Black Thunder – Pablo Cheese Tart

Cheesecake is not a new thing in Japan, but it did come into vogue for a while in the past decade or so, and it doesn’t seem to have gone anywhere in popularity. Unlike a lot of other food related fads, this one has stuck around longer than even I expected. It looks like while it’s not as crazy popular as it was in the peak, it’s still very prevalent and companies that specialize in cheesecake are looking for new ways to draw in the crowds. Cheese tarts are an interesting way of doing that.

Pablo is a famous Japanese company that has built it’s empire on the light fluffy Japanese cheesecake, as well as all over sorts of savoury, sweet cheese based pastries like cheese tarts. They’ve made their way across the seas to the Frigid North too, and is considered a more expensive provider of Japanese style cheese desserts.

The texture is the same one that has made Black Thunder the snack that I and many others have come to know and love – it tastes like you’re biting into a chocolate covered cookie. It’s got a nice crunch that isn’t too firm and still has a nice light quality to it like a crumbly cookie. The chocolate softens the bite and there’s no doubt that you’re biting into a chocolate covered cookie bar. The cheese bits make it a little softer so it’s more like biting into a cookie brownie then the usual one.

The flavour is fairly straight forward – the cocoa flavour from the cookies, as well as the chocolate are the signature Black Thunder affair. The only real difference here is that there’s a bit of cheese flavour in the chocolate and inside the pieces themselves. It adds a bit of savoriness to it, but not a whole lot. If I gave these to you blindfolded, you might think that these were actually a chocolate ice cream based flavour of cookie bar. The cheese flavour isn’t that prominent, but the fact that there’s some dairy flavour of some sort is evident.

The main issue I have with this, and most Black Thunder bars in general actually, is that it’s over too soon. I’ve yet to find a Black Thunder release where I didn’t wish I had more of it. There are some that I wish I didn’t try, simply because ignorance is a bliss and I now know what I am potentially missing out on, being on this side of the world.