Daiso X Tirol Choco Fukkoku Tirol: Blue Cheese Choco – ダイソーXチロルチョコ 復刻チロル ブルーチーズチョコ

If you’re like me, and have a meaningless obsession with hunting down and trying every kind of Tirol, then you’ll know that it’s virtually impossible, as region-specific limited edition products are constantly being released, meaning that you’d either need to keep visiting every major city in Japan in continuous rotation to check for new items, or else establish a vast network of underlings across the nation to do the job for you. And even then, what about all those chocolates released before I even knew about Tirol, and now no longer available? Well, luckily from time to time an old classic is revived, giving people who missed it the first time around a chance to catch up.

Hundred yen shop giant Daiso collaborated with Tirol Choco to poll consumers and find the top three out-of-production flavours that they wanted brought back. Blue cheese came in at number one, followed by peanut crunch and chocolate tart, and as a result Daiso produced this small 8 piece bag.

The small chunks are a pale creamy colour, dotted with minute green flecks of dried parsley, with a distinctive cheesy scent, that is strong but not overbearing, like a freshly opened packet of Parmesan.

The primary flavour is very odd – there’s no other word for it: it’s cheesy. Not a mellow, matured flavour like cheddar, but an unapologetically bold sour milk flavour, like that of a curd cheese. As the initial tang of cheesiness subsides, salt and a herby hint of parsley quickly make their way to the foreground, followed lastly by the oily uber-sweetness of low-grade white chocolate.

Now this may all sound horrific, and I’ll admit that on my first tasting I wasn’t sure what to make of this bizarre melange of flavours, but by the time I came to the third pale white chocolate square I was hooked. The contrast and progression of tastes is complex but it works; the saltiness counters the fermented dairy notes, and is in turn countered by the sweet chocolate, and thus everything balances out.

Adversely, when it comes to texture Blue Cheese is relatively simple. Each square looks like a solid block of chocolate but the cross-section of a chunk reveals that within the thick outer layer of white chocolate is a center with a crumbly texture, similar to a hard cheese like Parmesan.

While my writing may not have done much to entice you, I seriously recommend trying this unusual product for yourself, before it disappears all over again.

8/10

Daiso X Tirol Choco Fukkoku Tirol Blue Cheese Choco 8 pcs   ￥108  39kcals/piece