Look Matcha Anmitsu

I really need to replenish my stash. It's down to just one KitKat (Yakiimo). This weekend, I had wanted to go to Toronto for a little shopping, but various parties and gatherings kept us in town. The weekend was fun, anyhow, but my candy supply is in critical condition.

This flavor of LOOK is Millstone Ground Matcha Anmitsu. I'll just take them for their word on the millstone ground bit, but anmitsu is a Japanese dessert made with jelly cubes, sweet red beans, black sugar syrup, and in this case, matcha. Everything is better with matcha.


The pieces just smelled like milk chocolate. Inside the shell, the matcha filling was creamy with small, grainy, millstone ground bits that melted smoothly. The flavor was a bit bitter and grassy, but it was very mild. Above the matcha filling was a thin layer of anmitsu, which was just slightly bitter with a hint of azuki flavor (only detectable when the syrup is tasted alone).

The milk chocolate was sticky, but the sweetness balanced the mildly bitter flavors nicely. I liked the grainy to smooth texture of the filling, but it would have been interesting to see some of the jelly texture brought in (I suppose that's best left to Tirol). It's hard to recreate the marriage of tastes and textures that is anmitsu. Matcha Anmitsu LOOK was pleasant, but the flavors, especially the matcha, just weren't strong enough to wow me.

B

Fujiya LOOK website

Country Ma'am Ujikintoki Cookies

Since I don't live in Japan, Country Ma'am cookies are something to which I have very little exposure. On my last visit to Kyoto, I tried a kinako version that was tasty, but I think that's the only time I've had them. You can read several reviews of different types of Country Ma'am cookies at Japanese Snack Reviews.

Ujikintoki is a type of Japanese shaved ice dessert (kakigori) made with matcha syrup and red bean toppings. The package suggested putting the cookies in the refrigerator to simulate the shaved ice dessert. To get the full effect, I tried three different preparation methods: straight out of the bag, one hour in the refrigerator, and 20 seconds in the microwave.


Straight out of the bag, the cookie was grainy and very sweet, but it had a soft and chewy texture. The matcha and azuki flavors were subtle, and I also tasted brown sugar. The chocolate chips seemed downplayed by the other flavors.

Refrigeration brought out the chocolate and azuki flavors, but the matcha was almost undetectable. Also, the cold made the cookie a little crunchy and I prefer a softer chew.

I'd definitely recommend going with the microwave option. The warm, buttery cookie had a nice chocolate and matcha scent, and they were so soft and gooey. They tasted like brown sugar or molasses with less azuki flavor and a little more matcha.

A-

Fujiya website

UHA Uji Matcha Azuki Milk CuCu

Without shame, I'll admit that the pictures of gorgeous marbled cubes on the front of this bag drew me in. Of course, the matcha flavor didn't hurt at all, since it never takes much convincing to make me buy matcha sweets. These were under $3 at a Japanese import grocery store.

The little cube dog on the bag said Cute Cube which is probably the origin of the name, CuCu. The candy is supposed to be a medley of Uji matcha, Hokkaido azuki, and condensed milk.


The candies were shaped like dice, and though they weren't quite as pretty as the picture on the bag (the actual white stripe was rather dull), they were still lovely candies. The matcha flavor was strong and immediate, with buttery and rich hints of condensed milk. There were some hints of azuki flavor, but they served the matcha well.

They never got sharp like some candies can, and they maintained their rounded cube shape throughout the entire smooth melt. The packaging was super cute, too, but I wish the wrappers were clear so that I could admire the marbled cubes in my candy dish. These were delicious, and I had no trouble eating 2 or 3 in a row. It's yet another example of matcha done well by UHA.

Check out another review at The Candy Bowl.

A

UHA website

Morinaga Straberry Daifuku Hi-chew

I don't often blog about traditional Japanese snacks (known as wagashi) for a couple of reasons. First, I live in the United States and they are a bit hard to come by, and second, there's already an excellent blog for that!

Instead, I have to settle for reviewing cheaper candy based on wagashi, like these strawberry daifuku Hi-chew! The real thing is a strawberry covered in red bean past and wrapped in mochi. Here's a recipe for real strawberry daifuku, in case you can't track down the Hi-chew. The real thing is most definitely better.


There was no detectable mochi smell to these candies, just a strawberry aroma. Mochi was just barely present in the flavor, though the strawberry dominated. It was a tart, authentic strawberry, and it was quite good. As with all Hi-chew, the candies had a chewy, almost rubbery texture.

Red bean paste was completely absent from the flavor profile, but despite the failure at tasting like daifuku, it still made for a tasty strawberry candy. It's been a long time since I've had regular strawberry Hi-chew, so I can't say how it compares - I doubt there is much of a difference.

Check out another review at Tasty Japan.

B+

Morinaga website

Tirol Premium Roundup

Premium Tirol are rather difficult to locate in the United States. Many Japanese stores in the Midwest carry the regular assorted Tirol packs, but I have never seen the premium variety in stores.

The flavors in this review are Cream Anmitsu, Vanilla Yogurt, and Hokkaido Cheese, and they were purchased from napaJapan. Premium Tirol are slightly larger (and supposedly of better quality) than the standard variety, and the flavors are changed more regularly, much like KitKats.


First up was Cream Anmitsu, which was a Tirol version of a popular Japanese dessert that is somewhat like a fruit salad with jellies, red beans, ice cream, and sometimes mochi. The piece smelled like azuki and mochi, and the gel and syrup were slightly sweet. The gel inside was like the agar jelly in the dessert - the texture reminds me of chewing on the inside of your cheek. The chocolate was smooth, creamy, and carried most of the bean flavor. The syrup gave the whole thing a fruity feel, and was a great representation of the actual dessert! A-


Hokkaido, the northernmost island of Japan, is known for its dairy products, thus we have Hokkaido Cheese flavored Tirol. It smelled and tasted just like cheese spread and not like real cheese. There was no sign of chocolate here, just a processed cheese flavor with a crunchy biscuit. If that's your thing, you'd probably like it. I was surprised at the uniqueness, but not impressed with the flavor, and my husband thought it tasted like Combos. C


Finally, there was Vanilla Yogurt (and a different light source in my photo). It had a strong vanilla scent, and a cool vanilla taste. It was like a creamy white chocolate homemade candy (think a meltaway mint without the mint) that melted in my mouth. The syrup inside was basically simple syrup infused with vanilla, and the center piece felt like meringue on my tongue. It was quite tasty, but I didn't really taste yogurt, just vanilla and white chocolate. I have never tried the actual product on which it is based, but I did like the chocolate. B+

Orchid64 of Japanese Snack Reviews has also reviewed all three of these flavors, so have a look at her take on Hokkaido Cheese, Cream Anmitsu, and Vanilla Yogurt. For a positive review of Hokkaido Cheese, check out Tasty Japan.

Tirol website

Bourbon Matcha Mont Blanc

On the last day of our time in Japan last month, my husband and I went to a nearby grocery store in Kyoto to get some cheap things to fill the empty space in our suitcases. That was the only place I saw large packages of single serving cakes, so I decided to try these.

Mont Blanc is a famous and fairly popular dessert in Japan. It is very pretty, and though typically made with chestnuts, sometimes there are other flavors included, like in these matcha cakes. Of course, being a packaged product, I didn't expect these to be as good as the real thing.


Although the box claimed that these had the aroma of matcha, all I could smell was something odd (probably preservatives). Moving past the smell, the taste wasn't really matcha, either. Or at least it wasn't as strong as I would have liked. It might have been masked by the chestnut flavor.

To call the spongecake mild would be kind, as there wasn't much flavor to speak of, and the cream in the middle was not terribly noticeable. Even the chocolate on the top didn't really taste like matcha, just sweet white chocolate. The azuki beans throughout the layers did add a nice texture, and surprisingly, carried their own flavor well.

I might like this more with some actual matcha brewed tea, as I think the bitterness would bring out the flavors in the cake, but on it's own, this cake just wasn't flavorful at all. It wasn't a bad taste, but it was very disappointing. I would like to point out that Bourbon can make good prepackaged cakes. I took some vanilla and chocolate cakes into work, and they were much better.

C-

Bourbon website

Meiji Hokkaido Azuki Takenoko no Sato

I'm trying a new layout! Please bear with me while I work out the kinks. Anyhow, this is another one of the spoils of my Toronto trip last month. I'm always up for a different flavor of Takenoko no Sato (or Kinoko no Yama) and had yet to be disappointed...until this one.

I didn't know Hokkaido was known for azuki (red beans), but the island is known for agriculture in general, so nothing would surprise me. Azuki and an (sweet red bean paste) are often too sweet for my taste, which is strange, since it is so popular in Japan and I'm used to super sweet American candy like Skittles. Once, I made an from scratch, and it involved quite a lot of sugar.


As you can see, the little chocolates are kind of a dusty rose color (oddly similar to the color of my wedding dress), which is much lighter than real azuki beans (you can see them on the box).

The texture of these was weird. It really did seem like I was eating an, right down to the texture of the beans. The chocolate (if it can even be called chocolate) was very soft and grainy and had no snap to it at all, which threw off the usual balance of crunchy cookie and smooth chocolate that I love about Takenoko no Sato. The flavor was very mild, but because of the texture, it seemed very authentic.

If you are a big azuki fan, by all means, check these out. Otherwise, they are just a neat novelty.

B-

Meiji Website (Japanese)