Emial Cafe Jelly Coconut Latte – Emial カフェゼリー ココナッツラテ

I used to buy these Emial desserts, consisting of coffee/tea-flavoured jelly in a creamy sauce, a lot, but due to the rather narrow selection of varieties I’d neglected them for a while. However, having recently returned from a holiday to Bali and still in tropical mood, my attention was caught by the newest Sweet Cafe addition: Coconut Latte.

The milky sauce has a light toasted coconut scent and delicious coconut flavour too. The consistency is a little thicker than the usual cream sauce made with dairy and when I first peeled back the lid on the pot the cream had congealed slightly at the surface, as tinned coconut milk has a tendency to do. A quick stir soon blended it back to a smooth consistency.

The jelly chunks have the same texture as those present in previous Emial cafe jellies: firm enough to hold their shape but melting like butter in the mouth. While the flavour is undeniably evocative of coffee, it is closer to the mild, sweetened taste of bottled iced coffee, and lacks the deep, roasted notes and bitterness of the real thing. It seemed as though there was a higher ratio of jelly to sauce than usual, perhaps due to the coconut milk being more concentrated than the typical cream sauce, but this didn’t affect the overall balance of the product.

I thought that coconut milk was a fresh new idea for the Emial range and the release was timed perfectly as the weather is growing warmer and people’s thoughts are beginning to turn to summer. That said, I’m not sure that coconut and coffee works as well as previous combinations in this line, so I probably won’t buy this again.

6/10

Emial Sweet Cafe Coconut Latte

Emial Tapioca Time Royal: Black Tapioca Mix Berry Latte – Ｅｍｉａｌ ブラックタピオカ・ミックスベリーラテ

While some brands keep me on a constant roller coaster of surprises and disappointments, Emial is one company that just keeps going up in my estimation. The more of their products I try, the more I like them, and this new berry latte may just be the best so far.

Recently I’ve cut down on dairy, meaning that now consuming thick, milky drinks can make me feel a little sickly, but tempted by this promisingly fruity-looking number I decided it was worth the risk, especially since I’d never found Emial products to be too rich in the past.

Colourful and durable, the plastic container has been carefully designed to evoke fruitiness – if you look closely you can see that the yellow silhouette is textured to resemble lemon peel. As the name suggests, the yoghurty drink contains large, juicy beads of black tapioca, as well as a generous infusion of berry pulp, mainly composed of strawberry and blueberry. Despite the implications of ‘latte’ this is not a caffeinated product and is more like a smoothie or milkshake. The consistency is creamy and silky smooth, as the fruit pulp is very fine. It has a light, fruity scent and good degree of berry tartness to it.

Although the straw provided is large enough to suck up the tapioca, I prefer to leave it at the bottom, until it is just covered by a shallow pool of liquid, and then eat it with a teaspoon like an old-fashioned tapioca pudding. It is hard to put the subtle flavour of black tapioca into words, it simply tastes like a firm, plain gelatin, perhaps mildly sweet, which offers a slight resistance when chewed – a complimentary textural contrast to the velvetiness of the drink.

For me, Mix Berry Latte was the perfect combination of milky indulgence and fruity refreshingness, and thanks to the inclusion of the tapioca it felt pretty substantial, despite being fairly low in calories. It seemed odd that Emial brought out this product, with its rather summery flavour palate and packaging, at the beginning of winter, but I’m glad they did, and I can’t wait to see what new products they introduce next year.

8/10

Three Desserts: Pumpkin Pudding, Pumpkin Cake, Mocha Coffee Jelly – 三つのデザート：パンプキンプリン・パンプキンケーキ・カフェゼリーモカ

Just a quick roundup of some recent treats this time, beginning with the Yukijirushi Megumilk Pumpkin Pudding, pictured above.

This sees the light, fluffy steamed egg puddings get a Halloween makeover with the introduction of a pumpkin flavour and cute festive packaging.

These little 70g pots are almost like tiny souffles, the pudding is like a very wet, fluffy mousse and you can almost hear the faint popping sound of the air being released as it dissolves in your mouth.

I don’t like to use the word ‘eggy’ because it never sounds appetising, but it is certainly different from standard milk-based puddings. I’m not a big fan of mousse and it was a little too spongey for me. I also would have liked a bolder flavour.

According to the packaging these contain Hokkaido pumpkin so it’s possible that they’re not available outside of this my cold northern island home, but perhaps there are several versions that use vegetables grown in other regions. The tiny pots make perfect snacks or light desserts, don’t taste very sugary at all and only contain 96kcals each, so are a fairly guilt-free autumn treat~

6/10

Continuing with the pumpkin theme we have 7-eleven’s Pumpkin Cake:

As you can see, 7-eleven has also produced an attractively packaged seasonal sweet, adding charming spooky designs to the standard gold and clear plastic cake container.

The rich yellow is wonderfully vivid, although perhaps a shade or two paler than actual pumpkin flesh. The label proclaims ‘the natural sweetness of pumpkin’, but this has an undeniable sugariness to it – the delicate sugariness of icing sugar rather than the stronger sweetness of say granulated sugar.

The appearance being similar to Mont Blanc, I was expecting a similarly dense and rich texture to the yellow topping, but it seems to be a flavoured whipped cream rather than a heavy vegetable puree, so it has a very smooth and light consistency.

The internal structure mimics Mont Blanc quite closely: beneath the golden-yellow confection is a layer of fresh cream which surrounds a pureed pumpkin center, and these three creamy layers sit atop a small square of fluffy sponge cake. This was really delicious and just gorgeous to look at, without being as filling as its chestnut equivalent.

8/10

7-elven Pumpkin cake ￥232  223kcals

Straying now from the seasonal thread for the final product, which is Emial Mocha Coffee Jelly:

I’ve tried every Emial Cafe Jelly I’ve come across so far – Caramel, Milk Tea, Coffee – but as soon as I peeled back the lid of the new Mocha version I new it would be my favourite. A lovely rich coffee aroma infused with dark chocolate notes hit me at once and it had a lovely milky cocoa hue (which has been a little washed out in the photograph).

The chocolatey sauce is as silky and thick as double cream, yet without as much fat. There is a pleasantly bitter hint of espresso and unsweetened cocoa that counters the rich dairy elements perfectly. The jelly cubes are solid enough that you can slice through them with a spoon without them disintegrating into a mass of shapeless blobs. There is a mild coffee taste but the jelly acts primarily to provide a substantial texture to act as a base for the creamy sauce.

I really loved the tastes, scents and textures of this and felt that it had the best coffee flavour of all the cafe jelly range. Eating it with a fresh cup of hot coffee was a like a little luxury, so I’m going to go ahead and give it:

9/10

(!)

Emial Cafe Jelly Mocha  247kcal

Coffee Jelly Round Two – コーヒーゼリー・パート２

After trying a couple of coffee jellies a while ago I started to look out for more varieties and realised there are must be at least twenty, but I settled for sampling another three this time, from Morinaga, Emial and Megmilk.

Firstly, Morinaga’s Espresso Coffee Jelly. Unlike Meiji’s jelly, this is made to be eaten straight from the pot but you can always decant it into a pretty bowl or cup for a more indulgent experience. The jelly didn’t quite survive the trip back from the supermarket without breaking up a little but you can still make out some kind of pattern on the surface.

It may just be a peculariaty of the particular one I bought but to me it looks like a design of roses so perhaps this is a little extra flourish from Morinaga.

This jelly feels firmer than usual because it contains kanten, yet has a surprisingly creamy texture, meaning that it feels more like a coffee pudding than a jelly. Being espresso I thought this might be a more adult-oriented product and expected the flavour to be bitter, however it is extremely mild and the cream syrup is very sweet, with a hint of caramel.

As you can expect from Morinaga, which is famous for its caramel, this is a delicious, rich and milky dessert but you will be disappointed if you are looking for a true espresso taste.

The next product is another in the Sweet Cafe range from Emial, just called ‘coffee jelly’.

Of all the coffee jellies I’ve tried so far this has the strongest and most authentic roasted coffee flavour, which lingers as a pleasant aftertaste once the sweetness of the creamy sauce has faded away. On top of this, the sauce itself has a hint of coffee which enhances the flavour of the jelly instead of detracting from it with an overly rich taste.

The jelly chunks are firm and fairly large and at 230g one pot provides a generous serving. Although only faintly bitter the coffee in this dessert is more notable than in the other jellies I reviewed, so I’d recommend Emial for coffee lovers.

Lastly, Megmilk Cream Sweets coffee jelly.

The texture of this jelly is firm and dense and it has the best cream sauce – unlike the thin milky sauce of the Meiji jelly this is properly creamy and taking the first spoonful is like spooning the thick top off a cream hot chocolate.

The coffee taste of the jelly is good too, it’s not bitter but there is a nice hint of dark, roasted flavour.

The combination of rich cream and firm, only slightly sweet jelly works perfectly and there is an ample amount of sauce so that the　flavours and textures are well balanced in every spoonful.

I still have many more jellies to taste but I’m trying to keep things varied so next time I’ll look for something new, like cake or ice cream. Not long until Easter and chocolate!

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~