Fujiya White Milky Chocolate Amaou Strawberry

One of the dangers of the internet is how easy it is to find stuff. It’s especially dangerous for people like me who are willing to pay a premium to procure products that are harder to find at local shops. Living in the frigid tundra that is Canada, this tends to be the case for many things. Couple that with my fervent desire to try all the snacks, I end up in situations such as this.

I present to you the first of probably many, snack reviews – Fujiya White Milky Chocolate Amaou Strawberry.

This was one of the many snacks I got in a package I ordered from Japan. Beyond the English description on the website, I can’t tell you much more beyond what the packaging shows. I haven’t had much experience with this particular brand, but I do recognize the Peko-chan mascot. It’s something that I’ve seen on various other snacks with the Milky brand but I was never inclined to purchase or try them. Until now. Given that they’ve been around since I was but a wee cub, it’s safe to assume that they are at the very least, a well-established brand. I can’t read Japanese, so I’m going to go out on a limb and say the 20% is probably to denote the percent of real strawberries in the filling??

It looks like this package contains 12 individually packaged pieces. This looks like the kind of product that would be great for giving as a gift. The individually wrapped pieces make it real easy to share. If you know anything about me, it’s that I love to share. I figure if I’m going to enjoy something, I should share it right? Also, it helps the share the consequences too. I’m looking at you, love handles.

Pulling one of these out, the first thing I notice is how thin each piece is. As of late, I’ve been trying to cut back on my snacking, so these pieces being thin and smallish is not necessarily a bad thing for me. Having them individually packed makes it easier to portion things out. Looking on the back of the box, it seems that each piece is only 29 calories.

The second thing I notice is how pretty the individual packaging is. I almost want to keep it. But Peko-chan is so creepy…anyways. I have this weird thing where I like to collect wrappers of certain candy brands, but that’s something we can get into later. Opening the package, the first thing I notice is the smell. It has a strong scent of ripe, floral strawberries. It’s borderline artificial strawberry smell, but in a good, apetizing way. Kind of like when you go to an ice cream shop and you can smell the strawberry ice cream.

As I mentioned before, the chocolate is very thin. when held up to the light, you can see right through it’s white exterior, into it’s warm, red juicy filling. It kind of reminds me of Ghirardelli chocolate squares that have the filling (peppermint being the best), but if they were to go on a diet and become 25% thinner. Perhaps I should have mentioned this earlier, but I’m not crazy about white chocolate. To me, it’s rarely real chocolate. It’s sugar and butter and typically less than 35% cocoa. There are exceptions but this doesn’t feel like one of them so far. Let’s take a closer look shall we?

The inside was pretty much what I expected. Again, the smell is very nice and floral, and despite not being a fan of white chocolate, the strawberry filling might redeem it. The texture is very much what I expect from mass market white chocolate – a bit waxy, and quite sweet. It doesn’t leave that fatty residue on my tongue though, or have an aftertaste so that’s a plus. The strawberry filling is quite nice, and tastes pretty much how it smells. Although the layer of filling is quite thin, it’s nice and not too sweet or sticky. The flavour is slightly artificial, but in a good way, like strawberry ice cream. While the two components of the chocolate aren’t anything to write home about on their own, together it just works.

Ultimately, would I get this again? Probably not. But that’s mostly because I’m not a fan of white chocolate. Would I recommend it? Only if you’ve never tried it before and like strawberry. I do think this makes a great gift or shareable treat to bring around the office (like I will be doing after this). Overall, I feel like this product isn’t unique or interesting enough to warrant going out of your way to get it. But like with all things in life, your mileage may vary.