Fran Patisserie - Mix Berry

Purchase Location : MINISTOP

Purchased Price : 210 Yen

Kcal : 83 Per Pack (total 332)

Maker : Meiji 

Cho-pan Strawberry Chocolate

Purchase Location : Life Supermarket

Purchased Price : 148 Yen

Kcal : 220

Maker : Meiji

Yet 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.

Eco Choco

Purchase Location : FamilyMart

Purchased Price : 210 Yen

Kcal : 291

Maker : Lotte

This 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. 

Dear Cacao - White & Cocoa

Purchase Location : MINISTOP

Purchased Price : 148 Yen

Kcal : 201

Maker : Glico

Just as the name of this candy suggest it is chocolate pieces that are regular dark chocolate coated with white chocolate. The chocolate in the center is soft in comparison with a regular piece of milk chocolate. 

I was quite satisfied with the quality of the chocolate and found it to taste better than the average chocolate bar.

Cheesecake Chocolate

Purchase Location : MINISTOP

Purchased Price : 210 Yen

Kcal : 347 (58g)

Maker : Meiji

As 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.

CHOCO BABY

Purchase Location : Suriiefu (Three F)

Purchased Price : 118 Yen

Kcal : 186

Maker : Meiji

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.

Men's Pocky

Purchase Location : Sankus

Price : 150 Yen

Kcal : 155 (per pack)

Maker : Glico

Men’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. 

Ume Candy - Muji

Purchase Location : FamilyMart

Price : 95 Yen

Kcal : 91

Maker : Muji

Ume is a variety of plum, but is often called a Japanese apricot. It is used to make umeboshi, an extremely popular type of pickled food here in Japan.

The candy shown above is just one type of the many ume products sold as snacks. 

This particular ume candy is actually “honey neri-ume.” It is sweet, but tartish and very chewy. 

Sequoia Candy Bar

Purchase Location : Lawson Store 100

Price : 105 Yen

Kcal : 127 (one bar)

Maker : Furuta

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.

SOYJOY - Cacao & Orange

Purchase Location : ampm

Price : 115 Yen

Kcal : 133

Maker : Otsuka Pharmaceutical Company

After eating the 324 calorie mochi donut I posted about yesterday, I thought it might be a good idea to pick something a little more healthy for today.

SOYJOY energy bars have become quite popular here in Japan lately. I have even seen dedicated vending machines for these healthy bars. 

When I was looking up some information for this posting I noticed that these energy bars are sold in other countries too. It appears SOYJOY bars were originally produced here in Japan by Otsuka Pharmaceutical Company.

The bar above is Cacao & Orange flavor. Many other flavors can be found here in Japan.  At 133 calories a bar they are rather healthy, and actually quite tasty too!

Mochi Ring Donut

Purchase Location : ampm

Price : 120 Yen

Kcal : 324

Recently many stores around the the Tokyo area carry some type of mochi donut. Out of all of them, this one sold under the brand name Bakery avenue at am/pm convenience stores, is my favorite. The special ingredient that makes these donuts so tasty is of course, mochi.

Mochi is often called “Japanese rice cake.” It is made from glutinous rice that is pounded into a paste and then molded into blocks, or other shapes varying in different levels of consistency. 

The mochi added gives these donuts a great chewy taste and balances the sweetness of the chocolate. 

Cheeza Crackers

Purchase Location : MINISTOP

Price : 190 Yen

Kcal : 194

Cheeza crackers are produced by Glico food company and can be found at many convenience stores and supermarkets in the Tokyo area.

They come in two flavors, cheddar and Camembert cheese. The cheddar version, with fifty-two percent real cheese, is hands down my favorite snack in Japan. 

As far as the taste goes, they have a very strong cheese taste and they are extremely crunchy.

At 190 yen for a small bag, these crackers are quite pricey. Even at this steep price there seems to be many fans of these cheesy treats. There is even a blog dedicated to them which can be found at this link.