There's something about a multi-pack that makes the consumption of food more interesting. Perhaps it's the variety. Perhaps it's the fact that it's a lot cheaper than buying stuff individually. At any rate, this bag full of Tirol small chocolates (about 1 inch/2.54 cm square each) caught my eye at the local 100 yen shop, even though I'm not a great fan of strawberry candy.
There are 3 flavors in the bag. You get three each of strawberry jelly, condensed milk and strawberry, and strawberry biscuit. The information on the front of the package mentions that the condensed milk and strawberry one has "condensed milk sauce" in the center and "strawberry powder" mixed in with the chocolate coating. The "biscuit" one is similar to other biscuit varieties, flavored white chocolate over a bland little cracker-like cookie. The "jelly" one has, well, jelly, but it's not the kind of jelly you spread on toast. It's more like a jelly candy or gumdrop.
All of the candy has the same design and were made in the same style molds. As one might expect, they're going to be very similar in terms of the strawberry chocolate coating which they all have in common. The chocolate is very soft and cleaves easily when you bite into it. This is a common characteristic for most Tirol chocolates.
Strawberry Jelly:
This smells like milk chocolate and strawberry and has the strongest flavor. It tastes a bit like a Tootsie Roll and strawberry at first with a tart finish from the jelly. The center is a little chewy. The flavor is good and the texture quite satisfying.
Bis:
This smells like strawberry and white chocolate. At first, you mainly taste sweetness with a very faint strawberry, but if you roll it on your tongue, you get a quick hit of mildly tart strawberry. The first bite yields no cookie flavor at all, but the second (and final one given how small this is) reveals a small hint of a Twix style cookie.
Condensed Milk and Strawberry:
This also smells like strawberry and white chocolate. It tastes sweet with a hint of milky flavor, but both are mild. It grows to be quite sweet on the second bite. The texture of the creamy filling is pretty good. It's a little like butter cream frosting.
Of the three types, I liked the strawberry jam one the most. This was a bit of a surprise since I'm not generally keen on strawberry and chocolate. The flavor was the deepest and most complex. The other two are mainly nice for their textural elements and taste relatively similar to one another. If you really, really like strawberry chocolate, these might be nice to pick up, but they aren't to die for because the flavors are relatively weak. I had this bag around for a long time and it took about two months to finish 9 pieces off and I won't be buying another.
These have also been reviewed at Snack Love.
Yum, these look nice. We can't get strawberry chocolate in australia, and when I went to Japan i was amazed to see things like strawberry crunky and meiji ichigo chocolate.
ReplyDeleteI wish we could get Tirol here!
I agree, these were pretty underwhelming. They make me long for kinako mochi! Thanks for the link. :)
ReplyDeleteHeh, heh. I love your expertly executed cross sections of the chocolates achieved by scientifically taking a bite out of each one. I'm glad you have your priorities straight.
ReplyDeleteSacrifices have to be made in the name of science. ;-)
ReplyDeleteActually, I often snap or cut things in half, but the Tirol chocolates won't break in half and are soft and tend to mash down when you use a knife on them. I scientifically determined that the only way to get a good cross-section is to bite them in half. ;-)