Toppo – Kiri Winter Cheese

Sometimes when I follow a product line as religiously as I do with Toppo, I notice after a certain point I see a slowdown in new flavours for me to try. It’s hard to know if I’m just checking back with them too often or they don’t have much of a back catalogue to begin with. I’m sure they definitely aren’t catering to me and the likely handful of others who wait for a new flavour with bated breathe.

This flavour is a collaboration with Kiri, which is a popular cream cheese product around the world. I feel like cheese and chocolate are an interesting combination. It works in theory but depending on the format and the ratios of the chocolate and cheese, things could go very, very wrong. I have faith in Toppo though, so I imagine it can’t be too bad even at it’s worse. But we will find out soon enough.

The flavour is not as cheesy or strong as it smells. The smell is very cheesy and borderline pungent, but not quite. The flavour is quite mild, similar to a cream cheese, with the sugar giving it an almost cheesecake quality. It’s one of those flavours where the smell is definitely not quite reconciling with the taste, and I think in this case it might be in it’s favour. I’m not sure I would be a huge fan of a pungent cheese chocolate.

Texture is typical Toppo affair, and that is a good thing – the outer biscuit has a pretzel quality to it, where there’s a shiny, firm outer coating that has a nice clean snap to give way to the soft-ish chocolate filling. The ratio is fairly balanced, with a bit more on the pretzel biscuit and less on the filling. The pretzel coating is nice because it’s firm, keeps everything inside and helps keeps your hand relatively clean especially on those hot summer days.

So what’s the verdict? Is this worthy of a second buy? Kind of. I think for me the main struggle is I enjoy the execution of the texture and format is enjoyable enough that I can look past the flavour which is rather similar to their normal ones, and not particularly worth the effort of obtaining. Having said that it is enjoyable enough overall I would get it again, just maybe not at a premium or over the standard assortment of flavours they offer all year round.