Tirol Chocolate – Wagashi Mix

I have a problem and I know it – I’m addicted to mochi. It’s at the point where I’ll buy something that’s not actual mochi on the mere promise of the chewy goodness somewhere. And that is basically how I ended up buying today’s mix. Well, addiction to mochi and Tirol. Yet another near perfect storm of impulse purchasing.

Wagashi are traditional Japanese confections, and are usually sweet and paired with a green tea. The two in particular that are in this release are mitarashi dango, and mame daifuku. Mitarashi dango is a skewer of rice dumplings that are coated in a sweet soy sauce glaze, while the mame daifuku is a red bean paste filled mochi, with the main difference being that there are red beans mixed into the actual mochi skin. All this means that you can expect a lot of mochi in these chocolates. Or at least, that’s the hope.

No doubt about which is which.

Starting with the mame daifuku in the yellow wrapper, the piece resembles the cross section of a daifuku visually – the bottom has the earthy, deep red colour of red bean paste, and the top has the pale off white of a mochi skin. The smell is mostly of red bean,

Almost uncomfortably white.

Biting into this, I’m surprised – I was expecting the standard mochi piece inside. Instead, there’s a small spherical mochi piece, along with a small, slightly crunchy bit which I believe is a cooked red bean. The two textures do remind me of biting into a daifuku that has some solid red bean pieces. In the form of chocolate though, it’s kind of strange, but flavour wise it’s exactly what I expect so I’m satisfied with that.

Multiple tiny balls instead of one big one.

Speaking of the flavour, it’s a like those sweet red bean soup desserts you get at Chinese restaurants. Some of the fancier ones even have little gluttonous rice balls which while not exactly like mochi are basically the same idea. The red bean flavour is first and foremost along with the chocolate, and the mochi and red bean pieces are more for texture, not contributing too much to the overall flavour of it.

The second piece has a beige colour on the outer shell, and smells of a sweet, slightly savoury soy sauce. Biting into this was interesting because of both the flavour and the texture. The single mochi piece that I was expecting in the daifuku piece is actually present here, which is good because I love it. This also has the addition of a syrup inside, which is supposed to represent the soy sauce glaze.

Just a smidgen darker.

The flavour of the glaze is pretty strong, and to anyone who hasn’t tried it – it reminds me a lot of the malted milk balls that you would find in a Whoppers or a Maltesers. Similarly, the glaze has a bit of a gritty finish, though I’m not sure if that’s intentional or not. Regardless, it’s actually pretty tasty and I find it a little savoury which is a nice change of pace.

Syrup, glaze, whatever you want to call it, it’s sticky.

I enjoyed the novelty of this mix for sure, but the main draw for me was the possibility of mochi. While not in any meaningful way, I was pleasantly surprised by the flavour profiles, especially by the mitarashi dango and it’s sweet soy glaze. Unfortunately it’s not enough that I would do this more than once, and I’m much more likely to default to my old standby of the normal mochi flavours. Still worth at least a first try though.

Comes out to about 35 calories per piece.

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