Bourbon Sakuramochi Mochi Chocolat

In a previous post, I mentioned how hard it is to find traditional Japanese sweets outside of Japan. That time, it was mitarashi dango, but here's another one to add to the list: sakuramochi. Sakuramochi are pretty little pink rice cakes filled with sweet red beans and wrapped in pickled sakura (cherry blossom) tree leaves. They might look or taste a little different depending where in Japan you get them, but they are sweet with a subtle very subtle sourness.

Bourbon makes this fancy line of chocolates called もちしょこら (mochi shokora), or Mochi Chocolat. On my last napaJapan purchase, I got the Matcha, Ganache, and Sakuramochi flavors. The thought occurred to me to review the matcha mochi chocolates right after I polished off the whole box, but at least I remembered to do the sakuramochi.

The box contained two separate packs of 4 mochi balls, so if you have some self control, you can share them or at least not eat all at once lest they go stale. I wish the box had contained a little pick or spear because the sticky little mochi were tough to get out of the container. The mochi chocolates smelled a little like fresh cherries with a hint of a sour, pickled aroma - and that's a good thing!

Rest assured that the outer coating was soft, sticky, actual mochi! According to the box, the middle layer of cherry chocolate was made with sakura leaves. It had no chocolate taste whatsoever, just a delicate cherry flavor. The red bean center was nice, adding just a touch of sweetness and a little pleasantly beany texture. The whole thing was a soft, lovely medley of textures and mild flavors.

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Bourbon website

Bourbon Matcha ChocoChip Puchi Cookies

Press Sample
I haven't thought about this kind of cookie much since I spent the summer of 2004 at a university in Nagoya, Japan, but I used to get them all the time at the local Valor (a Wal-Mart type department store). I can remember many different kinds of these tiny cookie tubes, including vanilla cream sandwiched and chocolate chip, but of course, matcha suits me best.

It would have never occurred to me to order this type of cookie for myself, but now that I have some, I realize I missed them. These Matcha ChocoChip cookies were provided by Tsunami.hk, an online shop with an extensive selection of Japanese candy as well as some other specialty items.


The scent of matcha was definitely noticeable, along with the familiar aroma of packaged cookies. They had a nice, crunchy texture with vanilla notes that reminded me of Chips Ahoy (or other branded chocolate chip cookies). The grassy and delicate matcha flavor was certainly there, if a little weak, and it went very well with the slightly bitter chocolate chips.

If you exert a little self control, these tiny cookies make great little indulgent snacks. The are around 25 mm in diameter, and even if you eat the whole package, it's still under 300 calories. I enjoyed mine with a cup of green tea. My only complaint is that the matcha flavor could have been stronger, but that's just because I'm a matcha nut.

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Bourbon website

Bourbon Matcha Mont Blanc

On the last day of our time in Japan last month, my husband and I went to a nearby grocery store in Kyoto to get some cheap things to fill the empty space in our suitcases. That was the only place I saw large packages of single serving cakes, so I decided to try these.

Mont Blanc is a famous and fairly popular dessert in Japan. It is very pretty, and though typically made with chestnuts, sometimes there are other flavors included, like in these matcha cakes. Of course, being a packaged product, I didn't expect these to be as good as the real thing.


Although the box claimed that these had the aroma of matcha, all I could smell was something odd (probably preservatives). Moving past the smell, the taste wasn't really matcha, either. Or at least it wasn't as strong as I would have liked. It might have been masked by the chestnut flavor.

To call the spongecake mild would be kind, as there wasn't much flavor to speak of, and the cream in the middle was not terribly noticeable. Even the chocolate on the top didn't really taste like matcha, just sweet white chocolate. The azuki beans throughout the layers did add a nice texture, and surprisingly, carried their own flavor well.

I might like this more with some actual matcha brewed tea, as I think the bitterness would bring out the flavors in the cake, but on it's own, this cake just wasn't flavorful at all. It wasn't a bad taste, but it was very disappointing. I would like to point out that Bourbon can make good prepackaged cakes. I took some vanilla and chocolate cakes into work, and they were much better.

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Bourbon website