Tirol Chocolate – Black Mont Blanc Ice Cream Bar

There are certain things in life that we can all agree are objectively good. There are obviously exceptions to this due to biological factors, like allergic reactions to certain things, or damaged to certain body parts that won’t allow us to appreciate certain things. But apart from those, there are certain combinations that we can all appreciate and know almost instantaneously, will be good. I think the best example to really bring this school of thought home is peanuts and chocolate. No matter the form in which the combination takes, whether chocolate and peanut butter, or peanuts covered in chocolate, or chocolate covered in peanuts, we all know it’s safe. Safe in the sense that it’s nigh impossible to screw up.

Out of all the special seasonal collaboration flavours I could find for this season, this is the last one. I’m a firm believer of saving the best for last. Although I guess it’s more of saving the best for what I believe to be last, on account of I haven’t tried this one yet? Either way, this is an unbreakable combination and it was a safe choice to leave it to last. I mean, it’s an ice cream bar covered in chocolate in peanuts. We’ve already established that chocolate and peanuts is one of the safest combos ever, but now you add ice cream to it and throw in some cookie pieces on the chocolate, and it’s even safer yet better? What could possibly go wrong here people?

To give some context on the product this variety is based off (I’m learning all this now too), Black Mont Blanc is the name of a very popular ice cream bar hailing from Kyushu, one of the islands of Japan. This particular concoction was the creation of Takeshita confectionery and has been a staple of that region for over 50 years. Based on what I’ve read, it looks like the original bar is described as vanilla ice cream covered in chocolate and coated with cookie pieces. There doesn’t appear to be any mention of peanuts though. I guess I’ll find out the hard way.

The bag smells very, peanut-y for something that may or may not have peanuts. I’m going out on a limb and saying there is, at least in this chocolate. There looks to be a lot of things going on in this chocolate at first glance.

The bottom of the chocolate looks to capture the taste/texture of the bar. It looks like there is cookie pieces, what looks to be pieces of freeze dried ice cream, and what I am 90% certain is peanut pieces. When you’ve had as many nuts as I have, you can tell them apart from smell alone.

Looking at a cross section basically confirms what I mentioned already. There is quite a lot going on, but then again so is the source bar itself. It’s hard for me to not imagine what the bar itself tastes like, but I’ll try to put off judgement til I try this chocolate.

The top looks very unassuming, and is the typical chocolate shell that I’ve come to know and love, with that oh so distinct pattern. You know what they say about the unassuming ones. They have the most to hide…

I feel like i say this a lot in these reviews of Tirol chocolates, but it’s very much what I expected. It does a good job capturing the taste of everything – the chocolate, peanuts, cookie pieces all come together with a nice crunch that is reminiscent of a chocolate covered dipped bar. Think Haagen Dazs and their classic almond covered ice cream bars. Now replace almond with peanuts and cookie pieces and you’re there. The texture is spot on to what I imagined, but obviously the taste is harder to simulate, on account of there being no ice cream in it. And anyways, would you want ice cream to be in it? It’s just not the same unless its cold, you know? Take it from someone who (very stupidly) wondered what it would be like to “drink” ice cream. By drink I mean I intentionally let the ice cream melt into a puddle before proceeding to try and drink it. Mistakes were made. I can’t undo certain things, but I can warn and caution others against making the same mistakes I did. Don’t do it. Ever. It’s not worth the emotional scarring.

I mentioned a lot before that this is a safe choice, and I still stand by that. It’s no surprise why people love this combination. It works, and its great. Out of the four seasonal varieties I’ve tried though, I’d say this is tops. I like to pace myself with snacks, but these ones I had to hold back real hard to not plow throw them all in one sitting. As I type this out, I am already down to 3 pieces left (each bag comes with 7).

I’d say that the Komeda Shiro Noir Dessert flavour comes close to being the top of the regional flavours, but there’s just something about how simple yet perfect the combination of chocolate, peanuts and ice cream (and some cookie crumbs) works together that make this one the best.