Tirol Chocolate – Kamome No Tamago

When traveling, it’s common courtesy to bring back some souvenirs or gifts back from whence you came. Or is it went? Whence you adjourned? I don’t know. Bottom line is, you bring something back as a symbol of having traveled there, and brought a gift back. Usually for the sake of appearance, it has to be a nice looking gift or packaged in a certain presentable way. Airports know this, so they charge you out the wazoo for something even if it’s clearly not worth what their charging. They make money off your desire to not seem totally inconsiderate and hide the fact that you didn’t think of anyone else on your trip, which lets be honest, you really shouldn’t have. It’s called a vacation for a reason.

I bring this up because of the product that today’s variety of Tirol is based on, a “snack” product that is used as a souvenir, and often given as a gift. I haven’t personally seen this particular product in person, but I have had items similar to it in nature. Apparently a company in Iwate was started, called Saito Seika. They specialize in creating a common treat in that area called Kamome no Tamago. Up until this point I knew that Tamago was Japanese for egg, but until purchasing this product I didn’t know that Kamome meant Seagull. As you can guess, this treat is named Seagull eggs. Iwate is an area with lots of seagulls, so I guess the treat is a homage to one of the defining characteristics of the area. Meanwhile New York has pigeons. Bit of a tough sell, that one. Anyways, the treat is shaped to look like a Seagull egg, but it’s quite a bit tastier than that, from the description. The “yolk” is a white bean paste that is covered in thin layer of cake, and coated in white chocolate. At least, the original flavour is. Apparently they have a number of varieties now, but the signature one is white bean paste with white chocolate.

White bean paste, much like red bean paste is very much something more common in the asian palette, and is not something I see too many westerners get into. That seems to have slowly changed though, as red bean and matcha is all the rage now. I’m hoping with time white bean paste and even lotus paste will become mainstream as well. While I haven’t had the chance to try this particular treat, I have a long history with pastries that are similar to this in nature, sans the white chocolate coating of course. It will be interesting to see how Tirol captures the essence of that experience in a tiny square.

The first smell I’m hit with when opening the package is a combination of white chocolate and coconut. It’s not exactly coconut, but it has an aroma that would probably remind most people of coconut. Of course, white chocolate is…well white chocolate. I feel like that is pretty self explanatory. It has that sweet, almost sickly smell to it. I’ve mentioned this many times before, but for anyone who isn’t familiar, I ain’t big on white chocolate. I still try white chocolate variety snacks if they seem interesting enough to me, but if it’s white chocolate for the sake of white chocolate, I’m out.

Although I haven’t tried the OG “seagull eggs”, I can still say that this is pretty spot on to what I expect when having white bean paste treats. It has that wonderful, almost fudge like texture of the bean paste in the centre, with a bit of soft sponge-like cake to cushion it against the white chocolate outer shell. I feel like I need to emphasize how great the texture is, and how well it captures the bean paste and cake texture. It’s really quite well done. Sadly, this just makes me want to try the original snack even more. If there’s anything I would dock points off, it would be for the sweetness. I feel like part of why this particular brand is a great souvenir is because it has been sweetened to the point of appealing to a wider audience, particularly those who don’t like more natural bean-tasting pastes. Which is fine; if that’s what it takes to create a gateway for people to get into the other, harder bean items, so be it.

I’d say if you are a fan of bean paste snacks and treats, this is a go to. If not, I’d say give this a try if you like red bean paste. This has been sweetened enough that it’s a good way to start yourself off those white bean paste desserts and sweets, and can ease the transition into less sweet, more bean-y tasting items. Also, if you like white chocolate, this is also highly recommended. White chocolate on it’s own is meh to me, but if you like it, you’ll almost definitely enjoy the added texture of the cake and bean paste.