Chocorooms do not contain mushrooms of any kind. Let’s be clear about that. Not Red Belted Polypore, not Queen Boleti, not Morel. No mushrooms at all. Instead, these are “sweet and crispy” Japanese candies that happen to look like rather small mushrooms. They have cookie-like stems, with chocolate tops.
Okay, so what do these fake fungi taste like? Let’s start at the bottom. The stems are not tasty in the least. They’re very bland, like a really boring biscuit. They remind me of fortune cookies a little bit, too. They also leave a slight film in your mouth.
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When I first saw this box of mini cream puffs, I was a little frightened. On one hand I thought, yum, Ceylon tea-flavored mini cream puffs! On the other hand, I figured these would be crammed so full of preservatives that they’d taste like plastic. After all, what kind of shelf life can be expected of mini cream puffs in a box? Well, I needn’t have been scared, because these are actually a delightful surprise.
Each mini cream puff is about an inch in diameter. The shell is rather crunchy, so I guess you could say it’s more like a cookie than a cream puff (i.e., it’s not doughy). They are also a tad scorched in appearance. The innards are supposed to be like cream puff filling, I guess, but as you can imagine, it’s not like custard or whipped cream at all. It’s more like Oreo sandwich filling with a light tea flavor. The aftertaste is surprisingly reminiscent of the aftertaste of hot black tea, and it lingers for quite some time. The candy that keeps on giving!
I don’t think I’d run to the market to stockpile these Chocolat Poche, but I wouldn’t throw them away, either, and if they had other flavors, I’d be all over them.
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chocolate, tea, Japan, Japanese
One thing that the Japanese confectioners do really well is their gummi candy. The many flavors, the soft chewy texture and the colorful packaging just lends to a wonderful candy eating experience. This is why I was so excited to find these charming Meiji Apricot gummis in a box of samples kindly sent to me from Jbox.com. Apricot is one of my favorite fruits, so seeing it in a Japanese candy form made me even more worked up!
The colorful package with the apricots on the cover is just too precious. Some designer did a fantastic job with this one. The icon in top corner claims it has 2200mg of collagen in them, which is some new beauty Japanese health craze that Meiji is obviously trying to cash in on. According to the large illustration of the package, the gummi has a liquid center. I’m interested by this since it’s something I’ve never experiencesd before. Have the Japanese found a way to make their gummis even more irresistible?
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Gummi candies are all the rage in Japan right now. The summer heat has not yet dissipated, so to eat chocolate or anything temperature-sensitive is difficult. Gummi candies are the perfect solution when you need your sugar fix and the temperatures aren’t cooperating. JBox.com was kind enough to send me samples of Meiji’s Kaon, a currently popular gummi candy.
The real lure of Kaon (the “ka” stands for fruit) is that there are real bits of fruit in there for a real fruity taste, which I definitely picked up on when I tried these. The Berry Mix has the flavors of strawberry, blueberry and cassis and the Citrus Mix has tangerine, orange, lemon, grapefruit, and mango. Yum! The design of the bag is also beautiful and very eye-catching (something I think is very important!) not to mention useful; it has a resealable top so you can put half away to eat later.
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