review: japanese chestnut häagen-dazs

häagen-dazs is holding out on you guys back home.

seems like every month there's some new limited edition flavour that i'd never seen in the US.

cafe au lait.

white peach and raspberry.

lemon ginger float.

pumpkin (which i need to review!)

and today, i'll be reviewing the latest fall addition: wa-guri (japanese chestnut).

it's essentially chestnut flavoured ice cream with swirls of chestnut paste -- not like in the marron sense, but in the "i boiled some chestnuts in sugar and made 'em into a paste" sense. it's got a great natural chestnut taste to it -- not too syrupy sweet, just buttery and rich chestnut. i only wish that there was more of the chestnut paste in there. come on, it's like...the width of human hair, give me MOAR!

these guys generally show up at konbini first and then move on to grocery stores, but you can bet i'll be buying it again. seriously, häagen-dazs needs to get their game together and give the US some of these flavours too. 

unless i'm wrong and you do get them? i dunno, someone fill me in.

review: ajiwai marron pino

okay to be fair, i warned you that tons of limited edition snacks come out in the fall, so... i hope none of you are surprised by how many reviews i'm doing.

and besides, i wrote a quirky japan blog last night too, so it's not like i'm...shirking my blog responsibilities or...whatever.

anyway!

first things first, pino (made by morinaga) is another one of those standard japanese snacks. it's little bits of ice cream covered in chocolate, and they bring out LOTS of limited edition flavors throughout the year, so you'll definitely be seeing these guys again.

because it's fall, we have the ajiwai marron which i'll loosely translate into just marron, since it's pretty much saying like "tasty marron"...

look at the fall colours~ 

look at the giant chestnut~

the box boasts using "fragrant italian marron" in the ice cream, which sounds really promising.

until you take a bite.

... *closes eyes and waits for the "fragrant italian marron" to kick in*

... ... ... *still waiting*

... ... ... ... yeah okay, i got nothing.

i wouldn't even know it was marron-flavoured if i hadn't have bought the damn things myself -- there's hardly any marron flavour at all. it's not like it tastes gross or anything, it just tastes like vanilla.

and pino usually does a mildly good job at these limited edition things too...

i guess you can't have a winner every time.

but don't worry, in about 1 or 2 months, another flavour is bound to crop up. so until then!

review: fall snacks

time for another review!

this time i'll be looking at three fall limited edition snacks:

meiji's takenoko no sato "maroyaka marron" (mellow marron)

meiji's kinoko no yama "creamy pumpkin"

bourbon's mochi chocolat "chocolate marron" 

let's start with meiji. first, these guys are a major staple of the meiji snack line -- takenoko no sato, or "bamboo shoot village", is a crunchy cookie covered in chocolate that looks like a...bamboo shoot. similarly, kinoko no yama ("mushroom mountain") is a crunchy cookie topped with mushroom-shaped chocolate. i've actually heard that the cookie bits for takenoko no sato are made from broken and crushed up "stems" of kinoko no yama...someone confirm that for me.

ah, and for those who don't know, marron is french for chestnut, and typically has connotations of marron glacee (chestnuts that are basically stewed in sugar with rum) when used in japanese (so basically a more western yougashi kinda marron, not like buttery japanese chestnut). fall is associated with a lot of foods -- sweet potato, pumpkin, and chestnut. you can find all kinds of limited edition something or other in the fall with these flavors.

though it IS still august...

but i digress!

mellow marron

mellow marron is a nice typical marron colour and i expected that sweet marron glacee taste, but actually found it to be more of a buttery japanese chestnut flavor, which was kind of a refreshing surprise. they're not too sweet, so you could feasibly eat the entire box without feeling too sick afterwards! they did a good job capturing that freshly roasted chestnut taste. good job, meiji!

creamy pumpkin

creamy pumpkin is a lovely kabocha pumpkin colour -- oh, by "pumpkin" japan means kabocha pumpkin, which is a small, oblong squash with vivid green skin and orange flesh. buttery and rich, it's used from everything from soups to breads to sweets. i'm surprised at how pumpkin-like this smells and taking a bite only confirms it -- this guy is like kabocha to the max and i love it. you don't often see a lot of heavy flavors come in with snacks like these (unless it's like the upscale version) but these guys pack a great punch. again, not too sweet so...yeah, you could eat every last one without feeling like you're going into a sugar coma. bravo meiji, you nailed fall!

last, but not least, the mochi chocolat series by bourbon is another staple that brings out flavors seasonally. it's basically a soft choclate center wrapped gyuuhi (sweetened mochi) -- this time being marron-flavored chocolate with a condensed milk center (i see no evidence for this).

here's how they look:

the gyuuhi is soft and chewy and the chocolate is that predictable rum spiked marron glacee flavor -- not that that's a bad thing at all. it works really well with the gyuuhi, making the typically strong marron flavor a little easier to deal with by giving it a mochi cushion. this one's a little on the sweet and heavy side, so i'd say two is about my limit for one go.

and there you have it! i'm looking forward to more fall limited edition stuff (since i'm a sucker for it) and i'll hopefully get more reviews up as they come out!