Lotte Salt Caramel + Puccho Fresh Grape – ロッテ塩キャラメル＋ぷっちょ生ぶどう

Two chews today, starting with Lotte’s salt caramel. The burnt-sugar scent of this alone is heavenly, and, as the dark brown colour promises, the flavour is rich and buttery rather than highly milky and sugary.

The salt filters through the other flavours and comes to the foreground slowly; it is very much in balance with the butter and brown sugar rather than being a strong additional flavour, so to me this is more like a caramel that happens to contain salt rather than a salt caramel, but of course that’s not a bad thing.

The texture is nicely chewy but soft enough that it doesn’t stick to the teeth, although the pieces are fairly small, meaning that it’s hard to get a satisfying chew out of just one, though two or three do the trick. Lotte also makes matcha caramel, as well as various flavours of gum.

Puccho Fresh Grape

These are supposed to contain real fruit and they do give off a delicious grape aroma but I’m not convinced by the flavour, and in fact if you check the side of the packet it says the fruit juice used in the filling comes from dates. Nevertheless, these are certainly full of flavour and do contain grape, as well as apple and lemon, juice so there is a genuine fruitiness to them, but also an artificially sugary taste.

The pale pale pink and deep purple colour-scheme is appealing and each sweet provides a good chewiness and juiciness. Each wrapper has a different cute cartoon on it too. Overall they’re very tasty, just don’t be fooled by the suggestion from the packaging that they’re bursting with authentic grape flavour. Puccho makes loads of other flavours, such as mikan and cola, and seasonal varieties are available throughout the year.

Next month: Kyoto Limited-edition Chocolates – 京都・東海・北陸・関西限定チョコレート

I gave up chocolate for Lent (not a religious thing, I just figure I’ll enjoy it even more if I take a break from it once a year) meaning that I can’t review any of the above until after Easter, so this is just a quick message about what’s coming up. I went to Kyoto this week and found Hello Kitty and Koinobori Tirol Choco, Matcha Apollo chocolates, Yatsuhashi KitKats and Houjicha KitKats, and finally in Nagoya airport I spotted Azuki Sando KitKats. I’m dying to try them all but in the meantime I have salt caramel, grape-flavoured chews, mochi, jellies and lots of other things to post so it will be a chocolate-free but still very, very sweet three weeks until Easter^^

 

Coffee Jelly: Meiji Café Jelly + Emial Sweet Café – カフェゼリー ＋ クリーミーキャラメル

I never used to like coffee but once I started visiting Asian supermarkets and discovered the huge range of iced coffees available it was only a matter of time, and the Japanese love of cold coffee has spawned a range of delicious jellies too.
Coffe jelly is perfect as an after-dinner dessert (though I eat it all times of the day) because it’s light and sweet without leaving you craving more sugar and low in caffeine so you won’t be up all night either.

This first jelly is from Meiji and comes in a pack of three with three miniature pots of cream syrup. At just 50kcals each these are pretty much guilt-free while still feeling like a treat. While you can eat the jelly straight from the pot, it’s much more fun if you turn it out onto a dish, and knowing this Meiji have kindly included a little tab on the bottom of the pot which, when snapped off, breaks the vacuum and causes the jelly to gloop seamlessly out, in one glistening piece.

The surface is beautifully shiny and the colour is just the right rich dark brown of black coffee, but the flavour is mild, sweet and not at all bitter. The cream syrup is thin but milky enough to add a little something to the texture and flavour.

The jelly has a good wobble without being firm – a spoon slices through it like butter and it practically melts in the mouth. You can get this product in most supermarkets and individual pots are available in conbinis too, so if you’re in Japan go ahead and buy some~

For something a bit more indulgent there is Emial’s Sweet Cafe range: chunks of coffe jelly in a cup full of creamy sauce, in this version caramel-flavour. As with the Meiji jelly the coffee taste is subtle, but there is a hint of bitterness that creates a pleasant contrast to the mild milkiness of the liquid. The sauce is thin which compliments the lightness of the jelly and you can smell and taste warm vanilla and caramel notes. The overall effect is much like an iced latte, but with a bit more substance to it, for when you want to bite into something.

Other flavours in the range include White Mocha and plain Coffee Jelly, which I will hopefully review later, along with any other coffee jellies I can find~

7-eleven Matcha Anmitsu + cafe desserts – 抹茶あんみつ + カフェのデザート

So far I’ve only reviewed chocolate products so this time I thought I’d do some proper Japanese sweets, starting with anmitsu. Anmitsu is a cold dessert consisting of cubes of a gelatin-like substance called kanten in a thin brown or white sugar syrup (mitsu), topped with a paste of sweetened azuki beans (an) and often cream and a variety of fruits. In this version the kanten/syrup base is green tea flavour, and a lovely colour to match. This was only about 300 yen but it’s nicely presented in a sturdy plastic pot that has a little shelf to keep the cream and fruits separate from the syrupy mixture below, so everything is fresh. The appearance of the fruity topping is mouth-watering, the kanten is smooth and glossy and the syrup gives off a sweet yet earthy scent of matcha.

The topping contains slices of juicy mandarin, a cocktail cherry, plain and matcha sweetened whipped cream that melts in the mouth, chewy shiratama (glutinous rice balls), soft an and whole azuki beans, so there is a great variety of textures in play.
The kanten is slightly firmer than jelly so has a little resistance when you bite into it. The matcha taste is very subtle but the syrup has a stronger flavour, though it is sweet rather than herbal.

I’ve bought anmitsu at 7-11 several times now but I’ve never tried putting the fruits etc on top of the kanten, I like to keep it all separate so that the cream doesn’t dissolve into the syrup.

Thanks to the staple of Japanese life that is the conbini, you don’t need to go a cafe to treat yourself to a tasty dessert but if you’re looking for something more luxurious here are some similar sweets that I’ve had in Japan:

This anmitsu that I had at Hanakanro (花かんろ) near Mt. Hakodate has vanilla ice cream and multi-coloured kanten flavoured with various fruit juices such as lemon and strawberry. It’s so colourful and pretty that it seems a shame to eat but I somehow managed^^ It’s a very generous serving with lots of handmade shiratama so quite filling but also refreshingly fruity. If you ever happen to be in Hakodate I seriously recommend checking this place out because it’s in a picturesque area full of old-fashioned Japanese-style cafes and the atmosphere is peaceful and relaxing~

I had this drink at Nana’s Green Tea in Yokohama but it took me a long time to choose because everything on the menu looked insanely delicious – all kinds of iced lattes and ice creams. What I went for in the end is almost a liquid version of the matcha anmitsu: kanten cubes in a milky green tea crushed ice drink, with a sprinkling of azuki beans. My husband went for the richer version, with matcha ice cream and shiratama.

This ‘Mini shiratama parfait’, which you can eat at Rokkatei (六花亭) in Hakodate, doesn’t contain kanten but the other key elements of an, shiratama and cream are there, so if it turns out you love anmitsu but don’t care for kanten this would be ideal.
Rokkatei is mainly a sweet shop and the cafe is only a small, roped-off section, meaning there’s usually a waiting-list to get seated, but while you wait you can browse the selection of chocolates, biscuits, mochi and beautiful gift boxes on display.

Mochi Chocolat Strawberry and Condensed Milk – もちしょこら濃厚いちご味・練乳みるく味

I used to buy these a lot but had to stop because they’d always ruin my best intentions to cut down on my daily sugar intake, though I still have them from time to time if I spot a new flavour.
Inside the cute box are two individually wrapped packets, each containing 4 chocolates. One pack is strawberry and the other is condensed milk flavour meaning that you have to go ahead and  open both packs to try both flavours together.

Unlike traditional mochi which are about 2/3 or even 3/4 gooey, chewy glutinous rice dough, these candies are a dense chocolatey ball surrounded by a relatively thin layer of mochi, making them a great way to enjoy that unique soft texture without an overload of stodgeiness.

The rose-pink strawberry chocolates have a sweet syrupy jam filling and lovely fruity scent, while the cream-coloured ones contain delicious condensed milk. The ‘chocolat’ element is slightly softer than standard chocolate and very rich and creamy so if you have one too many these can begin to get sickly.
I think two is the perfect serving size but eat as many as you want!

Matcha Purin X Matcha Chocolate X Match Pocky – 抹茶プリンX抹茶チョコX抹茶Pocky

My backlog of reviews to write is building up, so a quick rundown of three matcha products today, starting with Morinaga Matcha Purin. If you don’t know, purin is basically like crème caramel – a blancmange-like dessert with a dark syrup. This version is green tea flavour with brown sugar syrup at the bottom. The pudding is thick and wonderfully creamy, and the green tea aroma and taste are prominent without being overwhelming. The syrup at the base has a slightly bitter burnt flavour, like the surface of a crème brulée.

I’ve tried other matcha purin but Morinaga’s is by far the best so please hold out for this brand if you can find it. The Morinaga caramel purin is also delicious~

Sequoia Chocolate Matcha.

I’m not sure what brand this is, as I didn’t capture it in the photograph and I no longer have the wrapper, but you can find this at Daiso (100 yen shop) at 4 for 105 yen. These little bars are also available in some supermarkets and conbinis.

This is simply a layer of matcha cream sandwiched between two wafers with a milky fondant on top and a milk chocolate base, all enrobed in matcha chocolate with a woodgrain effect. For around 26 yen a piece this is a great value treat: it has a satisfying bite, the matcha flavour comes through and the wafer is crisp and light. Other flavours in this range include Strawberry, Milk Chocolate and Fruits Mix.

Anyone who’s made it to this blog probably already knows Pocky, the hugely popular biscuit sticks with a chocolate coating. When it comes to chocolate I don’t usually buy biscuit products, but I’ll try anything matcha.

The lovely jewel-green colour of these sticks, darker than the pale green of many matcha products, promises a rich and earthy taste, which is delivered. Whether you crunch through three at a time or just suck one slowly there is plenty of chocolatey flavour. I may have to try more Pocky in future.