Rokkatei White Chocolate Strawberries

Lately, cartons of freeze-dried strawberries have been on sale at 7-11. They're pretty expensive for a relatively small portion. About 11 or 12 white chocolate covered strawberries about the size of a jawbreaker cost around 800 yen ($8.74) at the convenience store. This particular version by Rokkatei is 115 grams and costs 550 yen ($6.00). These are often purchased by Japanese people as a more elegant food gift or souvenir.



Note that neither my husband nor I bought these. They were given to us as a gift. He loves strawberry and was very curious about these when we'd seen them in 7-11. Personally, I was less enthusiastic about the idea. Freeze-dried food doesn't really make my motor roar, nor does white chocolate.

These smell only of white chocolate, even when cut open. The freeze dried strawberry feels like a wet sponge and at first tastes like dust on your tongue. After your saliva moistens it, it's like a rubbery blob. Most of what you taste is white chocolate with a strawberry aftertaste. It very much tastes like something is wrong with the strawberry, like it's been overcooked or is ready to go bad. The inclusion of real strawberry in these is worse than artificial strawberry. The best thing I can say is that the white chocolate isn't throat-burning sweet. In fact, it's relatively tasteless.

These are supposed to be elegant, but they're really just not good at all. I only ate about 2/3 of one and I tossed the remainder in the trash. I wouldn't recommend these to even the most die-hard strawberry fan.