Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Tirol Kagami Mochi

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This review is about four months late, but this was such a cute promotion that I had to post it. New Year is a very important holiday in Japan, and one of the traditional decorations is called Kagami Mochi. Though they are often very elaborately decorated, the simplest form is just two stacked mochi balls, the top one smaller than the bottom, with a bitter orange on top.

The Tirol version consisted of several small Milk Mochi flavored chocolates with a large Mikan flavored chocolate on top, all encased in plastic shaped like Kagami Mochi. For some reason, Tirol felt the need to include instructions on how to pop out the Mikan piece. Before I even tasted anything, I was extremely amused by the variety of New Year-themed images on the Milk Mochi pieces. I especially liked the cute little Daruma.

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Milk Mochi tasted like coconut, according to my husband. The mochi center was chewy, gummy, and slightly sweet, so it was similar to the real thing. The surrounding white chocolate, however, was a bit stiff and chalky. It wasn't too sweet, and did taste like milk or cream. My favorite part was the packaging. B-

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The Mikan piece boasted real mikan flavor, and the chocolate smelled very much like oranges. I was thrilled to discover that it had a gel center. The gel was tender and chewy with a tart orange flavor, while the orange chocolate coating reminded me of sherbet. This Tirol reminded me of a punch my mom used to make for church parties (ginger ale, pineapple juice, and orange sherbet - yum). The gel had an odd sort of skin to it, but it did remind me of real fruit. This flavor was tastier than Milk Mochi, but unfortunately, there was only one Mikan in the set. A-

Tirol website

3 comments:

Orchid64 said...

I passed on this, because I was almost certain that the mochi flavor would not impress me (and your review reinforces that idea). I just couldn't see buying it all knowing that I wouldn't like most of it.

ebidebby said...

I ended up giving most of the mochi flavor away to friends. A friend sent it to me as a gift, and I don't think she would have bought it if it weren't on sale!

Anonymous said...

Oh my, it's super cute!!! I love the designs on them. :)
Ick, the mochi one doesn't sound that good (mostly because I'm not a fan of coconut flavors)
The mikan one looks/sounds good though. It always sucks when the one you like the most is also the least in the pack [I got this bag of Ghirardelli chocolates and my favorite one has the least :(]