Meiji – Rum & Raisin Chocolate
When I saw these, I confused them at first with the similar looking product line of Lotte which combines fruits with liquors. They have a similar look and are going for the same premium feel with the packaging. I guess when you want to tap into that market of captive customers that has grown up, you have to throw alcohol in there to reel them back in.
Opening the package, I am met with four individually wrapped pieces. Each piece is somewhat long, and not as wide as I remember the Lotte pieces being. These pieces also feel a bit more fragile. Whereas the Lotte was sectioned off into additional pieces for each bar, it also had a more firm and brittle tempering on the outside. These sort of just melt as I touch it, so these need to be consumed post haste.
The overall texture of this is also very similar to the Lotte chocolates – it is extremely soft, and very smooth. The outside is melty, and just barely holds together, but the inside is even softer. The inside is like a mousse, and is very smooth and melts on your tongue. While I feel the chocolate is originally closer to a ganache, something about the addition of alcohol makes it feel smoother, and more like a mousse. The raisins inside provide a very soft bite, but they have been likely soaking in rum so it ends up not being very chewy and more a slight gummy like consistency. I guess it makes sense why the box says to store at 23 degrees. Any higher and it would likely melt into a puddle.
The flavour is very strong rum and just opening the wrapper hits my senses with the strong alcohol bite. These pieces apparently have about 3.8% which is pretty high for a single piece. The flavour of the rum is strong, and they definitely did not skimp because I feel my nostrils and nasal cavity get a hit of the alcohol content. The flavour overall is quite solid though, and something about rum and raisin just works so well when paired with a chocolate.
It could just be bias here, but being someone that finds rum to generally be one of the more pleasing liquors and rum raisin being one of my favourite flavours, I find this to be affable and something I would get again. Again, alcoholic anything is not my general go to, but I’m always willing to make exceptions if the overall execution is done well. This meets those criteria.
