Tirol Mix 9, Part 1

I got this around Christmas time from Cybercandy - I was so pleased to see that they had started stocking actual Japanese candy again, not just stuff licensed out from Japanese companies to Thai factories. The quality just wasn't as high on the snacks from there - waxier chocolate, for example. Also nice to note that Japan Centre is now stocking more Japanese snacks again...seems that the fears after the Fukushima incident have died down. Good news for fans of exotic candy!

So, in the interest of maintaining my diet, I'll be splitting this 9-pack into 2 or 3 reviews.

Very nice packaging - they're all individually wrapped and quite charmingly illustrated in different styles. I decided I'd go for Hot Cake, Bis(cuit), and the one in the middle that isn't visible - it just says Tirol, anyway.

Hey, there they are. The difference between the packaging is quite striking - the 'Tirol' looks like a classic, olden-timey chocolate wrapper, BIS looks a bit retro with the heavily stylized illustration of a biscuit, and the Hot Cake is more modern Japanese snack packaging with the realistic photo of the food. The one I was most looking forward was definitely Hot Cake, especially when I noticed that they specified butter and maple.

As you can see, the Tirol & Biscuit are milk chocolate, while the Hot Cake is white. It's a nice effect how the filling sort of can be seen through the Hot Cake.

This camera is so much better for cross sections - but I should probably stop just biting them in half. You could probably get a solid lead on my dental records from this blog.

The Tirol chocolate was the first I tried, and it was unexpected. I expected it to be a plain chocolate, and I was surprised that it was a peanut flavored taffy on the inside. It was a bit like a chewier Snickers without the nuts or caramel. A bit disappointing, but I kind of hate chewy fillings in chocolate. Chalk it up to a couple bad experiences with Riesin as a kid, what can I say...I've got fillings.

The biscuit was also a bit of a disappointment, because it was quite flavorless. The chocolate itself isn't the highest quality (in Japan, Tirol is quite cheap) so it really depends on the filling for taste. Unfortunately, this biscuit was neither sweet nor salty, just sort of...crunchy & bland.

The Hot Cake one, however, was worth the price of admission. The white chocolate was buttery and the inner mousse was buttery & sweet - the little pocket of more liquid-y sauce really did taste like maple. Huzzah! It was a nice approximation of a pancake, for sure.

I'm looking forward to having a few more of these Tirols - the 'Milk' and lemon ones in particular.

These are still available at Cybercandy, so if you're interested the price ain't so bad at all at £2.30.

Cadbury, Dairy Milk Ritz

So there's been a continental European version of these out for awhile made by Milka, and they were available online quite readily last year at places like Cybercandy & Monster Sweets, I just hadn't bought one. Maybe subconsciously I knew that Cadbury was likely to release their own version since they're both owned by Kraft now.

The Milka version is with Tuc crackers, but Ritz are the same sort of thing - buttery and salty. I haven't tried the LU Biscuit version yet, as I think butter cookies & chocolate isn't that weird. Isn't that kind of what a Lu is already? The 'Petit Ecolier' one, at least. I didn't know Lu was a brand. Also, isn't a Lu biscuit a term for urinal cake or something? Sorry, I'm not normally into potty humor but that's too obvious to pass up.

So for all those reasons, I passed on the Lu and probably won't bother trying it - I'm still sort of dieting and if I can live without a treat, I should. However, my love of salty & sweet meant I couldn't survive without trying this Ritz & Dairy Milk.

It's nicely presented, I was glad that they made these in smaller sizes than the last few Cadbury limited editions (Oreo, Golden Biscuit Crunch, Nutty Caramel) which only came in that giant block. That's just asking for trouble, Cadbury. So in this bar I got 4 normal sized squares, and it was under 200 calories for the entire pack. The chocolate teapot on the front might be some sort of admission that chocolate & Ritz crackers "makes as much sense as a chocolate teapot" to which I respond, "wrong". It makes all the sense in the world.

One of my co-workers pointed out that the crackers sandwiching the chocolate give it a bit of a s'mores feel, and keeps your fingers clean as a result. I bet these would be nice microwaved a little bit with marshmallows...then again, what wouldn't be nice like that?

So, it's nicely presented throughout, but how's the taste? Not bad, considering it is delicious Dairy Milk and crunchy bits of cracker, but a little disappointing. When you say Ritz to me, I'm thinking buttery & salty. These were just sort of crunchy, and not really salty at all. The buttery taste was there a bit, and that was nice, but I sort of felt like they might as well have been the Lu biscuit variety.

Maybe my taste for salty chocolate is a bit out of the mainstream, so in that case it was smart for Cadbury to err on the side of caution and use low sodium Ritz. For me though, it meant it lost out what it could've been. Still very tasty, and there was a bit of salty taste, so I'd get one again & be pretty pleased. It just could've been even better.

Maybe I'll just get a sleeve of Ritz & a big bar of Dairy Milk and call in sick to work for a couple days.

Paul A Young, Selection Box

If you've been reading my blog for awhile, thank you! Also, you know that I love Paul A. Young - my favorite treat to get in the world is probably Paul A Young chocolates & baked goods. I've reviewed them a couple times on the blog (Gingerbread Caramel Shortbread, Valentine's Caramel Shortbread), but not nearly as many times as I've eaten them.

Even though he's probably most famous for some of the weirder creations, like Port & Stilton truffles and Marmite truffles, there are always plenty of 'safe' options available too. It's fun to try the weirder stuff, and I highly recommend throwing a couple into a selection box, but you'd be remiss not to also try his perfected versions of Salted Caramels, Chai Tea, and fruit/alcoholic centers.

On Valentine's Day my husband I went back to Abeno (see last year's review) and it was just as delicious and fun as it was before. Afterwards we went to Paul A Young...which we probably did last year, too! We're creatures of habit...or have we just discovered the most winning food combo in London? Do it yourself, and you be the judge.

We got a few bits & pieces, including some baked goods I'll also review - but here first is our selection box. There are a couple Valentine's specific chocolates, so I don't know how readily available they'll be from now - but there are non-specific ones also reviewed.

Chai Tea Truffles - So nice, very warming and creamy like a great chai latte. The cinnamon & nutmeg flavors are there, as are the less easy to ID flavors that make a chai tea spicy. Reminded me a bit of a chocolate egg tart, which is also spicy and chocolatey with a solid, creamy texture. Interesting that these seemed to be milkier chocolate, where many of other selections were dark.

Glenmorangie Truffle - This one was my husbands', and he describes it as 'not too alcoholic', and that it had 'a smooth ganache center'. He 'liked it'. Sorry folks, there is a reason I do the reviews, haha. It sounded nice!

Valentine's Breakfast Truffle - Probably the strangest one of this bunch, this truffle is described as being brown toast, butter, and marmalade. Quite on the money, the texture is dry but moist, like a well buttered slice of toast, and there is a large dollop of marmalade inside the truffle. It tastes just like hearty brown bread & marmalade - and of course chocolate. It was super good!

Battenburg Cake Truffle - This one was incredible. Originally I was going to eat the entire thing, but I couldn't bring myself to not let my husband try it. It tasted just like creamy almond cake batter inside delicious, not-to-sweet white chocolate. Truly stupendous, I was going to be happy with it just being like marzipan inside white chocolate, but it really was like a liquid Battenburg. A must try!

Honey Almond Caramel - Again, so good. Couldn't really taste the honey, but I never can. It may have lightened up the taste of the caramel, made it less thick. This was like his wonderful salted caramel, plus a big roasted almond, all covered in a thin layer of dark chocolate. This one I did just have to myself.

Rhubarb and Pink Peppercorn - We had forgotten what flavor this was by the time we got home, but it was one of our favorites. Very citrussy and piquant, but it didn't leave a really tart or tangy taste, it kind of ended on a gentle note unlike a lot of other tangy fruit flavors. Very well rounded.

Nothing but love for Paul A Young's chocolates. When you're getting one that sounds good, it will be good. When you're getting a kooky sounding one, there is a good chance it will also be good, and that's quite the feat.

Shinshu Apple KitKat

I'm getting through these Japanese KitKats awful slowly! First there was Wasabi KitKat, which was also one of very first reviews - I didn't even take photos. It was so dreadful. Then there was Golden Citrus Blend, an interesting white chocolate and citrus flavor that was quite nice. Followed shortly thereafter by Matcha Green Tea KitKat, which tasted like a delicious matcha milkshake. Then my favorite, Pumpkin Pudding - which was pumpkin-ninny.

This one was quite interesting to me, and I thought it was high time I ate it rather than let it sit around for ages getting older and weirder in my Candy Drawer. Believe me, if you saw it you'd understand the capitalization. It is a proper name.

The wrapper is nice, as are all of the KitKats wrappers in Japan. Nice little photo-style illustration of what it is meant to taste like, and this one includes a very peaceful forest scene as well. D'aww.

This is a Shinsuku Limited edition, which is referring to that cool way some snacks are marketed in Japan as being exclusive to one region or another. I love that - it would make the entire world feel a bit like an RPG. If I had to travel to Cambridge to get a specific kind of Cadbury's chocolate, I'd be all over it. For whatever reason, it doesn't seem to translate anywhere else. The wide expanse of America is a good reason why it wouldn't work there (no one would drive 10 hours or take a plane just to try a Hershey's exclusive to Montana...except maybe me) but why not here, where I could be basically anywhere in about 3 hours? Who knows!

So the chocolate. It's not like I expected it to be! I'm used to the Japanese KitKats having sort of a subtle flavor, or at the very least a quite natural flavor - but this one was quite intense apple & a bit perfumey. Not as nice or natural as the Caramel Apple Milky Way, which surprised me. The chocolate flavor was there, so it wasn't like eating an apple candle or anything.

The fruit flavor was almost alcoholic, very syrupy & a lot like a cheaper apple liquor? It was okay, but the taste was more artificial than I expected and in that way was a bit of a let down. Chocolate & apple is hard to get right, because apple is naturally not a very strong flavor - they mostly just taste sweet. Chocolate will naturally over power it, so I think manufacturer's overdo it to make sure that it is noticed at all. I've had a couple that went alright, like the Milky Way and the Russell Stover Big Bite - but this one just didn't get the balance right. It's a shame, but there are tons of better Japanese KitKats out there to try!

Cafe Nero, Banana & Caramel Frappe

I'm a big fan of 'frappe' type drinks. Lots of people will tell you "if you're putting whipped cream and syrup on coffee...it's a milkshake", to which I always respond so what. I didn't claim to be a puritanical coffee kinda person when I ordered the Vanilla Whizzbang with a shot of peppermint, so lay off.  Maybe it's that attitude that helped me gain 20 pounds in the last year, haha.

So, not only am I a big fan of frappes & milkshakes, my favorite flavor is banana. So after a long walk to an industrial estate that Google claimed had a KFC (it didn't) I was very let down. I was looking forward to a Krush'em, and in my sadness back in town I found myself in Cafe Nero.

The banana & caramel frappe came out ages ago now, alongside a chocolate & coconut and a strawberry & vanilla. I've been wanting to drink it for awhile, but it's been difficult to justify for the past few months. Finally I had an excuse in that very disappointing walk.

They didn't skimp on the cream. As luck would have it, the caramel sauce pump was broken so I got probably triple the amount necessary because the lady just had to ladle it in there. Allllright...
The banana flavor was so pleasant, not at all overwhelming or artificial. I think the UK has banana flavor down, whereas in America most banana stuff tastes like these horrible jerk candies, in the UK it mostly tastes delicate & like a real banana. This was a bit like a more natural flavor of banana than Frijj. The dollops of caramel add a lot of sweetness when you hit a vein, but the over all experience isn't over sweetened. Then again, I'm pretty over sweetened myself so I might be deluded by years of Tootsie Pops.

The cream was really good, probably my favorite part - an unsurprising fact to anyone who has ever spent more than a day with me. It had that coffee shop cream taste - vanilla and very 'fatty'.

It was really a great drink/dessert, and if you're a fan of milkshakes and you have somewhere in the region of 400 calories going spare, you'd be much better off with one of these than a Frijj or Yazoo.

Cadbury Pots of Joy, Creme Egg

The diet could only last so long, you know.

Well, okay, I am still dieting, but I've reintroduced some joy into my life. Namely, a pot of joy. Get it? Ah, you get it.

I love Creme Eggs, I think they're the UK's single greatest export...single greatest export. I know exactly what I'm saying. So when I saw these at my lunch break at work, I braved the jeers & taunts of my co-workers and bought them - 'screw the diet' I was heard to say by the other Pots of Joy. That's what I call my co-workers, of course.

Described as being made with Cadbury's melted chocolate and having a 'fondant layer', I was assuming this was going to mostly be a chocolate pudding. It's funny, I think the Pots of Joy got a lot of good reviews around the web but the chocolate & caramel varieties left me a little bored. I think chocolate pudding is so commonplace in America it would be very hard to get one of us types excited about it. In the US, you can get literally dozens of different flavors of pudding, 24 hours a day. Here is an example of just what Jello currently has in the refrigerated section. Stuff like birthday cake, Oreo 'dirt cups', and s'mores is common place. So yeah, it just didn't light my world on fire when I saw that Cadbury was making chocolate pudding. Sure, it was good, but pudding is just about the world's most boring dessert - especially when it isn't warm and homemade with a skin on top. Mmm, pudding skin.

All that being said, the white chocolate one was really nice - mostly because that's a flavor you don't often get with pudding. However, you never get Creme Egg flavor in a pudding, so I was quite pumped.

Opening it up, it did smell quite chocolatey & looked like a plain ol' chocolate pudding. I was curious if the yellow and white yolk of the fondant was going to translate.

And it did! It looked really cool, but I was trying to balance my expensive new camera and hold a spoon near it at the same time, so consider this an action shot. Post action. On the plus side, no chocolate on my camera, even though I'm really stupid!

The chocolate layer was about 1/4 of the pot, and tasted like a pretty nice chocolate pudding. I dunno, I'm not a big 'cold chocolate' person. I don't even like chocolate ice cream that much. It tasted fine, just like a Rolo dessert or something, but I was happy to dispense of it quickly and get to the creme layer...the fondant layer.

I was really wondering how it was going to taste like the inside of a creme egg, considering the inside of a creme egg just tastes like thickened sugar syrup. Well, it tastes like that but cold. It's really accurate, and it's quite nice! I recommend eating the entire chocolate layer first, and then savoring the sweet fondant layer since the taste is quite a bit more delicate. The texture is smooth & not at all grainy.

Kev of Kev's Snack Reviews tried this one as well, so take a look at his review too! I think we felt about the same way.

Is it better than the Creme Egg ice creams that come out around this time? No. Is it better than Creme Eggs themselves? No. Is it better than regular pudding? Totally - and it's worth trying if you are a fan of Creme Eggs and/or novelty products.

Chai Tea Roundup

Oh, January. I'm dieting like most all human beings on Earth, and so far it's going well. I've cut out candy (boo) chocolate (hiss) and fatty meals (scream). Basically, I'm eating soup & oatmeal. I'm sort of taking the attitude that my jaw has been broken, and I can't have anything besides liquid. What do people who aren't gluttonous creeps eat daily, anyway? All I ever manage to think of is soup.

Luckily chai lattes don't require chewing, and even though I know calorie-wise they're not particularly low, I'm getting small ones and it is my one treat every couple of days. So sue me.

 I've tried a lot of the chain coffee shop ones already, but I was looking forward to testing a couple from other spots around East London where I work. I'll continue trying new ones, but here are a couple from some great stops around Old Street. Not all coffee shops do chai lattes - for instance I don't think they do them at Shoreditch Grind - but I'll be reviewing the ones that do until I can eat food again.

Fix Coffee, Whitecross St -  No picture, but it was a charmingly plain white cup with the word 'Chai' written on it. Nothing much to say about the visuals, but what does that matter with a drink I'm just going to splat a lid on and suck down within minutes anyway?

The texture for Fix's chai latte was superb. Smooth and velvety, without much foamy milk. I like the foamy milk, don't get me wrong, but when you're getting small lattes you really want to feel like it's a drink and not just the leftover fuzz of a milkshake.  Flavor wise it was more sweet than spicy, which was surprising considering it wasn't labelled as a 'vanilla' chai. I really loved it though! Since it was so smooth & thick, it felt particularly 'indulgent' and made me feel more guilty than usual about drinking so much sugar-infused tea milk while I am supposed to be dieting. Hey, the weight is coming off.

Fix itself had a really nice vibe, a good mix of people & very friendly staff. I just did takeaway, but I appreciate a coffee shop where I don't feel underdressed or otherwise lame. I'm sure Fix has great coffee, and if I can get there in the morning I might try an actual latte latte. Also worth noting that they had frappe-type drinks (both coffee and non-coffee) iced drinks, and lots of pastries (including a possible Rinkoff crodough sighting!). I'll be coming back to Fix, and I'm really looking forward to not being on my diet anymore so I can try some of the baked goods and a Count Chocula drink...whatever it is. I support all of the good Count's endeavors & forms.

Ozone - I really like Ozone - always very busy with all kinds of people sitting around, and really friendly service. This is the chai latte I get most frequently. There are two varieties, spicy and vanilla. The vanilla is delicately sweet with a sort of custard-y vanilla taste. The spicy is just that - spicy. Doesn't seem any more spicy than the vanilla, just less sweet. Nice, but I've got a sweet tooth so I often go with the added sugar of the vanilla.

 The texture is a bit foamier than Fix, so it goes much quicker - but the taste is nicer - slightly more complex than Fix, and not as sweet.

You'll notice that the drinks are served in smaller cups at Ozone than they are at some other independent coffee shops - and certainly tiny compared to massive Starbucks & Costa cups - but I've never found this to be much of a problem. There is only one size advertised at Ozone, and while I'm certain I've seen people request bigger takeaway cups I've never asked myself.

The food at Ozone is also quite good, with baked stuff up by the counter that is constantly laughing at me now that I'm dieting. Before, we were good friends. The brownies are really, really good & all the cakes and croissants are top drawer.

On top of all their coffee and baked goods, Ozone serves lunch & big hot breakfasts. I came here for my work birthday lunch and had a order of fries and a banana milkshake (hey, it was my birthday) and it was delicious. Mid-thick shake, so still slurpable through a straw, and crisp-outside soft-inside salty fries. Some of the nicest fries I've had since moving to the UK, and they even boxed the rest up for me.

I'm a huge fan of both of these places, and I'm glad to still be able to indulge in a sweet drink in the morning. Do you have any suggestions for places to get great chai lattes?