Tirol Chocolate – Butter Corn
Hokkaido is an area in Japan that is known for a lot of things, namely their milk, melons, and various other fruits and veggies. This is due in large part to the land itself there, and open space that makes this possible. When most of us think or hear of Hokkaido, the first thing our minds go to is milk and melons. But they have so many other interesting regional specialties that are lesser known, corn being one of them.
Because of the temperate and climate in Hokkaido, corn tends to be juicier and sweeter over there. Once you realize this, the concept of a butter corn chocolate doesn’t seem as strange or farfetched. In fact, as a kid one of the more interesting Asian snacks I grew up with was actually called Sweet Corn. It was basically a puffed corn snack that looked and tasted like a sweeter, cornier version of the common Corn Puffs cereal. Because of how sweet it was, you couldn’t strictly consider it a savoury snack, or a candy. It was somewhere in the middle. All I could really tell you is it was delicious, and plowing through a bag in one sitting was as easy as grade 4 arithmetic (which is really easy if you couldn’t already guess).
An interesting thing about this pack is that instead of the usual 7 pieces, this one only has four. I guess it’s not really an issue for most, since you can just buy 2 packs instead of the one. The only logic I can think of doing this is that they were trying to give the impression that these are more limited or exclusive, or they’re scared people won’t like it and put fewer in a pack. But seeing as the cheese variety had the standard number of pieces….I’m not so sure.
The bottom usually tells us a lot of what’s going on in the piece. In this case, it’s got what appears to be corn peeking through the bottom, which I imagine will give it a nice crunching texture, as opposed to a flat, corn flavoured piece of chocolate. Because simply flavouring it as corn would be boring, right?
As always, we have that signature pattern going on in the top, which is very smooth and calm, much like the eye of a storm. A corn storm. The smell is very enticing though, and I’m getting a craving for some corn on the cob.
There seem to be pieces of small corn which are not quite as crunchy or soft as a corn snack, but not quite chewy as a hydrated piece of corn. I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s really no bad way to cook corn. You can freeze it, boil it, fry it, dehydrate it, pop it, and it’s all good! Even some weird hybrid like half popped corn is awesome. I can’t say that the dehydrated corn pieces in the center are bad either. It just works on every level. Truly an amazing food. The texture isn’t quite crunchy, but it has enough going that it’s still very snack-able. The flavour is like buttered corn, to the surprise of no one. It has that sweetness of corn on the cob, with a bit of that buttery after taste that makes it go down smooth. It’s a shame they come in only packs of 4, because I finished it in less than a minute. I like to look on the bright side, and tell myself it’s a good thing though, since being around something that goes down this easy is dangerous for my health. I really do miss the days when I was but a wee cub and could sleep off all the fat and calories I eat. To be young again.
If you like corn puffs, or butter corn flavoured snacks like the corn flavoured corn chips (so meta), then this is for you. The flavour is pleasant and inoffensive enough that I feel it will appeal to everyone. I don’t personally know anyone who doesn’t like corn, so I don’t see this as a problem for anyone in my immediate circles. Again, this is a limited flavour, and comes in a very small bags, so odds of finding this at a decent price are going to be slim. Still worth a try if you can!
