Tirol Chocolate – Mochi Ranger Mix
I’ve had a lot of Tirol in my time, and there have been a lot of winners, and a few losers. By far the best “archetype” that Tirol does, at least in my opinion is their mochi chocolates. Almost any flavour they do that has a nice, chewy mochi piece in the middle is a winner in my eyes. I’m certain they feel the same way too, hence why they keep cranking out different mochi chocolate flavours. Honestly, the only surprise to me is why they didn’t do this mix earlier for a quick cash grab. Maybe they were trying to find a cute, creative way to market a mix like that? They certainly nailed it with this one.
The mix has strawberry, milk, chocolate, kinako and matcha. I believe that I’ve had all these flavours, with maybe the except of the the milk, as I did have something similar, but without the chocolate syrup. It’s much less of a problem for me though, since I love the mochi.
The texture for all of these is fairly similar, with the exception of milk and the chocolate flavours. That’s really just due to the addition of chocolate syrup though, and apart from that it’s fairly homogeneous in this mix. The chocolate shell itself is standard stuff, but the winner here is the mochi center which is just the right amount of chewy, gooey goodness. It’s not quite a gummy, but still got a slightly bouncy texture to it. Think of it it as a cross between a gummy and a sticky, fresh mochi.
Let’s talk about the flavours. First up is the strawberry, or the pink ranger.
The strawberry flavour of this reminds me a lot of the ichigo daifuku flavour I’ve had before, which is the strawberry covered in red bean paste and encased in a mochi. It has that same flavour profile to it, and while i enjoy the texture, it’s not my favourite flavour combination, but I’ll still eat it if it’s in front of me.
Next up is the milk flavour, or the blue ranger.
It’s called milk because it’s supposed to be more dairy like than milk chocolate. It certainly tastes like milk, but it’s not a milk chocolate or white chocolate flavour to it, which I guess is why they just refer to it as milk. The chocolate itself is fairly mild apart from having the milk taste, so they added some chocolate syrup to give it more flavour which works out well here.
The red ranger, is the chocolate mochi piece.
Right off the bat, from smell alone you can tell that this is a darker chocolate, maybe 55% or 60%. It’s definitely not a milk chocolate. The flavour is very got a nice strong dark chocolate flavour to it, not quite bitter but also not sweet like milk chocolate. The syrup compliments this piece as well, and is one of the better mochi flavours in my opinion. Though I could just be bias because I love darker chocolate.
I’m not stranger to the yellow ranger, or Kinako.
Kinako is roasted soybean powder, and has a nutty flavour to it. This is apparently one of the more popular flavours in Japan, and it should come as no surprise that actual mochi is often eaten with a generous dusting of kinako. It’s got a flavour profile similar to peanut butter, and it’s really an ideal pair to the mochi centre.
Finally, we have the green ranger, or matcha mochi.
This is my go to flavour when I’m craving Tirol but don’t have a new flavour readily available to try. This flavour is also most commonly found outside of Japan as well, as far as I can tell. It’s not hard to see why. It has a very strong matcha flavour, with those notes of earthy, and bitter along with a bit of sweetness of the chocolate. This piece is my personal favourite, and I have no doubt anyone who enjoys matcha as a flavour would enjoy these as well.
If I had to rank the rangers, I’d probably go with something like this:
- Green – matcha
- Yellow – kinako
- Red – chocolate
- Blue – milk
- Pink – strawberry
I’m just realizing that my ranking is in opposite order of which I tried them. Purely by coincidence. If this was a standard mix, I’d get it pretty often, just based on the texture alone. While not all of them are winners to me, they are all still good enough that I would enjoy it it were in part of the assortment.