Mini Stop Valentine's Day Offerings (product information)

There's an episode of the Simpsons in which Homer needs to get something for Marge for Valentine's day and, being the selfish slob that he is, he doesn't do anything until the moment is upon him. He rushes off the the Kwik-E-Mart and the proprietor, Apu, blows the dust off of a large heart-shaped box of chocolates and offers to sell it at a ridiculous price. The point here is both that you can get gouged on price if you wait until the last minute and buying your Valentine's goodies from a convenience store is not really the best idea - at least not in the United States.

Images courtesy of Mini Stop's web site.

In Japan, since Valentine's Day is not a romantic holiday (despite all of the hearts, someone missed the point), you can get your "giri choco" (obligation chocolate) anywhere you want. The picture at the top is a rather random-looking collection of sweets piled on top of what looks like pudding/mousse. This will be available for 3 days only (so rush out and get one now) and is 500 yen (around $5). I think that is not the sort of thing people buy for others, but rather buy for themselves.

The second picture is a display which offers "colorful chocolate" in boxes with 6 pieces for the price of 333 yen (about $3.25). I'm not sure how that price was arrived at. It is a curious one, but I'm guessing that it has little meaning other than being fairly cheap and easy to remember. Of course, I grew up learning that "Three is a magic number", so perhaps that has something to do with it. 

Variety Friday: Valentine's Day 2010

As is the case every year in Japan, multiple marketing techniques are being employed to try and convince consumers to buy more. Though I'm sure most of my readers are already familiar enough with Japanese culture to know this, Japanese custom on Valentine's Day is different from that in Western countries. Women usually give chocolates to men for Valentine's Day and men are supposed to give candies or cookies to women in a concocted holiday called "White Day" in March.

This custom has largely made for the habit of women giving "obligation chocolate" or "giri choco" to men of status or authority rather than gifts related to romance. Lately though, there has been an effort made to expand the types of people who receive the chocolates with a particular emphasis on "tomo choco" or "friendship chocolate".

The chocolate at the top of this post has backward writing as yet another attempt to expand the recipient market. Men are supposed to flip the Japanese custom and give these to women. Note that not many candy companies do this. In fact, I believe that only Morinaga does it.

I've read several other explanations of why this candy has backward writing; one is that it represents that the custom in Japan is backward and another is that it has to do with the fact that Japanese is read right to left rather than left to right, but I believe that both of these explanations are incorrect. After all, a culture does not present its normal practices as being the opposite of another country's (as it sees the other country as the one which is flipped, not its own) and I've never seen English written in this fashion to emulate how Japanese characters are written.


Nestlé Japan has re-introduced its line of raspberry and passionfruit KitKats for the holidays. They issued them in two different box colors, brown and pink, but there appears to be no reason for this other than an aesthetic option. The bars themselves are identical in composition. I reviewed these mild dark chocolate with raspberry filling (and very little passionfruit) in a previous post last summer when mini bars were offered with some Nescafé instant coffee. I liked them then and I like them now, but I was struck a little more profoundly this time by the sense that the raspberry was artificial. I'm guessing that's because I ate more at once than when I had the mini bars.

In addition to a plethora of chocolate-based candies, there are also special baking displays set up in markets. The idea is for women to decorate pre-made cakes or make their own sweets to share on Valentine's day. Very few young women in Japan are bakers so most of the time a basic sponge cake is on offer and can be served with strawberries and whipped cream along with some cute little heart-shaped chocolate medallions. I've never actually known a woman who baked something for this holiday, so I can't say who they share such treats with.

Happy Valentine's Day, to those who like the holiday. To those who hate it, perhaps you can find some satisfaction in knowing that it's not generally observed as a holiday for couples in Japan. It's just pure crass commercialism without any of the pesky love-based sentiment.

Previous posts and reviews related to Valentine's Day offerings in Japan can be read by going here.

Ghana Cherry Marnier Chocolate

Since today is Valentine's day, I saved an item that was clearly released for the holiday. It contains the Valentine's candy flavor trifecta - red fruit (cherry), chocolate, and alcohol (cherry liqueur). In fact, it proudly announces that there is .4% alcohol in this candy on the box cover.


Inside the box, there are two little conjoined trays with foil covers. They look like they should separate in the middle, but they can't be pulled apart. They packaging is like this so you can bend the sections in the middle while keeping two portions in separate trays. Each little "twig" of candy is about 5 cm (about 2 inches) long and there are 8 in each compartment. They are 22 calories per stick.


These smell vaguely of chocolate, cherry and alcohol. The sticks are soft and melt easily in your mouth. The filling is like a firm ganache, though the coating is not very firm. It has a low melting point, though it doesn't melt in your hands. These taste like cherry cordials though their texture is very different. The flavor strongly reminds me of Cella's chocolate covered cherries. Since I used to love those when I was growing up in the U.S., I liked these a lot.

These aren't too sweet though they have a bit of a sharp flavor from the alcohol. I can see where some people may find them medicinal because cherry cough syrup contains alcohol and these incorporate similar flavors. I think these are very nice and I'd revisit them again without reservation. However, if you are the least bit of a mind to dislike any of the risky component parts (cherry and alcohol), you might want to give them a miss.

Backwards Candy

Last time I was in a convenience store, I noticed a box of Dars chocolates with backwards writing on it. In every way, it looked like a regular box of this particular variety of chocolate. I couldn't understand what the point of the reverse writing was until I came across an article on Japan Marketing News.

Apparently, the reverse writing is an attempt to get Japanese men to buy Valentine's candy for Japanese women this year. Since the tradition has been for women to give men candy on February 14 and men to return the favor on March 14 ("White Day"), the candy companies want to encourage men to "reverse" the giving and give women chocolates on Valentine's Day.

It's probably a good ploy. Most of the Japanese women who I have spoken with about the White Day holiday say that the vast majority of men do not reciprocate for the Valentine's candy the women around them gave them. It'd probably be far better for sales if both men and women were on board for Valentine's Day. From a commercial point of view, White Day has generally been a bit of a failure.

Valentine Krispy Kreme Donuts (Japan only)

Before all the Krispy Kreme haters jump on the soap boxes and start to talk about how bad the donuts are or how they are the nutritional scourge of all human civilization, and how I am a total idiot for forking over my hard-earned cash for buying these, let me say that they were a gift. Personally, the only Krispy Kremes I like are the original glazed, and even then occasionally. I actually like Mister Donut more, though I can't say that I eat donuts often or am an aficionado of them necessarily. No, my husband is the one who adores donuts. He even dreams about them from time to time, but that's a story for an entirely other sort of blog.

These donuts are on sale at Krisipy Kreme branches in Japan from January 21 to March 14. The reason the sale ends so late is because of the clever way in which Valentine's Day was essentially cleaved in two as a sweets buying fest. The Japanese have women give men sweets on February 14 and the men give women sweets on March 14 for "White Day." The donuts are meant to cover all the available holiday sweet treats territory so that Krispy Kreme doesn't have to come up with any more specialty items.

The donut on the left is a "mocha chocolate heart". It didn't fare very well in transit. You can see that the whipped cream frosting smeared all over the wax paper that was meant to keep it safe and sound. The topping is bitter chocolate cookie "crunch". The truth is that it isn't very crunchy or very bitter, but rather more firm and soft. It's like stale cookies. The frosting is coffee-flavored whipped cream and the streaks of brown coating are just some sort of coffee flavored white chocolate stuff.

The mocha chocolate heart smells like coffee and caramel, though there is no caramel in it. It's not very sweet and has a mild coffee flavor and no chocolate flavor that I could detect. I didn't take a picture of the inside of the donut because there's nothing in there but more donut. This is pretty "bready", though the yeast donut flavor certainly isn't bad. I like whipped cream-based frosting, but this was all texture and little taste. While I have no issues with a less sweet donut, I wish the flavors were more multi-layered and/or intense. I will note that a round version of this particular mix of ingredients was available at some point in Krispy Kreme Japan's history, and it was just as unimpressive in its previous incarnation.

The donut on the right is a "strawberry double heart." The pink coating, which is also like a colored white chocolate in that it is firm rather than soft like frosting or icing, is made with Polish senga sengana strawberries as are the little freeze dried bits of strawberry on one side. There's a white chocolate heart stuck on the right side, which is where the "double heart" name comes from. This donut smelled of strawberry in a good way. It also had a reasonable though relatively weak strawberry flavor including a hint of tartness. The underlying donut was fresh and yeasty, but, again, there is no filling in it. This is definitely the better of these two donuts.

Both of these donuts are 180 yen (about $2) each and not bad as long as they are fresh. However, the flavor is just really weak on both of them and the textural elements pretty "blah". I wouldn't buy these and I wouldn't recommend them over other types of more flavorful donuts from Krispy Kreme. These are clearly made for style over substance, and the mocha one seriously does not travel well, so it's unlikely to look pretty for a recipient.

Most baked goods with any sort of glaze or frosting have been altered to reduce the sugar and increase the fat for the Japanese market. One of the reasons that Japanese sweets are sometimes as high or higher in calories than American sweets despite having less sugar is the higher fat content of those sweets. Sugar, like salt, can intensify and carry flavor (which is why humans tend to like sugary and salty things). If you reduce the sugar, you've got to enhance flavor through other methods and that so often doesn't happen in Japan and Krispy Kreme joins a long line of pastry makers who haven't adjusted the flavor profile while reducing the sugar.

Chocolat Framboise Marble Pocky

For those who don't live in Japan, I'll give the shortest possible explanation of how Valentine's Day works in this country. Women buy men chocolates. Men don't buy women anything. I'm sure that every Western man who ever felt pressure to find the perfect Valentine's gift is dialing up an Asian dating service and putting in an order for a Japanese girl right now.

I should note that a lot of women are obliged to give chocolates to men they don't even like. They also give to men who they are friends and acquaintances with. It's not about romance. That means that there is a whopping great marketing opportunity for confectioners to sell a ton of low rent candy and chocolate-based items to women who have to give their bosses and coworkers token gifts on February 14. Most companies rise to the occasion and get out there with themed items which feature the color red and hearts, though they don't always overtly state "Valentine's candy" so that the items can be bought any time by anyone.

This leads us nicely to this Chocolat Framboise Pocky. It's clearly been released for the Valentine's Day crowd (note the hearts on the box). There are three sleeves with 4 sticks each inside the box and each package has hearts all over it as well. Red fruit like strawberry, cherry, and raspberry are particularly popular inclusions for these treats, and liquor-infused candy is also readily available. I guess that men are supposed to enjoy boozy chocolates. Framboise is a sort of raspberry beer, so these sticks are three great Valentine's Day concepts fused into one - chocolate, liquor, and red fruit. How can it lose as a marketing concept?


These sticks smell very good. They smell both of chocolate and raspberry. The coating is relatively generous and the flavor is quite strong. Note that the raspberry flavor is pretty intense so you have to really like raspberry to enjoy these.The first bite tastes of dark chocolate and the second brings the raspberry more heavily into play. The coating is pretty much the usual for Pocky, a little soft and easy to bite into, and the sticks are crunchy and fresh. The sweetness is just about right and the fruit flavor doesn't taste artificial or perfume-like. The quality level is really surprising for such a "common" snack. These have cocoa butter, butter, and raspberry powder. I really liked these and I'd definitely buy them again if they were to be available after the Valentine's season ends.

Though I haven't been a fan of Pocky throughout most of my time in Japan, I have not been disappointed in the flavors I have tried. Considering that the calorie count on these is so modest, 4 sticks at 93 calories, I think that these are a very good choice as a sweet treat for anyone.