Jan 22nd, 2010
by Gregory.
I love seeing new products on the shelf, especially from Meiji or Glico. This one is Assort Cho-pan, which I’m assuming means ‘assorted chocolate bread,’ although it looks nothing like the chocolate bread I buy from convenience stores (oh so good). So far, they come in two varieties, chocolat & white and strawberry chocolat & white. I’ve found them at a few combine, and each box is around ¥150.
Each box has four of the Cho-pans, which are like deep chocolate trays. They’re all filled halfway from the bottom with a piece of puff pastry, chocolate in the chocolate, and just normal in the strawberry. But instead of just giving you puff pastry in chocolate, Meiji mixes it up. Two of the Cho-pans include an extra piece of pastry, and the other two are filled with a creamy milk chocolate substance. The chocolate one even has some hazelnut flavoring, while the strawberry sticks to milk chocolate with just a hint of the berry.
All in all, I really didn’t mind these. I don’t really share Aimee’s aversion to puff pastry (although it certainly helps that these weren’t sold to me as ‘pie’), and so even though they were certainly messy—make sure you carry a handheld vacuum—I enjoyed straying from the typical chocolate mix. Long-time readers will certainly be shocked, shocked to discover that I prefer the chocolate Cho-pans, but if your tastes run to the berry, there’s certainly nothing wrong with those. They’re a little fake, but nothing like some of the worst fake strawberry I’ve tasted. To complete this review, I’ve eaten through two boxes of each, and I’m planning to get more, so please consider this review a recommendation. 4/5
Posted in: 4/5, Cookie, Meiji.
Tagged: cho-pan · chocolate · hazelnut · Meiji · puff pastry · strawberry · white chocolate
Jan 11th, 2010
by Gregory.
Glico’s latest entry in its never-ending series of Pocky is つぶつぶミックスベリー, or granulated mix berries. The box itself is rather attractive, showing a cornucopia of berries, with a flower thrown in for good measure. I’m assuming this is released in conjunction with Japan’s strawberry season, which has led to way too many bland strawberry products. This one distinguishes itself by adding to the mix blueberries and cranberries.
The granulation part of the name comes from that, mixed in with the flavored coating, there are bits of berries. Aside from feeling grainy, these bits add a really nice texture to the sticks. Five sticks fit in a pack, and four packs fit into the box, which stands out on the shelf, because it sits horizontally rather than vertically.
As you can tell from my earlier Giant Rainbow Pocky review, I am no fan of Pocky flavored with something other than chocolate, or at least incorporating chocolate in some way, but these Pocky really impressed me. They’re sweet without being too sugary. I especially like the inclusion of cranberries. I never eat much of the red fruits, but I can detect them in the mix, souring it just slightly. I can safely say this are my favorite of the non-chocolate Pocky flavors I’ve tried so far. 3/5
Posted in: 3/5, Cookie, Pocky, glico.
Tagged: berry · blueberry · cranberry · glico · pocky · pretzel · strawberry
When I was a kid I did not like pie, and similar to many things related to my childhood I have no explanation of why I refused to eat it. I remember when I branched out and had some chocolate pie, it was ok, but it didn’t convince me that pie was anything to be missed. I continued to branch out (and got over my additional dislike of baked fruit) and tried more and more pies, but they still didn’t do it for me. Really guys, what is the big deal about pie? What I didn’t realize is that my life, like many American lives, was saturated with pie and I did like it. Pie is real Americana and now that I live in Japan, I miss pie. It’s not that you can’t find it, and of course you can make it (if you have an oven), but like Japanese pizza, it’s just not the same.
I bought the chocolate パイの実 (painomi) in a fit of nostalgia and delirium, because the picture on the box basically screamed “I’m flakey and filled with chocolate, eat me and be a better person. I’ll also cure cancer, but only if you eat me.” The strawberry version was purchased with a level head, and came out for Japanese strawberry season in November. Both boxes are cute and remind me of vintage printed fabric, but the box is a little large for the number of cookies you actually get.
The chocolate and strawberry cookies look identical and are about an inch across. They are not made out of pie crust, unless you make your pie crust out of puff pastry. Each cookie is flakey and has a little hole where I’m guessing the filling was injected. The flavor of the cookie is the same as puff pastry; buttery, slightly sweet, and simple. I don’t think it’s anything special, but I also don’t think puff pastry by itself is anything noteworthy. The cookie does go stale in about a day if left to the elements, so keep extras sealed. I can only describe both fillings as blah. The chocolate tastes like chocolate, but it’s not rich, it’s not sweet and it’s not creamy. The strawberry was the same waxy consistency but tastes like fake strawberry.
Overall these cookies had nothing to do with pie, and were unremarkable. I did eventually finish both boxes. 2/5
Posted in: 2/5, Cookie, Lotte, PainoMi, Reviews.
