gimme chocolate

Saw this ad on Instagram for Gimme Chocolate, a small business from Yamaguchi Prefecture

I love the name of their product as well as the packaging

Their chocolate uses ginger grown in Yamaguchi and also has lemon, beets, carrots, cinnamon, clove, cardamom, star anise, lemon grass, licorice & fennel in it

The chocolate has a strong ginger fragrance

It isn’t too “creamy” so I am thinking it is a darker chocolate

I’m glad I tried this and would get it again  

yosano roaster kyoto

A welding craftsman in Yosano, Kyoto, that makes parts for bicycles decided to try his hand at roasting coffee and making chocolates.

I learned about his story from a television show.

He designed his own ceramic infrared coffee roasting machine and also designed a machine that will separate the nib and husk for cacao beans.

We tried his Rwanda Skyhill coffee. I wished he had more info, like the farm it came from.

I thought the taste of this coffee was smooth, not too much acid, I enjoyed it.

His Inemankai bar won a Silver Award at the International Chocolate Awards, 2021-2022 Asia Pacific

This bar uses 70% Colombian chocolate, kodaimai (red rice) and sake kasu (rice wine lees)

I couldn't taste any rice or sake kasu but the chocolate overall was smooth a little fruity

The Sparkling is 70% Vietnam chocolate and Amanohashidate Sparkling wine.

If you've ever tried grapes in Japan, it tasted just like it, really fruity! and lots of grape flavor

The Amanohashidate Wine, uses 70% Tanzania chocolate, and red wine, which I couldn't pick out, but again, this was a smooth tasting bar.

I'm glad we tried these chocolates and his coffee and loved the packaging , it was nice supporting a small business, and I hope he'll continue to succeed.

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Went to Nihonbashi on Thursday.

I wanted to check out the new biscuit shop that Alain Ducasse opened 

In Europe, cookies are known as biscuits. I think in French they are called sables

I purchased the Tablette Biscuit, Graines & chocolat.

The biscuit is chocolate, like a shortbread and has different seeds in it (flax, pumpkin, sunflower) and is covered with 75% chocolate on one side, a little dry and not sweet, love this

They were so nice to wrap up some samples of their other biscuits...Pur Beurre (pure butter), Palet Fin Noisette (hazelnut covered with chocolate) and Biscuit Sarasin (buckwheat)...the two without chocolate are savory, all would be nice with wine.

I also went next door to the chocolate shop and purchased the 75% Mendiant Pistaches Sablees (chopped pistachios)

The pistachios are not chopped, so delicious!

Bummed that the chocolat staff that offered me a sample didn’t wrap it up for me like the biscuit staff did…(I didn’t want to take off my mask to taste the sample.)

And then I walked about 5 minutes to Bakery Bank.

I purchased their curry pan, this was wonderful! Still crispy even after bringing it home!

It was filled to the gills with curry, a little spicy, chunks of meat, even a little crunch from some fukujinzuke, would get this one again.

I also tried their cinnamon roll! this was delicious too.

A little different from most cinnamon rolls, this was flaky and cinnamon-y!

For dinner, I also purchased  their pate sandwich, so I could have it with some wine.

It was cloudy all day and the wind was super fahreezing, but I was glad to be out and about.

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Since we would be staying in Kyoto on Friday night to attend FIL's memorial service the next day, Satoshi let me go earlier to go holo-holo (gallavanting).

I was lucky to get to see Mount Fuji on the way.

It was my first time back in Osaka since we moved to Tokyo

My first stop was Chocolaterie Coco which I had only learned about after moving to Tokyo, apparently he has been in business since 2015.

Since Friday was the day after White day, choices were kind of slim.

Still I was able to pick out 6 bon bons to try.

Rocher praline (noir), truffes au calvados, pistache, champagne, coco no 8 and tanzania 75...1620 yen (tax included)

All were delicious, love!

I want to try his baked items next time

And then I walked through Honmachi to see all sorts of architecture that were featured on a J-drama

Stumbling on a lot of more things along the way.

In Kyoto, I went to Matsuhiro Shoten and bought a couple of gamaguchi purses

I'm glad they survived the pandemic

And had a very late lunch at Le Bac à Sable, it had been about 8 years since the last time I ate here.

They don't have a lunch menu anymore, so I just had a cheese quiche (which I heated up with their toaster), pain au chocolat and iced coffee...980 yen (tax included)

I'm glad they survived the pandemic too

And then I went up the street to Chocolaterie Hisashi

I picked out 6 bon bons (miso, caramel chocolat, sake, praline pistache, matcha and yuzu)...2700 yen (tax included)

All were delicious too, love!

Loved the caramel chocolat macaron too...475 yen (tax included)

And then I went to Nishiki Market, because I saw something online that said Torisei, which has been in business for over 100 years, sell bentos.

Unfortunately, they only had foods on sticks...(I actually think the info online was wrong)

These days Nishiki Market is definitely not the place to be...way.too.many.people.

I was able to get teriyaki chicken from Torisei that was pre-cut...800 yen (tax included)

super meaty and flavorful

similar to the teriyaki chicken I buy at Shinanoya

And then I walked down to our hotel

Which had a free 1 hour all you can drink, in the lobby (for guests) between 16:00-21:00

Luckily Satoshi arrived in Kyoto so we could try the 1 hour all you can drink

You need to make your own drinks, and drink them in the lobby, but I think this is a nice ammenity for guests.

You can also order food...cheese iburi gakko pizza did not look too good, but Satoshi said it was okay...1000 yen (tax included)

Thankful I was able to get out to Osaka and Kyoto, the weather was nice and I'm glad I was able to see everything I had planned to.

Chocolaterie Coco

1-5-15 Minami Kuhoji machi

Chuo, Osaka

Closed Mondays & Tuesdays

Hours: 11:00-19:00

Chocolate Hisashi

166-16 Ebisucho

Higashiyama, Kyoto

Closed Mondays & Tuesdays

Hours: 10:30-18:00

Torisei

186 Higashiuoyacho

Nakagyo, Kyoto

Hours: 7:30-18:00

Closed Holidays

Il Verde Kyoto

333 Yorozuyacho

Shimogyo, Kyoto

If you'd like to see photos/videos, please look here

thanks for today

Over the weekend, friend Rona was in Tokyo and contacted me to meet up. 

With life and the pandemic, it had been 11 years since we met up last.

We had planned to have sweets at Henri Charpentier in Ginza but the waitlist was krazy.

So we went to Starbucks Reserve, but the line for seats was krazy there too.

In the end, we ended up buying cakes from Henri Charpentier, coffee and tea from Veloce and then sat in her hotel lobby, chatting and having our cakes.

So much to catch up on.

The Charlotte Chocolat that I had was definitely hard to eat with that teeny plastic fork, but, it was so light and chocolatey! Love!

I hope Rona enjoyed the strawberry shortcake that she chose.

Rona gave me all sorts of chocolates which I can't wait to try.

I'm happy she had some time to meet up and thankful for her friendship.

Thanks for today Rona, I hope you enjoyed your trip and have a safe trip back home.

tree to bar

One of the supermarkets in our area called LIFE, has an organic brand called Bio-Ral (According to their press release, it is a combination of the German word "Biologisch" (organic) and the English word "Natural")

They have exclusive 7 Bio-Ral stores: 2 in Osaka, 1 in Kanagawa, 1 in Saitama and 3 in Tokyo, I want to check out the ones in Tokyo, but would need to ride the train to do so, so I am happy they sell a few products at the LIFE supermarket in our neighborhood.

Like these Tree to Bar Organic Chocolate bars.

I had heard of Bean to Bar chocolates, but this was my first time coming across Tree to Bar chocolate

According to the info I found online, it implies that the chocolate maker has complete control over how the cacao was grown, processed and that the chocolate itself was made in the country of origin.

The maker is located in Hokkaido, and used Organic Peruvian 70% cacao with golden berries and pink salt respectively.

Of course pictures on the package were deceiving, the one of the golden berries had a little more berries on the bar...

it was my first time trying golden berries which tasted like really dry raisins...meh.

The pink salt was slightly detectable, but was nothing special 

I did enjoy the chocolate and glad I got to try these.

They also have a cacao nib version, so I'll get that one in the future.

les cacaos

For Christmas, I purchased some pre-made foods from the supermarket, and these "cakes" from Les Cacaos.

It turned out that this "cake" didn't actually have any cake in it...it was just a rich chocolate mousse filled with a raspberry filling and "glazed" with a 72% madagascar chocolate ganache.

So good!

Will need to go back after March to try their ice creams...

thank you

Big thank you to my Instagram friend @yumyumtofu for sending me all these local Canadian chocolates.

Can't wait to try them soon!

theo & philo

I recently stumbled upon these interesting sounding chocolates by Theo & Philo.

They are a bean to bar maker in the Philippines and their cacao is also from Philippines.

The green mango and sea salt was a 65% dark chocolate bar.

The mango was a bit undetectable so I was a bit disappointed.

The pili nut and pinipig was a milk chocolate bar.

I had to look up what pili nut and pinipig were.

Pili nut is a type of nut grown in the area and pinipig is a rice.

This was similar to a puffed rice with nut bar.

The chocolates were creamy and delicious.

I'm glad I got to try these and hope to find more chocolates coming in to Japan during this time of year.

maison du bon

Back in May (I think), we won a giveaway by Maison Du Bon, a luxury online shop for French products.

Since we were allowed to choose any of their gift boxes, we chose the chocolate one...bien sûr (of course)

It came with all sorts of chocolate goodies, a tote bag & an apron.

There were also description cards of each item with interesting tidbits of the people who make the food items.

Since our weather was quite warm when the box arrived, there were some items that were "deformed"...

even though some were "deformed", everything was still edible and delicious!

(it is hard to tell from this photo, but the chocolate was coated with a bronze/copper-ish color...

The box mix for fondant chocolat, went against my "rule" for baking (50 grams of butter and 1 egg)...using 110 grams of butter and 3 eggs...eep!

Still, this was so rich and luscious!

There was also a tiny pot of chocolate fondue which I'm gonna save for later this year...

Merci Maison Du Bon we enjoyed everything !

good cacao 33.8

While in Matsuyama, we stopped into Good Cacao 33.8, the first bean to bar chocolate maker for this area.

Apparently 33.8 degrees is the temperature (in Celsius) that chocolate melts at and 33.8 is also the north latitude of where Dogo Onsen is located in Matsuyama.

We picked up two bars to try.

The crushed almond is 70% cacao with crushed almonds. The cacao comes from Haiti.

I thought the almonds had no flavor, but I liked the chocolate...a little bitter and fruity

The second bar was a 70% cacao from Vietnam.

This one had slices of iyokan peel (the citrus of the area).

I think this chocolate was fruity also.

I'm glad we got to try these and it made a nice souvenir from the area.

I hope more bean to bar places will catch on in the years to come.

Good Cacao 33.8
20-14 Dogo-yunomachi
Matsuyama, Ehime
Phone: 089.934.4833

chocolate season

With Valentine's a week away, chocolate season is in full swing.

I didn't check out Salon du Chocolat (Osaka) this year, as the space that they hold this event at is so teeny and it is always so krazy crowded!

I hear the Salon du Chocolat in Tokyo is now being held at a huge convention area called Tokyo Forum.

I am still hoping we can check out the one in Paris soon!

The other week though, I did check out Hankyu's chocolate fair...

Patisserie Sadaharu Aoki's canelés in plain and chocolate. I enjoyed the chocolate one more as it was tender, the plain seemed a bit overcooked and hard.

Osaka Tsuruya Hachiman's chocolate dorayaki...chocolate is mixed with sweet bean paste...the chocolate flavor was super light.

Kamakura Ca.Ca.O.'s dark chocolate tarte...super rich! The crust was flaky and the inside chocolate pudding was really rich and chocolatey.

Over the weekend, I dragged Satoshi to try this...Es Koyama's soft serve.

Ethiopia Blue Nile Coffee paired with Peruvian Piura 63% chocolate. We enjoyed this. It wasn't too sweet nor were either flavors overpowering.

It was nicely balanced.

Love this time of year...

ocho

When I was in Hawaii, I came across OCHO candy at Target.

OCHO stands for organic chocolate.

I debated between their coconut and peanut butter candies.

I got the coconut.

The chocolate bloomed a little because my luggage was in 90-something temps when it landed in Osaka.

Still, this is good. Lots of coconut and I like that they use organic ingredients.

I hope to try some of their other versions next time I'm back in Hawaii.

theo chocolate

Got to try these Theo Chocolate Salted Almond Coconut Bites. Kind of like Mounds candy but palm free, soy free, fair trade and non-gmo.

a bit pricey at close to $3, but I like that they were packed with coconut and that they use a semi-dark chocolate.

I'm glad I got to try this.