Have you tried Meiji Takenoko No Sato snacks before? They're little chocolate-covered biscuits shaped like pine cones (Actually, they're bamboo shoots, but they look more like pine cones to me, so excuse me for calling them that!) There's always new flavours on the market, most of them limited edition or seasonal, so if you ever see a special flavour that you've never seen before at your local Asian Grocery store, grab several boxes before they sell out! I've tasted other flavours in the past including Strawberry and Chocolate, but I ate most of them before I had a blog, so I haven't posted anything about them before.
Today, I'll be reviewing the snow-covered bamboo shoots. What flavour is that, you ask? Why, it's white chocolate with Cocoa biscuit (and Cocoa powder). To start, I'll say I really like the packaging of these biscuits. They have really cute winter illustrations...just look at those little birds and snow covered houses! When I think about it, I never know how I actually motivate myself to open Japanese snacks...it always involves taking apart the boxes and destroying the cute illustrations you see! And in this case, the packaging cuteness didn't just stop there...There was also a plastic covering with little villages and forrests printed on it...
When I opened up the packaging, cute bamboo shoots fell out. The shape of the little biscuits were so adorable that I almost didn't want to eat them. The impressive thing about the snack was that it looked exactly like the illustrations on the front. It shouldn't be that impressive, but sometimes the snacks you buy look nothing like their enticing advertising. Especially Japanese snacks, which have pretty wrappers and boxes (I guess that's the downside of cute packaging...it can be very deceptive!) But yes, the biscuits were super cute and actually resembled snow-covered bamboo shoots. They tasted delicious too - cocoa flavoured and covered in smooth white chocolate. They were very biscuity and crunchy and I could really taste the milk, eggs and cocoa used to bake them...which made the snack feel a lot more fresh than many of the other similar products out there.
The white chocolate was milky in taste and reminded me of Cadbury's white chocolate, but not as sickeningly sweet. The pairing of the cocoa with the white chocolate was smart because it made the subtle chocolate a lot more flavoursome. I must warn you all, though, that these are seriously addictive. I opened the packet up to photograph them and within a few minutes, my sister and I had devoured them all. Once we popped, we couldn't stop...
Overall, these little bamboo shoots were fun and delicious to eat and I'll definately eat them again (I'll probably review all the seasonal flavours as I find them!) Meiji Takenoko No Sato White Chocolate and Cocoa scores a 9/10.
