you missed getting these. :)

Brand: Fujiya Calories per pack: 155 Website: http://fujiya-milky.com

Meiji Kinoko no Yama Banana Milk きのこの山バナナ・オ・レ

Note to self: Don't order chocolates in the middle of Australia's summer (around 38~42 degrees celcius) or this post will be the result.

Unfortunately this box of Meiji Kinoko no Yama didn't make it all the way here without melting into a puddle. And when I say puddle, I mean puddle.

The little mushrooms all ended up becoming one big yellow blob with pretzel sticks poking out. Okay if you're planning to scoff the whole box down in one sitting, not okay if you're planning on sharing it with someone else.

Nevertheless, the review must go on.

Despite its blobbiness, the smell wafting out of the box is delicious. I am a big fan of banana, and in particular fake banana scent and essence, so I expected to really love this.

The chocolate is surprising as it starts off as a banana milk taste and ends up being quite tangy, almost lemony. I could also taste a fruitiness and when I looked on the ingredients I found apple paste was used.

This is a nice banana flavour, not too over the top, not too fake, and it has quite a few different elements mixed in to keep it interesting. The pretzel stick is plain, but it's a nice contrast to the banana and it's really crunchy so it adds a great texture too.

Just like when I drink a milk drink, this made me thirsty afterwards. So if you're going to eat this make sure you have a drink handy. In all, I would buy this again as I thought it was an interesting take on a classic flavour.

Brand: Meiji Calories per box: 430 Website: http://kinotake.jp Buy it now at napaJapan