Bourbon Elise Hokkaido Milk Cream Wafers ブルボンエリーゼ北海道ミルククリームウエハース

This week is all about Hokkaido. For some reason the products I've come upon in the last month all claim to be from Hokkaido or have Hokkaido milk or cream in them, so I decided it was time to have a themed week!

This first product was bought on impulse in a Japanese supermarket. Yasu and I were killing time waiting for the restaurant next door to open and we came across these on a shelf. Yasu immediately got excited because he always ate these when he lived at home and said they were the yummiest. So I bought a pack for him to have but I think it made him a little bit homesick.

This pack contains 10 wrapped packets containing 2 sticks each. The sticks themselves are the same kind of texture and colour as an icecream cone. They smell very creamy from the outside and the wafer texture is hard and crunchy. There is white chocolate cream in the centre made using Hokkaido milk, and it's a really pleasant flavour, not overly sweet like some white chocolate.

Yasu complained that there was less chocolate in the middle than there used to be, and it did feel a bit lacking I have to say, but apart from that these were absolutely delicious!! I love the creaminess of the white chocolate cream and the crunchy texture of the wafers, it all goes together wonderfully. Better still on a hot day, the cream inside melts and it's almost like eating an icecream.

I'd say these are mostly put out in people's homes when guests come over (I saw a lot of these types of wafers/biscuits for afternoon tea when I visited family in Hokkaido), and Bourbon in particular seems to be the afternoon tea snack of choice in the Tokachi area from personal experience.

Brand: Bourbon Calories per pack: 19 Website: http://www.bourbon.co.jp

Tirol Chocolate Mix 8 Pack チロルチョコミックス

Tirol Chocolate is one of our family's favourites. It's great that a chocolate so cheap is so good, and there is so much excitement when a new flavour is released.

I purchased this Mix pack of 8 Tirol chocolates from napaJapan. I have already tried 3 out of the 4 flavours. The one I wanted to try in this pack is the Matcha Milk. I have tried a similar Tirol before called Uji-Matcha with mochi in. This one seems to be a bit plainer though and is just a mixture of matcha and milk.

You can see reviews for the other 3 flavours in the pack here and here.

The chocolate on the outside is a very matcha green which is nice and authentic. It also has a very faint smell of matcha. Biting in, the chocolate is smooth and melts easily and has a very creamy flavour that ends with a bitter but very familiar flavour of matcha. The milk is the first flavour to appear and then melds into the matcha. The chocolate inside is softer than on the outside and almost reminds me of a mousse.

I really enjoyed this Tirol. While it doesn't knock your socks off with matcha flavour, it's more of a subtle flavour that builds up towards the end but not overly so. I imagine this would go well with some Japanese tea, as it would not overshadow but complement.

Brand: Tirol Calories per box: 280 Website: http://kinotake.jp Buy it now at napaJapan

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

Meiji Hokkaido Cheese Caramel 明治北海道チーズキャラメル

I just love presents from friends, don't you? A couple of days ago I received a parcel of goodies from a friend in Tokyo. Thank you M! It was so unexpected which made it all the more lovely.

I'm back on the cheese snacks again - this time with caramel! Meiji has come up with some Hokkaido Cheese Caramel. Cheese and caramel are not exactly two flavours you would expect to see together, however it seems to work for this treat!

There are 12 individually wrapped square caramels in the bag. Each caramel is 2cm x 2cm in dimension and just over half a centimetre in height.

The funny thing about these caramels is the dairy products used in them are from my husbands home town of Tokachi! Even funnier is they are sold all the way over in Tokyo. I guess Hokkaido produce is getting more popular these days, people want to experience the country taste.

I took the caramel out of the bag while editing the photo's and all I could smell was a lovely creamy smell that kept wafting up to my nose. The caramel is smooth and glossy with a few hash marks on the top. It's easy to bite into and quickly softens. Mmmm.

Remember the Hokkaido Cheese Tirol? Well the cheese flavour is exactly the same! It's quite strong and rich and really creamy. The caramel really takes a backseat, though the chewiness of the caramel and the soft smooth texture really add to the all-over experience of the cheese flavour.

I'm a big fan of these!! However, if you didn't like the cheese tirol, I'm pretty sure you won't like these caramels, because the cheese component is very strong.

Brand: Meiji Calories per bag: 294 Website: http://www.meiji.co.jp Buy it now at: Family Mart Japan

Meiji Chelsea White Peach Milk Candy 明治チェルシー白桃ミルクキャンディー

I'm a long time fan of Chelsea, and so when I saw this pack of Chelsea White Peach flavour I knew I had to try it.

The box is a very cute pink with the same flower illustrations as always but made for Spring. The box slides out with individually wrapped candies on a tray. The contrast between the black tray and the pink wrapped candies is gorgeous.

Each candy is glossy and smooth and like a dark milk tea colour. The peach flavour is apparent straight away. It's lovely and strong and stays there the whole way until the end. It really tastes the same as a white peach and definitely reminds me of eating the fruit, even down to the way the skin tastes. We both really loved this Chelsea flavour and I wouldn't hesitate to buy it again - if I could find some!

Meiji Cheese Kugel 明治チーズクーゲル

 This came in a care package courtesy of napaJapan and the front of the pack says "大人のチーズスナック" - Cheese snack for adults. It also says in English down the bottom "Delicious cheese snack".

The main point of this snack was that it was a different kind of cheese snack that you would expect. The form itself was like a hard candy. The outside reminded me of Mentos, it was white and smooth, but instead of coming in a long roll, it came in a small re-sealable bag.

Each one smelled quite strongly of cheese. They weren't hard to bite into. It was quite surprising to bite into one and find a honeycomb shaped web of golden orange inside. Therein contained most of the flavour.

We ate these over the course of a couple of weeks because the cheese flavour was just so strong and on the nose. These were unique because they weren't the average "snack" that you would expect to be flavoured with cheese, but I won't hunt them down because they were too strong for me. 10/10 for novelty status though!!

Catchup Post

It's been a while since I last posted anything - August 6th to be exact. I've been suffering from morning sickness - well all day sickness really and I just couldn't stomach looking at anything that resembled food.

I now also have a health problem that stops me from eating chocolate or drinking tea/coffee/chocolate as well as citrus foods so it has limited the scope of items I can review in future unfortunately.

However, I did try a couple of food items just before I got pregnant but didn't post them so I will review them next.

Thanks all for your patience. I've still had so many hits per day, up to hundreds even while I haven't been posting so I really want to say thank you to my readers who still come here. :)
I will try to be a better blogger in future. :)

Lotte Black Black Chewing Gum ロッテ ブラックブラック ガム

This sample was kindly provided to me by napaJapan. It was hiding in a box of goodies and I didn't know it was there until I turned the box upside down and it fell out. I was surprised as it's a gum I see quite often in Japanese supermarkets but have never thought to try. I'm not a big mint gum fan, I prefer fruity flavours. Also, this gum just sings "otaku". You can get it at Anime conventions and websites, it's probably the most well known Japanese gum of all.

This was sitting on the computer table waiting to be reviewed, and Yasu saw it and said "hey, where did you get black black from?" I told him it was all his if he wanted it, I only needed one stick. He happily made off with the rest of the pack so I guess this bodes well for reviewing.

There are 9 individually wrapped flat sticks in the pack. Each stick is a dark grey colour with a white powdery coating. From the outside the gum smells strong and putting it in my mouth the mint is so powerful and strong.

I was careful not to try this at night because it has caffeine in it, and obviously it's good for a pick me up. This gum is so minty it burns my throat and gives off considerable heat so that even when I stop chewing it, the heat is still there. Japanese people seem to be a fan of all things minty and menthol and I have tried health care producst like eye drops and lip balm that has such qualities. I, however, am not a fan of it, and I don't like this gum. It's too minty, burny and hot. It just makes everything from my lips to my throat burn like hell.

Maybe Japanese people who are already used to these kinds of products in the market probably like it, as Yasu does, but if you don't like your mint extra extra strong then I would say give it a wide berth. If anything, this gum will definitely get rid of any other undesirable taste in your mouth and will definitely freshen it, so I guess if you didn't have any toothpaste and you had this gum instead, you could use it that way.

Brand: Lotte Calories per box: 75 Website: http://www.lotte.co.jp Buy it now at napaJapan

Asahi Mitsuya Cider Melon Candy 三ツ矢サイダーキャンディー・メロン味

Whenever I go to Japan, one of the first drink brands I check out is Mitsuya Cider. They always seem to have really interesting and great tasting soda's. The most memorable one I have tried was condensed milk soda which was really nice!

Yubari Melon is a fruit and flavour that is dear to my heart. Hokkaido is my husband's home and is also home to the wonderful Yubari Melon which is used in cakes and desserts, candies, soda's, snacks and so much more in Japan.

So it's no wonder I was excited when napaJapan gave me this bag of Yubari Melon Mitsuya Cider candies.

The bag is small, and (71g) and holds about 20 individually wrapped candies. The candy is small, round and green, a colour that reminds me more of green apple.

From the minute the candy hit my tongue I started to get the fizz sensation that is reminscent of a soda. The Yubari melon flavour is prominent and sweet, but not too sweet. This really tastes like melon soda and there are no harsh chemical flavours that some candies have when trying to recreate a fruit flavour.

I really loved these and handed them out a party to Japanese and Aussie friends who all gave them the thumbs up too!

These are one of the best candies I have tried and I recommend them! You can buy these now at napaJapan as well as other flavours in the range - Grape soda and Regular Cider.

Brand: Asahi Calories per bag: 264 Website: http://www.asahi-fh.com Buy it now at napaJapan

Pocky Dessert Chocolate Banana Cake ポッキー・デザートチョコラのバナナケーキ風

I'm on a bit of a roll here. I just reviewed the Strawberry Custard Cake Dessert Pocky and now I'm going to review the Chocolate Banana Cake version!

I've heard mixed things about banana flavour in snacks, it would appear that it doesn't translate very well. That being said, I've always liked fake banana flavour so it's never been a problem for me.

I like the idea of making a dessert into a snack that can be eaten as a dessert. It's so much easier than carrying around a whole cake, and it's convenient to store! :)

This Chocolate Banana Cake Pocky is the same format as the Strawberry Custard one. It has a thick coating of banana chocolate around the pretzel stick and then it has a piped chocolate effect all over the top.

I love the style, it looks elegant and fun.

Smelling the stick, I am quite surprised to find that it smells more like rich cocoa than banana. There is a very vague banana undertone but it's not the prevalent scent.

Biting in, the chocolate on the top is soft and smooth and once again reminds me of icing on a cake. The chocolate is the first flavour that hits my tongue and it has a dark edge to it, and then boom! pow! the banana flavour takes over. The banana flavour is not close to the real thing, it's more of a "fake" banana, but it is sweet and light and I really like it. The chocolate and banana flavours combine near the end and go very well together. Overall, the chocolate is very strong and overpowers the banana.

The pretzel stick is nicely crunchy and goes really well with the chocolate coating.
To me this didn't really resemble a "cake" like the Strawberry Custard Pocky. These flavours were more akin to a mousse or whip. It's still in the range of dessert though and I do like it, but I have to say that out of the two, the Strawberry is the one I like more.

I think the Strawberry Pocky was done better because it fits more with the cake theme, so it's something I can imagine more than this one.

Brand: Glico Calories per box: 97 Website:  http://pocky.jp/products/dessert/index.html Buy it now at napaJapan