Morinaga Black Sugar Choco Balls

A big thank you to my friends over at J-List for sending out this candy for me to try. In case you don't know, in a nutshell (or a choco ball in this case), black sugar is the Japanese equivalent of brown sugar.

And, as I have written about 493795 gillion times, I am a huge fan of brown sugar.



I loved the packaging. Japanese candy in general tends to be presented in fun ways, and this was no exception.



The candies themselves are little orbs that are slightly smaller then a Whopper. There is chocolate biscuit inside and a smooth, glossy chocolate shell. The outer chocolate is very waxy. (To be fair, because the label is entirely in Japanese, which I do not read, it is very possible that it is a "chocolaty" coating rather than real chocolate.) The coating layer is fairly thin and the chocolate doesn't so much melt as seize up in your mouth.

I think the black sugar flavor was meant to appear here -- there is a rather distinct taste, but it's not black sugar. To me it tasted sorta like rum extract...fake rum extract, at that. As you get to the end of the outer layer, there is a faint ending flavor that is sorta, kinda like brown sugar. Kinda. But not really.

Having never had Japanese black sugar, I am unsure if that is actually the normal flavor of black sugar or if this is just Morinaga's interpetion.



What I did like was the biscuit centers. The biscuit tastes like a cross between the chocolate flavored Pocky or Fran sticks and the 100 calorie Oreos. It has more of a cocoa flavor then a true chocolate flavor. It's malty and there's a hint of salt.

This biscuit with a Pocky or Fran covering would really rock.



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