A good friend in Kyoto sent me a bunch of candy, including a pack of Tirol chocolates called いちごがいっぱい (ichigo ga ippai), which means lots of strawberries. I suppose strawberry flavor is common right now, as one of the latest Japanese KitKats is also strawberry (review coming soon). There were three varieties of strawberry chocolates in the pack, so I'll review them one by one.
First up is Condensed Milk and Strawberry, and of the three, it had the most authentic strawberry smell and flavor. There was also a hint of cream in the smell, which was neat.
From the picture, you can see that there is a layer of condensed milk inside and WOW did it make this a sweet piece of chocolate. It was a little too sweet, actually, but the chocolate tasted really nice. There were even some strawberry seeds in the chocolate. I was surprised, but this was actually my favorite of the three. I would have rated it higher were it not for the intense sweetness of the condensed milk, but that is one of the sweetest things out there, so I wasn't terribly surprised. A-
Next, I tried Strawberry Jam. I thought this would be my favorite, but it wasn't. There wasn't much of a strawberry scent, but I could smell milk chocolate. The taste was similar in that the milk chocolate overpowered both the strawberry chocolate and the strawberry jelly in the middle. On a positive note, the strawberry center was really fruity and tasty.
Even though I was disappointed at how much the milk chocolate took over the flavor of this chocolate, it was better than the last jelly chocolate combination from Tirol (Christmas Soda), and it still tasted good, just not particularly impressive. B
Finally, I tried BIS Strawberry. "BIS" is short for biscuit, and I've always been a fan of chocolates like this (such as the Ritter Sport with the biscuit inside, and the regular BIS Tirol). This one also didn't have much of a strawberry smell, which was disappointing.
At first bite, I thought this one was delicious! I was all set to give it an A, but then the aftertaste kicked in. The strawberry chocolate here tasted a little soapy, and it ruined it for me. The biscuit was great, but I couldn't get over the soapyness. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't perfect. I wish it had the flavorful strawberry chocolate from the Condensed Milk and Strawberry. Oh well, it was still my second favorite. B+
I was really surprised that only one of the flavors packed a strawberry punch, but I can't say any of them tasted bad. In any case, I love Tirol chocolate and can't wait to see what flavors they roll out next! For another take on these, check out Japanese Snack Reviews.
Tirol Chocolate website (Japanese)
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