Black Thunder – Pretty Style Tiramisu

As previously mentioned, I bought a lot of Black Thunder bars in my trip to Japan. They were just so cheap…and everywhere. It was hard not to buy a bar here and there. Next thing you know I’m swimming in them.

The one today is yet another one of their many varieties. Because English names or translations aren’t exactly ever present, I have to guess what things are based on the pictures, which to their credit, do a very good job of telling me what it’s supposed to be. This one was quite obviously a bite sized version of Black Thunder, and the flavour is supposed to be Tiramisu.

It wasn’t until further research that I found out that the name of this particular line roughly translates to “Pretty Style”. I’m not sure what exactly they were going for, but I will say that the pieces are indeed very pretty. You might think that the drawing of the classy looking lady on the package is part of the marketing for “Pretty Style” but even varieties without the fancy looking characters on it are part of the lineup as long as its the same bite sized shape. I expect to enjoy this variety more than the Big Thunder bar that is basically a flat, wafer shape, mostly because these maintain the nice height for max filling.

I was a little surprised at how strong the coffee smell was when I opened the package. I’m not a huge fan of tiramisu if I’m being honest. But I did want to try this to see if bite sized is a format that works for Black Thunder. My pack had a total of 9 pieces. Each piece felt substantial in hand, and it shows. The pack weighs in at 54g, which is almost the equivalent of your standard small sized bag of chips.

The pieces aren’t as jagged or rugged as the bars, but don’t let the flat uniformity fool you. They taste just as good in terms of mouthfeel and taste. It captures that cookie and cookie piece experience quite well, without compromising the ratio of chocolate, a problem that the Big Thunder bar has. The biggest downside I can think of for this format is how easy it is to be fooled by the size of the pieces, and think you haven’t consumed that much. Next thing you know, you are have an empty bag, and are 300 calories deeper in the hole. I will say that I did feel a bit more “full” after eating these than when eating two standard bars (which I believe comes out to roughly the same weight).

I would love to try more varieties of the bite sized nature. They’re far easier to share, but still maintain that golden ratio of chocolate outer coating to inner cookie filling. I’m not crazy about the tiramisu flavour, but it’s not too much of a concern since it’s not that strong of a flavour. I would definitely recommend these to fans of Black Thunder, or fans of chocolate bars who aren’t all that messy to eat.