Tirol Chocolate – Hojicha Latte
I’m not much of a tea drinker. I’m not much of an anything drinker these days. I mostly just drink lots of water, and one or two glasses of milk a day. When I go out, I’ll drink whatever tea they give me. I’m not picky when it comes to tea, so I couldn’t tell you what my favourite tea is. Well I might be able to describe it, but good chance I don’t know the actual name of it. That doesn’t stop me from enjoying tea flavoured snacks though. Matcha seems to have really become mainstream in the past few years, so it’s no surprise that other tea varieties are following in the wake. I firmly believe that people who appreciate matcha flavoured items for example, like that distinct bitterness to it. You know, unless they are silly enough to think that matcha flavoured snacks have all the supposed health benefits conferred onto them. In which case, they are in for a rude awakening….but I digress.
Hojicha is a green tea that goes through a different process. My understanding is that it is roasted, and tends to take on a more brown colour, while also having less caffeine than matcha. I personally find it to be a bit more mild and not as strong, which I am fine with. I don’t drink tea for the caffeine or health benefits, I just drink whatever is given to me. In fact, I think hojicha would be better for someone like me who likes to just experience the drink, rather than have to worry about the after effects. Caffeine has a weird effect on me…I tend to get tired and sometimes even pass out if I’ve had more than certain amount. It’s a good thing I don’t have a coffee addiction like most of my coworker plebs. Thankfully that’s nothing we need to worry about with today’s chocolate.
This particular variety is the Hojicha Latte flavour. The packaging leads me to believe this has three parts to it – the hojicha chocolate on top, the biscuit in the middle and a light milky chocolate on the bottom. I’m guessing that’s the emulate the milk in the “latte”. I’ve never had a hojicha latte, but based on my experience with hojicha and lattes, I can kind of piece together what it’s supposed to taste like using my mind’s tongue. I am excited to see how the milk balances out that distinct hojicha flavour.
At first, the whole thing is very faint and mild. It was kind of like chewing chocolate that didn’t have much flavour or sugar in it. After a few seconds though, I start to get the hojicha flavour, and that distinct, roasted flavour come through. It doesn’t come through very strong though, and I think it was due in part to the bottom layer that’s supposed to simulate the latte. It does a good job of smoothing out the flavour and cutting out any potential bitterness you might get with a hojicha. It’s a bit unfortunate though, that it does it’s job a little too well and ends up muting the flavour. The biscuit in the centre adds a bit of crunch and texture, but overall I don’t think it needed to be there.
I’ll cut this to the chase and say this one is average at best. Maybe I’m not a big enough fan of lattes to appreciate this, but if I buy something with Hojicha flavour, I’m probably someone who enjoys that roasted, slight bitter yet distinct flavour. This kind of undercuts it and ends up being a very mild flavour trip. I can see this as being a good palette cleanser for sure, but that’s not much of a selling point for me to go out of my way to purchase this again. I wouldn’t recommend this for most people, but for some of the more adventurous people who don’t mind spending a pretty penny to try everything at least once, go for it comrade.
