Purchase Location : Life SupermarketYet another chocolate product from the confectionary maker Meiji. This candy is called Cho-pan. I’m guessing that the “pan” in the name may be referring to the Japanese word for bread. There is a little piece of bread (pie crust) that tops each one of the four chocolates that come in the box.
Purchase Location : FamilyMartThis chocolate bar was released on the 14th of this month by Lotte. As the name implies, it is an ecologically minded product. On the back of the wrapper there is a statement that says this chocolate bar was produced from cacao beans that were grown in Brazil on farms that use an agroforestry system.
Being “eco” does come at a price. The cost of this chocolate bar was 210 yen, while an average plain one can be found for around 105 yen at many stores.
Purchase Location : MINISTOPAs I was milling around the candy section of the local convenience store I happened to run into this new chocolate from Meiji. In fact, according to Meiji’s website this chocolate officially went on sale today.
The name of this chocolate is Gâteau Chocolate and the flavor is Cheesecake Tart. Gâteau is a type of French cake.
The taste of this chocolate was even better than I had expected. It has a rich taste, but it is not overly sweet. Anyone who is a fan of cheesecake would most likely enjoy this chocolate.
Morinaga Choco Balls come in several varieties and are one of the most famous candies in Japan. Even the mascot cartoon bird on the front of the box is well known in Japan. The name of this mascot is “Kyoro-Chan.”
The caramel version of this candy (pictured above) is my personal favorite.
These Choco Balls come in a small re-sealable box. This particular box contains approximately twenty-nine grams inside. At 145 calories it won’t make you feel too guilty to eat the whole box.
Oh yeah, Choco Baby!
Basically Choco Baby candy is just little pellets of chocolate. They are slightly hard because they seem to have some type of waxy coating on them.
Choco Baby is very popular in Japan and can be found at a lot of locations. The container this candy comes in makes it convenient to carry around with you and eat a few at a time.
If you are a chocolate lover you will most likely enjoy these. The taste is rather strong. May be it is the small shape of these chocolate pellets that makes them so tasty.
Purchase Location : SankusMen’s Pocky? Is it just me, or would this name be okay in other countries?
As far as I have heard and seen, Pocky is quite famous in many other countries.
According to the Wikipedia page, Pocky was first introduced in Japan in 1966. Many varieties of Pocky are sold in almost every supermarket and convenience store here in Japan. I would even say it has legendary status as far as snacks go.
Pocky Men’s is not as sweet as other flavors. As the box says, it’s “Bitter Chocolate.” I guess men like it that way? Personally I prefer the coconut flavor. I guess I’m not much of a man.
Sequoia candy bars come in several flavors. The one pictured above is strawberry chocolate. They are considered to be in the dagashi (cheap sweets) category of candy. These candy bars are usually sold individually and are priced around thirty-five yen apiece.
This strawberry version has a strawberry cream, milk cream and wafer center.
One interesting note about these famous candy bars is that they are popular with students taking entrance examinations. The reason being is that the Japanese pronunciation of these candy bars is sekoiya. This resembles the word seikou, which means success. By eating these candy bars I guess the students hope to pass their test. Personally, by eating these candy bars I haven’t had too much success on my diet recently.
