Tirol is turning into the king (or queen, if we want to not be gender biases here) of cooperative endeavors with other manufacturers. For a company that sells chocolates for 40 yen (about 40 cents) each as their signature product, this feels weird. It's like the people who make RC Cola or Mallow Cups engaging in joint ventures with Starbucks or Pillsbury. And I realize that many of my readers aren't American, nearly 50 years old, and familiar with old-fashioned and regional products. Just think of whatever dinky small-time product you grew up with starting to penetrate multiple markets by making new and marginally related food-stuffs with bigger name businesses.
The concept of this coffee is rather cute, though not exactly unique. The coffee is just cold black coffee, but it's supposedly designed to be better when enjoyed with a Tirol chocolate. If you don't want to buy a separate chocolate, they have you covered because they put one under the lid (look carefully at the picture above and you'll see a square of "Milk" chocolate under it. The types of candy vary. I've seen some with almond chocolates under them, too. This is being sold at Family Mart for 165 yen ($1.65). My guess is that this is all novelty value over quality, but I can't deny it's a cute concept.
Speaking of cute, Tirol is also released a new chocolate called "Tirol Kuma" (bear). It's condensed milk chocolate with freeze-dried red beans, fruit-flavored jelly, and dried pineapple. It sounds dreadful, to be honest, but if I find one at an Asian market, I'll probably buy it.
As iffy as the flavor sounds, I like the pun on the bear candy: "Chirokuma" (Tirol bear) instead of "shirokuma" (polar bear). :3
ReplyDeleteI totally missed the pun even though I read the name!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Hirayuki!
I didn't know about this coffee, it's worth a try! I love trying all the new Tirol, so I've had the "Chirokuma"...it was not great. Very white chocolate, couldn't really make out the other flavors. If you enjoy Tirol's white chocolate flavor, you'll probably enjoy it. It might go well with black coffee.
ReplyDeleteI had some of these. WHite chocolate ( which I love), and undiscernable fruit ( ? is it fruit) pieces inside as well as the ever present, dusty tasting black bean.
ReplyDeleteThey are actually pretty good. I prefer these to any Tirol with mochi inside, because of the texture. Those rubber bullets of mochi, in a piece so small, just serve to tease. I nibble the chocolate off those.
This mitsmame ( think that's the idea) is really not bad, if you can get around the ever present black bean, which never fails to make whatever youre eating taste like a pellet of dust.