Fujiya LOOK Italian Dolce

First, I hope all readers living in Japan are all right after the horrible earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear instability, and that those with friends and family in Japan have made contact with them. Thankfully, my friends and coworkers in Japan are all right, as many of them live south of the devastated areas. My heart and thoughts are with those who were not so lucky. It will probably be a long time before the damage to the country can really be assessed.


Chocolate and chocolate reviews are definite mood boosters, so I'll get right back on track. Even though I posted reviews of other LOOK assortments first, this is the first LOOK assortment I tried after my long LOOK boycott.

The package contained four flavors: Tiramisu, Mont Bianco, Espresso Mousse, and Delectica Limone. I think that last one is basically a lemon tart. I've always been wary of coffee and espresso flavored candy, but it has been growing on me lately.


Delizia Limone seemed like my safest bet, so I started with that. The milk chocolate coating was sticky, but the lemon cream center was tart and cakey with crunchy candy bits. It was really tasty, and my favorite of the bunch.

Espresso Mousse had a good, slightly bitter espresso flavor and a truffle-like filling, but it didn't wow me like the lemon flavor did. Again, the milk chocolate was sticky and sweet, but the bitter-sweet balance was all right.


Mont Bianco was delicious with a delicate chestnut flavor. It wasn't too sweet or too subtle, and it had a very refined feel. It was a close second favorite!

Tiramisu was my husband's favorite. Of all the tiramisu chocolates I've tried recently, it was probably the best. Though sweeter that the other flavors in the pack, the mascarpone cheese flavor was just right, and the milky, creamy center was delicious.

To sum it up, if you can still find this LOOK assortment, get it! Here are reviews from Japanese Snack Reviews and Sweets Blog.

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Fujiya LOOK website

Tiramisu Tirol

Thanks to a friend of mine, I have 10 different flavors of Tirol chocolates to review soon! It's a favorite brand of ours, and she often sends me new flavors when she finds them. In preparation, I thought I should post the Tirol review I've been stewing on for a while before I dig into the various new flavors.

I don't really go nuts for tiramisu, but since I enjoyed the Tiramisu KitKat that came out a few years ago, I thought I'd take a chance on Tirol's offering.


The chocolate smelled a bit like cheese (though I was reminded more of cheddar than mascarpone), and the layers were quite pretty. The cocoa powder layer was a nice touch, especially once the piece was broken. The chocolate seemed very soft, and you can see in the picture that it didn't have a clean snap.

The rich chocolate had a slightly bitter coffee flavor with a tempered sweetness and not much in the way of cheese. All of the flavors seemed muted, and while it wasn't bad, it was a bit disappointing. To be honest, I think I would have liked it more if I hadn't just tried the Tiramisu piece in the LOOK Italian Dolce set. Teaser: it was so good that it may have affected my opinion.

Orchid64 also reviewed this flavor on Japanese Snack Reviews.

B

Tirol website

Glico Dessert Pocky Tiramisu

Even though I love drinking coffee, coffee flavored candy usually isn't something I enjoy. However, I've had a few tiramisu flavored snacks lately that are beginning to change my mind.

When it comes to Japanese snacks in America, Pocky has become almost ubiquitous. I've seen it in local grocery stores, book stores, and of course, Asian grocers. Unfortunately, Pocky is nowhere near the top of the list of my favorite Japanese snacks, and the kinds I do like (like Dessert Pocky) are still pretty hard to find. I found these at a Japanese grocery store about an hour from where I live.

There were three sticks in each bag, which made them a little hard to share with my husband. The sticks were pretty, with intricate crosshatch milk chocolate drizzled over the white chocolate. They certainly looked elegant, and they smelled of milk chocolate with a faint hint of coffee.

The chocolate coating was nice and thick, and as with the scent, the coffee taste was not at all overpowering. The biscuit added a nice texture and kept the sweetness in balance. On the whole, these were not too sweet, and the cookie/chocolate combination did serve to remind me of tiramisu. These were pretty addictive! For another take, have a look at Japanese Snack Reviews.

B+

Glico website

Nestle Tiramisu KitKat

Tiramisu really isn't one of my favorite desserts. I love coffee, but I don't like coffee-flavored desserts and candies very much. But when I ordered the Matcha Tiramisu bars, I figured I might as well order a couple normal Tiramisu bars, too.

The package boasts a "harmony of coffee and cheese" and says that it was made with 0.4% coffee. The last coffee flavored KitKat that I tried was pretty bad, so I was a little worried, but I was pleasantly surprised.


The bar had a strong coffee scent, and when I broke it apart, it was stronger. The chocolate was very creamy, and by itself was mild. The wafers by themselves, however, tasted very strongly of coffee, suggesting that the cream between the wafers was the main source.

It actually did taste like tiramisu! I didn't even mind the coffee flavor for once, because it wasn't overpowering. Maybe it's just because the pack only had one bar, but it wasn't sickeningly sweet, either. Much better than the Caramel Macchiato McFlurry flavor from last year.

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KitKat Website (Japanese)

Nestle KitKat Matcha Tiramisu

New matcha KitKats are always very exciting, so from the moment this one was announced, I knew I needed to get my hands on some. However, I was a little skeptical about matcha tiramisu. To me, tiramisu means a strong espresso flavor, but I suppose that it could be made with other beverages. Tea seems a natural choice after coffee, and a Google image search turned up results proving that it has been done before.

Knowing that there would be no coffee flavor, I wasn't sure what to expect of this KitKat. Honestly, I was hoping it would taste a little like the regular matcha KitKat because I like that one so much. And it did.


The single bar (thicker than one bar from the normal two bar pack) was pale green and smelled sweet. It tasted very similar to the regular matcha flavor, but much creamier. The matcha taste was weaker, overpowered a bit by the creaminess.

It was a very good KitKat, but I just can't call it tiramisu. A Flickr contact pointed out that the extra creaminess is probably supposed to be like the mascarpone cheese used to make tiramisu. It was definitely noticeable, so I think Nestle did their job. I also tried the regular tiramisu flavor that was released at the same time, and should have that review up tomorrow.

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KitKat Website (Japanese)