Snack Review: Meiji Takenoko No Sato White Chocolate and Cocoa

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.

Snack Review: Meiji Rich Matcha and Meiji Rich Strawberry Chocolate

Japanese Chocolate is surprisingly good. You never really think of Japan as being a chocolate manufacturing country, but as I mentioned previously on my blog, I like the Japanese chocolates A LOT more than the American ones. Japanese chocolates are not as sickeningly sweet and they're creamier than American 'candy' bars. But they've got less calories than some of the richer European chocolates.

Meiji's Rich Matcha and Rich Strawberry chocolate blocks are a good example of this. They're beautifully packaged with metallic green and red wrappers respectively. The Matcha block is decorated with pictures of green tea leaves, while the strawberry block has strawberries. Haha, no surprises there. I call them chocolate blocks for want of words. They're quite thin and small in size, only 3 or 4 rectangular blocks wide.

I really like both favours, but if I had to pick one over the other, it would be Matcha. The Matcha bar was dense, packed full of creaminess and strong matcha flavouring. It was just right in terms of sweetness and contained a lot of matcha powder. The green tea scent was strong and pleasant and the texture was very, very smooth. It kind of reminded me of a crayon...but I only use that idea to describe it's texture and not it's beautiful taste.  I would rate it as one of the best Japanese chocolates I've tried so far.

The Strawberry bar was also thick and creamy, dense and rich. But it had more of a tart flavouring and contained little strawberry pieces blended within the chocolate. It also had a lovely strawberry fragrance.

Overall, Meiji's Rich Matcha and Rich Strawberry chocolates are delicious. Some of the best Asian chocolate I've had even though they are pricey at $5 a pop. These bars score a 9/10.