Meiji Milk Chocolate, Rich Strawberry and Rich Matcha

A former resident of the eastern United States, and a firm devotee of the cacao bean, I of course have taken the pilgrimage to Hershey, Pennsylvania, to view that chocolatey Mecca. While I was very young at the time, I still remember the Kiss factory, a glorious array of colors of M&Ms, and, like candy Mickey Mouses: walking, picture-posing Hershey’s chocolate bars. To be entirely honest, I may be making that last bit up (I was very young), but the image has stuck with me to this day. Nothing is more American and chocolate than Hershey’s giant milk chocolate bars, and so, since moving to this terrifyingly Hershey-absent country, I’ve been on the lookout for a replacement.

Meiji seems like a possible candidate. One of the biggest candy companies, Meiji produces many of our favorite candies, and with the fairly recent packaging redesign, it seemed time to start covering the chocolate bars. Meiji offers quite a few different flavors, so it will take a few reviews to cover them all. I’ll start with the standard, one of my favorites, and a new addition.

The milk chocolate bar is a beast, and yet still stays below the 100 yen price barrier, making it a tempting impulse buy for a chocoholic.
Inside a nice paper sleeve, Meiji seals the bars in a foil shield, which typically does a great job of protecting the bar, and also reseals easily, if you can manage to not eat the whole thing at once. Unfortunately, the taste is nothing to write home about. At least, nothing to ship out of Japan for. While yummy, and worth picking up in Japan when you want a chocolatey bump, it doesn’t outclass Hershey’s, and certainly not European chocolates. 3/5

I was trepidatious about the strawberry bar, given some other strawberry chocolates I’ve had, but I’ll save you the suspense: I love this bar. The texture and taste is like good strawberry ice cream, down to little (possibly fake) bits of strawberry embedded inside. Unfortunately, the bar is about 75% of the size of the milk chocolate, although at the same price. I don’t know of any bar in America that matches up to this one, and it should definitely make it into your next box from Japan. 5/5

Meiji’s newest bar has the flavor of matcha, which is a traditional Japanese green tea. Matcha is such a part of the culture here that many of my female students go to classes to learn the ancient and complicated process to mix and serve the drink. A couple times a year, I really enjoy a cup. It’s grainy, and a little bitter, but I definately see what the Japanese love about it. However, like the zundamochi Kit Kat, I just don’t think it belongs in a chocolate bar. Which is not to say this is not a loving reproduction of matcha! Rather, it is almost perfect, down to the grainy texture. If you love matcha as much as my students, you will probably also love this bar. And it’s about as ‘Japanese’ as a chocolate bar can get, making it a great gift for any japanophile. I just can’t hardly eat the stuff. 2/5