Tirol Chocolate – Matcha Mochi

Part of the fun of life is learning new things. One of my favourite things is discovering a new snack or food that I enjoy. I’m sure as a fully grown adult, it’s weird for me to continue to discover new things I enjoy when it manifests itself in the form of passionate interest in snacks. It has become so much of my identity that people come to expect it from me – that I’m that dude who always has some weird or interesting snack to share. Not that I really mind it (other than when I’m trying to trim that fat).

I mention all this because the product I’m reviewing today is Tirol Chocolate – Match Mochi. Tirol Chocolate is one of those Japanese brands I never paid much attention to until recently. In Japan these chocolates are marketed as “penny chocolates”, where you could find them in stores for as cheap as 10 yen. That isn’t what sold me, or got me into it though. My foray into the wonderful world of Tirol was largely accidental, and almost purely by chance. About a year ago, a coworker of my dad came back from a trip to Japan and had brought him a little bag of mini square chocolates. My dad enjoyed it so much he brought back a couple for me. When I first looked at them I thought, “these look kind of cheap, I doubt they’ll be any good”. Lo and behold, I tried a few and fell in love. The chocolate was indeed nothing special, but it was the combination of the cute wrappers, the uniform shape, and variety that really got me.

After finishing that stash, I grew curious (as I am prone to) and began researching the brand and trying to see what else they had to offer. Much to my chagrin, the brand was largely contained within Japan and trying to find their product outside of Japan was either very difficult, pricey, or limited. Fortunately for me, I had friends who were going to Japan, so I had a way to feed my addiction in the meantime. The price to buy them while in Japan is significantly lower than trying to buy them or import them outside of Japan. They can go for as cheap as 10 yen in Japan, but I’ve yet to find a place that sells them cheaper than around 0.70 CAD here. That may not seem like a lot, but when the chocolates are as small as these, the cost adds up quick.

Having tried multiple other varieties of the brands offerings, I fell deeper into a hole of desperation, trying harder and harder to find a way to procure a fix. I eventually found some reputable sites that had some product, though pricey and limited in variety. I figured it would be cheaper than to try and find people going to Japan all the time. I’m actually sad I didn’t think to do a review on all the varieties I’ve already tried. I figure I’d start with this particular flavour – the matcha mochi flavour. This flavour is apparently one of their bestsellers, and I can see why. Last year my friend went to Japan and she managed to buy a huge back of 50 for just 500 yen. She and her friends were not a big fan of them, so she gave me the rest of the bag. I’m ashamed to admit that I blasted through the remaining 35 or so pieces in about a month.

I guess the purpose of this review is to share with you all my thoughts of this particular variety. I’m hoping to do more of these later on since Tirol has quickly become one of my favourite Japanese chocolate brands. It’s a shame I didn’t get a chance to do a review of all the other flavours I’ve had so far, but this seems as good a place as any to start. While this flavour wasn’t one of the gateway flavours, it is certainly one of my more cherished ones. With all that context out of the way, let’s begin!

This particular package was courtesy of a friend who came back from Japan a few months back and helped me grab a few packs. Tirol cranks out a lot of flavours and limited edition runs including regional flavours and ones for special events and occasions. This particular one is one of their main staples. The smaller packs typically have seven pieces in the pack. Each of the pieces is individually wrapped. Each one is wrapped in foil first, then an outer wrapper that has all the description and characters on it.

One of my favourite parts of unwrapping these chocolates is seeing all the detail they put into each wrapper. I like the detailing on their wrappers so much that I’ve developed a strange habit of collecting them. These things are like Pokemon to me at this point.

To give you an idea of how big these chocolates are, they are slightly larger than a quarter. This makes them easy to snack on and share.

Opening one of these up, the first thing you’ll smell is the strong, delightful aroma of matcha. This is of course, assuming you like matcha. If you don’t like matcha at all, you should probably stop reading right here. Now that we are done sniffing our chocolate, lets take a look inside.

This chocolate may be the size of a quarter, but it is still tall enough that it is by no means thin or wimpy. In fact, they are tall enough to house what I consider a pretty decently sized mochi centre. The mochi on the inside doesn’t seem have any discernible flavour of it’s own, and serves more as additional texture. So how does it taste?

As I mentioned before, if you don’t like matcha, it is unlikely that you will enjoy this flavour. Part of what makes this flavour so popular is how well Tirol managed to translate the flavour of matcha into this tiny square. This should come as no surprise though, since matcha flavoured chocolates are all the rage in North America now, and likely have been in Japan since forever. I don’t go out of my way to try matcha flavoured items, but I’m a big fan of this chocolate. The second major aspect of this tiny square is the mochi inside. They definitely captured the chewy texture of mochi with it, and having that chunk in the centre definitely amps up the enjoyment of the chocolate. Having shared this with some friends, the chewiness of the centre can throw you off if you aren’t expecting it. I would say it definitely enhances the experience.

If it wasn’t already obvious, I’m quite a fan of this brand, and especially of this particular flavour. I would absolutely recommend this to anyone who enjoys matcha flavoured items. Even if you don’t, I’d still recommend you try one piece if you get the chance. It was certainly unlike anything I tried before diving into the world of Tirol, and was certainly and eye opener. Who knows, maybe you’ll end up on the same journey as me, searching far and wide for the next Tirol flavour!