Furuta isn't one of my favorite Japanese candy and snack brands (though they do make a lot of fun themed candies), but I have a hard time resisting matcha chocolates. Long story short, these came home with me on my spring trip to Mitsuwa Marketplace in Arlington Heights, Illinois. I was in the area for a graduation ceremony (mine!) and that put me in a celebratory, buy-all-the-things mood.
It's hard to go wrong with matcha-filled chocolates, and adding black sesame paste makes me even happier. The green and gold wrappers were very pretty, and reminded me of Lindt with a Japanese twist. They looked nice in my candy dish, especially since my guests ended up enjoying them more than I did.
After unwrapping, I could smell the milk chocolate, and I didn't get a sense of the green tea filling. The thickness of the outer shellwas about right, and the chocolate itself was fairly standard: sticky, but not too sweet. The gooey, oozy matcha center had the consistency of liquid caramel, and the tea flavor was very mild and not too bitter. I didn't taste the black sesame at all.
While the filling was ere a little too sweet for me, these chocolates were still quite pleasant, if a little messy. I think these would please people unfamiliar with matcha. A few of my pro-matcha family members tried and liked them, but I didn't really test them on unsuspecting subjects. The composition reminded me of American chocolates I've had, so I wouldn't anticipate the recoil I sometimes get when I green chocolate to someone who hasn't seen it before.
B
