Toppo – Bitter Dark Chocolate

I’ve had enough Toppo flavours at this point, that I’ve finally managed to catch up to the standard or “evergreen” flavours. This particular flavour seems to always be in rotation in one way, shape or form so it’s both encouraging and saddening that I’ve come close to the end. Sad because it means I’ll have to wait for new releases, but encouraging because I feel like I’ve come a long way on my snack journey.

This flavour is of the skinny stick variety, as I like to think of it. I’m still undecided if I prefer the skinny sticks that give you about 12 in a pack, or the thick sticks that only have 7 but are thicker and more substantial. I guess there’s pros and cons of each, but right now I’m leaning more towards the thick ones. Maybe this might change my mind.

The main selling point of this flavour is the dark, semi-sweet nature of the stick. The outside is dark chocolate cookie or biscuit, and the inside is dark chocolate filling. Dark chocolate seems to me to be generally marketed as an adult flavour, probably because it has a tinge of bitter to it and kids tend to prefer sweeter stuff. Obviously I was one of the exceptions since I loved dark chocolate as a kid, though that may be because I was exposed to it at a very young age. I can see how it’s more of an acquired taste.

This may be called bitter dark chocolate, but this falls more in the realm of semisweet. That isn’t a bad thing though. Quite the contrary, as a really bitter chocolate doesn’t make for a very enjoyable snack stick. Going by flavour I’d say this is closer to a 60% then what I consider to be bitter, which is 70% plus. The outer chocolate biscuit reminds me of those dark chocolate wafer cookies and has a nice cocoa flavour to it without being sweet and has a fairly neutral taste otherwise. This makes a good compliment for the inner chocolate which has the nice semisweet chocolate flavour to it, reminding me of the a dark chocolate Pocky. The chocolate itself is pretty standard as far as Japanese dark chocolate is concerned, but that’s not a bad thing.

Texture is unsurprisingly also similar to a Pocky. Except it’s reversed and the cookie is on the outside, while the chocolate is on the inside. You know now that I think about it, Toppo has always been the reverse version of Pocky, but it isn’t really as noticeable until you have a flavour like this which tastes so very similar it’s equivalent in Pocky form. Flavour and texture are so similar that I could see the two being interchangeable, assuming the flavours are similar. The more I eat these, the less I am able to tell if I’m eating a Pocky or Toppo. Blind folded, I probably wouldn’t be able to tell the difference except for the location of the chocolate.

Having said that, it’s not a bad thing, as the chocolate is a nice compliment to the nice, snappy texture of the cookie shell. It’s got a clean break away and at no point does it leave behind much mess or fuss. Also similar to Pocky it makes for an overall nice, light snack. I’m fairly certain these are roughly the same weight as the seven sticks, but for some reason these don’t feel as substantial. I can’t be certain why, but I’d wager a guess it has to do with the cookie itself. Whatever the reason may be, there’s definitely a time and place for each.

I like these as much as any other Toppo flavour and would get these again. If they had these in the thicker sticks, that would also be an instant buy from me. But it’s pretty great as is already.