Fujiya LOOK Dessert aux fraises a la Francaise

After thoroughly enjoying LOOK's Italian-themed chocolate assortment, I was compelled to buy this collection of French desserts with strawberries. The box is adorable and inspires me to work hard for my French class (at least that's what I tell myself).

The flavors, all strawberry based, are a bit ambitious. We have strawberry mille-feuille (a dessert made of layers of puff pastry, custard, cream, and strawberries), strawberry mousse, strawberry fromage (which might be fromage blanc, which is sort of like cream cheese), and strawberry champagne dessert.


I apologize for the lack of a cross-section photo
Strawberry Mille-feuille had an odd texture. There were tiny chunks of wafer that gave a crunchy texture to the creamy filling (to give the feeling of puff pastry). The filling didn't really taste like cream or custard, but was dominated by a bland cheese-like flavor. There was a layer of strawberry jam on top of the cream filling, which, while nice, was too mild to make a difference.

Strawberry Mousse had a stronger strawberry flavor than the mille-feuille, but the chocolate and cream had a very sticky mouthfeel. I'm not a big mousse fan, so it was a pretty good imitation of strawberry mousse in that it was rather dull.

Strawberry Fromage had the nice, tart pop of strawberry I was looking for, as well as a good, creamy cheese flavor. Everything went nicely with the chocolate, and it was pleasant. It was almost like it was a stronger version of the previous two flavors, though.

Compared to the rest of these wimpy flavors, Strawberry Champagne Dessert was a big surprise! The initial kick was quite boozy, but the underlying dry champagne and tart strawberry flavors were excellently matched with the mild chocolate. It was my favorite of the bunch!

I wish there had been more variety in the flavors, but I suppose the strawberry theme was a bit limiting. Though this assortment probably wouldn't disgust anyone, with the exception of the champagne flavor, it was underwhelming.

Check out a different take at Japanese Snack Reviews.

B

Fujiya LOOK website

Schakolad Truffles

Last weekend, my husband and I went for a walk at an upscale outdoor mall. We didn't buy any clothes or trinkets (admittedly, we weren't really the target market), but we did buy truffles.

Schakolad is a chocolate/candy chain store, and I had wanted to go there for a while, but this one never seemed to be open when I was in the area. We finally got a chance to go, so for a quick sample, we bought 4 truffles for $4.50. For the price, I was a little disappointed at the rather basic flavor assortment, but the chocolates certainly looked cute.

We selected Orange, Raspberry Cheesecake, Champagne Ganache, and Dark Milk Caramel. A couple of those aren't on the list from the website, but I'm not sure why. Here's a closer look at the flavors we chose.


Orange was a white-chocolate coated orange truffle with orange sprinkles on top. It smelled very citrusy, and the filling reminded me of orange Starburst, in that it was sour but with a little more sweetness. The filling had the consistency of thick frosting and melted nicely on the tongue. I usually see orange paired with milk chocolate, and the white chocolate with the orange made things a little too sweet here.


Raspberry Cheesecake was similar in consistency to the Orange truffle. However, there was no sourness here, just a very rich, milky filling with just a hint of raspberry flavor; my husband and I both wished the flavor had been stronger. I liked it better than cheesecake, though, because just when I had enough richness, the truffle was gone.


Champagne Ganache was the cutest of the bunch, with the gold stars. The filling was excellent, smooth as can be, and with just a hint of a champagne sparkle to make it special. More champagne fizz would have been good with me, but my husband liked this one best. I did like that the chocolate was a nice, darker milk - sweet but not bitter.


Even though it was arguably the least special of the bunch, Dark Milk Caramel was my favorite. The dark chocolate coating was tasty, but the milky, chewy caramel on the inside was perfect. It was like an ultra high-class Milk Dud, with that same kind of stick-to-your-teeth caramel but no cloying sugar aftertaste.

I'm not sure if I would buy truffles there again, but my husband and I both found the ones we had to be worth the price for a nice treat. If I did go back, I think I would try the butterscotch truffles.

B

Schakolad website