Chocoball – Red Grape Mochi

Another in the line of the premium pouch products, these balls are big. While I am a fan of big balls, it’s important to put into context that the overall weight is fixed for the most part. What that means is the equivalent pouch results in fewer balls. So you have to decide if you want bigger balls, or more balls. Striking that balance is tough, even for a seasoned vet like me.

They smell absolutely delightful and nostalgic – they remind me a lot of the chocolate muscat gummies from Meiji that I grew up on, except these are way bigger. I’m not sure if this would be too big for a kids mouth, but I can certainly tell you these would have been a choking hazard for me as a kid. I would definitely have tried to shove an entire ball into my mouth all at once. The chocolate itself tastes like the Meiji gummies as well. The chocolate is a sweeter milk chocolate, but not cloying so. The mochi or gummy center is a nice distinct, fragrant and floral grape flavour which has a nice rounded, sweet quality to it as well.

The texture is interesting because there’s something about the chocolate coating I can’t quite figure out. Unlike a regular chocolate, this one seems to have a strange, almost grainy finish to it which leads me to believe there’s some sort of extra ingredient to give it that texture. It’s as if there’s some sort of sugar crystal that you can notice as it melts, but it doesn’t leave anything behind so it’s a bit of a mind boggle.

The mochi or gummy center is very firm, chewy and I imagine it would taste pretty good on it’s own. But it works quite well with the chocolate and it has just the right consistency that it works well with the chocolate coating which is not too hard or too soft.

Also there appears to be some pieces that have random gold strewn about in the chocolate which is interesting, but also kind of strange to me. I can’t tell if there’s some sort of Willy Wonka prize for finding one with more gold, but there’ virtually no difference in any of them other than looking a little fancier.

I would enjoy these again, and if they sold these in a bigger bag or in bulk, well that would be very dangerous for both my wallet and waistline. Best to keep me away from these.