Meiji Milk chocolate & Black Chocolate review

piece of Meiji milk chocolate unwrapped

 I am an actual a sucker when it comes to packaging, if a product is bad, all you have to do is package it right, and I will most probably buy it. I guess that's how most people are like. That's why packaging is so important. Also probably why people like things from Japan (other than their good quality and uniqueness of course)

Lucky for me this time, Meiji's chocolates not only have great packaging, but the product is good quality. Meiji or (明治乳業株式会社) is a company established in 1917 in Japan. For those who haven't been to Asia are probably not familiar with the brand, they are huge in Asia, aside from "milk" products like Cheese, milk and chocolate; they also have sports drinks, pizza and baby formulas.

image source: http://www.meiji.co.jp/english/business_guide/

When I saw these on the grocery store shelves, I knew I had to buy it aside from its packaging (hehe). I ended up buying both the Milk Chocolate and Black Chocolate version. The price was reasonable.

Meiji Milk Chocolate

The website introduces this milk chocolate: 

永遠のピュアチョコレート
芳醇なカカオとミルクの味と香りが味わえる、明治を代表するピュアチョコレート。食べやすいひと口サイズです。 

(literal translation - forgive me if there are any errors)  

Forever Real Chocolate

The simple and thick aroma and taste of the milk and cocoa of this chocolate represents Meiji's aroma and texture. This is bite size which is easy to eat.

The milk chocolate version tasted really good, I know that a lot of people complain about Japanese chocolate, but I guess they haven't really gotten a chance to try "real" Japanese chocolate by Meiji. It is different from chocolate from Switzerland as it is not very creamy nor has a strong cocoa taste, but it definitely has a special unique taste that can be very addictive to eat. It also is "light tasting" so you won't have a guilty feeling after eating one too many.

These milk chocolates tasted very classy and basic. I think they used Hokkaido milk (if you haven't and you get a chance in the future you NEED to try it, it is good!), it was a bit sweeter than the black chocolate version.

When you put it in your mouth, it doesn't melt, it is kind of dry, you need to "chew" it a bit (it is quite soft unlike the "Western" chocolates we are use to). It is kind of like breaking the "barrier" once you chew it, it will start to melt.

Meiji Black Chocolate (sorry for bad lighting)

The official website introduces this Black Chocolate as:

コクのあるカカオ感とキレのある後味

華やかでコクのあるカカオ感とキレのある後味が特徴のビターチョコレート。食べやすいひと口サイズです。

(literal translation - forgive me if there are any errors) 

A feeling of strong cocoa lingers.
The strong essence of cocoa and gorgeous bitter taste. A full-bodied strong tasting cocoa is present as an aftertaste, this is a feature of the gorgeous bitter taste of this chocolate. This is bite size which is easy to eat.

I don't know why they called this black chocolate, since to me it is dark chocolate, maybe they wanted to differentiate themselves from "dark" chocolate or they just had a mis-translation, either way, it doesn't affect the taste of this chocolate, so it is ok, whatever they choose to name it as.

There is definitely a strong tasting cocoa to this chocolate. It is still sweeter than the other "dark chocolates" we are used to eating (western ones, specifically Lindt).

Also, like the milk chocolate, it is dry, so you need to chew it. I think this is "drier" than the milk chocolate, so chew more (hehe) it is also less smooth.

Both are very similar, there are "small" differences that make them unique against one another. I would prefer milk chocolate because it tastes much more classier, smoother and milker.

Rating:

milk chocolate: 7/10

dark chocolate: 6.5/10

milk chocolate: http://catalog-p.meiji.co.jp/products/sweets/chocolate/010101/00954.html

dark chocolate: http://catalog-p.meiji.co.jp/products/sweets/chocolate/010101/00939.html

Biore mild foam facial cleanser review

photo credits: http://www.kao.com/hk/biore/bio_washfoam_00.html

I am sorry, I know I have promised to do a review on this product since.... last year. (gasp, how time flies).

Biore facial cleansers have always been my all-time favourite cleanser. They do an excellent job cleaning your skin without damaging your skin. You might have a "squeaky" clean feeling on your fingers and face after (depending on the type of cleanser you choose). But overall speaking, it is considered mild and your face doesn't feel as if it has been totally stripped of all its "good oil".

While visiting Hong Kong a few months ago, when I was unpacking, I noticed I forgot to bring my facial cleansers. I quickly went downstairs to a Sasa or Bonjour (can't remember which one). There were various Biore foam facial cleansers, so I chose the one I thought best fit my skin condition, I believe it was the mild cleanser.

After a 14 hour plane flight, hot weather, and feeling absolutely fatigue, I couldn't wait to clean my skin. When I applied the foam cleanser I instantly felt clean. Upon washing the foam off my face, I noticed that the water in the sink was absolutely covered in oil (I know... eww). My face felt so clean. I felt my skin could breath once again.

What I really appreciate about Biore is it does such a wonderful job as a drug store brand, it is not only affordable yet it does a great job like other higher end products.

Biore Facial Cleansers also last a really long time, while, I was in Hong Kong (meaning, I had to use this every morning, night and some afternoons), it took me 3 months to finish a tube.

I highly HIGHLY recommend this facial cleanser.

website: http://www.kao.com/hk/biore/bio_washfoam_00.html

(this is NOT a sponsored post)

iogo greek yogurt

Despite hearing many great reviews about this yogurt, I was slightly disappointed with the yogurt quality.

I will be very very honest... I don't like this yogurt. I got the Greek Yogurt and it tastes NOTHING like greek yogurt, from the texture to the taste.

First, it is NOT creamy nor thick. It does not the taste rich, it can be considered "watery" (compared to other Greek Yogurts).

I think this is a "fair" yogurt, but it cannot be classified as "Greek Yogurt".

Roasted Marshmallow Ice Cream @ Greg's Ice Cream Review

I didn't take a picture this time, it looked light brown, sort of like the look of coffee flavoured ice cream.

After hearing countless stories and compliments about Greg's Roasted Marshmallow Ice Cream, I decided to give it a try.

I was a little disappointed, I was expecting something more "tasty" and yummy. I guess everyone has their own definition of yummy. Prior to trying this, I was expecting the "roast" to taste "crispy" with a campfire "roast" taste.

Some blogs described the taste as "smokey-sweet just roasted on a campfire flavour."

When I first tried it, my tastebuds were slighty confused, I guess that's why "Roasted" is in its name, it had a scorch taste to its Marshmallow flavour. When I refer to Roast I expect "firewood" roasted taste, I think the marshmallows they used to make the ice cream were over roasted.

I think it is good to "try" but I didn't really enjoy it as much as I thought it would.

read my review about the place: http://simplemomentblog.blogspot.com/2013/06/gregs-ice-cream-happiest-ice-cream-in.html. To see all the "Greg's Ice Cream" reviews I have written, please click here.

Greg's Ice Cream website: http://gregsicecream.com/

Annie's Shells with Real Aged Cheddar review

I have always been a fan of Mac and Cheese foods, so when I found these Shells and Cheddar in Costco, I was very excited. Like most people who are very health cautious, the first thing I did was look at their ingredients list. I read through the ingredients and was impressed. They had hardly, if any chemicals, everything seemed very natural and they claimed they were organic. I wonder how they were able to maintain being so "natural" since most dry "cook it yourself" foods contains lots of chemicals.

back side of box with nutrition information

The instructions were very simple: boil water, put in pasta, after a few minutes drain pasta and make sauce using milk/butter then put in pasta.

I think the instructions were very precise,they did a good job providing instructions that work. When I compared the image to my final dish, they looked really similar. (any one here come across cooking instructions that never worked for them?).

ready to serve!

Once I finished combining the sauce with the pasta, I can already smell a strong cheese flavour. This tasted very delicious, almost like... home made (haha). But I'm serious! It was very good, it hardly tasted like anything that was dried and from a box.

As much as I liked it, I think they should do something about making the sauce creamier. I thought it was a little dry.

Summary:

• easy to make
• very good instructions
• great natural/organic ingredients
• great taste
• slight improvement to creaminess (and moist)

I would give this box of Cheddar Shells a 9/10.

website: http://www.annies.com/

Pistachio Ice Cream @ Greg's Ice Cream Review

Pistachio Ice Cream @ Greg's. Notice how colourful the Pistachio bits are

mhm, that's all I can say to describe how I felt when I first took my first spoonful of Greg's Pistachio ice cream.

Unlike most Pistachio ice creams this one was not coloured green. Instead, it was a white coloured ice cream that filled with bits of "fresh" pistachio, which were very crunchy.

I really liked how colourful the pistachio bits were: green, yellow and brown/purple.

The ice cream wasn't too sweet, but just enough to enhance the Pistachio bits.

I highly recommend it! I think this is going to be one of my favourite ice creams for now. I also noticed that it melts faster than other ice creams in the shop... I'm not sure why though... (the Pistachio bits maybe?)

You won't know what is Pistachio Ice Cream till you have tried this one! And it is good :9

read my review about the place: http://simplemomentblog.blogspot.com/2013/06/gregs-ice-cream-happiest-ice-cream-in.html. To see all the "Greg's Ice Cream" reviews I have written, please click here.

Greg's Ice Cream website: http://gregsicecream.com/

Korean ice cream waffle review

While shopping at a local Korean Grocery store, I came across this, I do not know Korean, so for anyone who is Korean or knows Korean, please kindly tell me in the comments the "literal" translation. I have had a lot of ice cream sandwiches in the past, but never an ice cream waffle. It was a hot day and the packaging was tempting, so I bought myself a pack. 

I was a bit worried I wasn't able to finish one whole "bar" since it looked so big... they made it quite convenient for you to separate it into 2 pieces.

This Ice Cream Waffle is what you would expect it to be, a waffle filled with ice cream. But there is more, it is layered, so right beneath the "waffle" layer there are "chocolate beads", and the chocolate beads over the ice cream.

I think this is a great idea, however, I think they will need to improve on the taste of this treat. The waffle layer tastes very dry and "empty", there is not much substance or flavour to it. the chocolate was a great idea, but in order to make it "taste" like chocolate, they need to 1. sweeten it 2. add more cocoa, the chocolate dots/bits they have hardly have much taste to it, the chocolate wasn't able to melt much either because the treat was so cold, so I was chewing on flavourless chewy cold chocolate. Finally, the third layer, the ice cream, like the other 2 layers, there is not much flavour either.

One positive thing is, it doesn't make you feel guilty even after you have finished the whole bar, since it is not flavourful.

I would rate this 2.4/5 because of the lack of flavouring, however, I think this is a great idea, and they were on the right track preserving the texture of the waffle.

T&T's Strawberry Dorayaki Pancakes review

Dorayaki is a red bean pancake which consists of two small sweet pancakes sandwiching a sweet red bean paste.

The image of the box attracted me to making the purchase of these Strawberry Dorayaki Pancakes. A word of caution, the image was heavily photoshopped and looks hardly like the real thing. I am quite disappointed at this purchase (it was also quite pricey).

Like the original Dorayaki Pancakes, these were filled with a red bean paste. They are called strawberry because they have a strawberry cream filling.

The filling was the only thing I was impressed with since it tasted like "real " strawberry instead of those overly artifically strawberry flavoured creams. The red beans were hard and the pancake didn't taste fresh. It also cost quite a lot for only 2. The packaging made it look like there were 4, don't be fooled by the packaging.

I think T&T needs to work harder to make the pancake stay "fresh" and they need to enhance the flavour of the red bean paste. As I said earlier, I was only impressed with the strawberry cream filling.

味のこだわり Japanese Snack - Aji no kodawari, snack review

After  discovering about those 好きです 北海の味 I discovered, there are other kinds of snacks from the same company (Denroku). These are just as good, so I was very happy, but at the same time, I had to cringe at the price ($7.99/14 packets). They are expensive but they are Made in Japan and they are very high quality. Den Ruku makes really good snacks!

The website introduces them as

"小魚、えび、いかなど潮の香りがいっぱいつまった8種類のおいしさです。"

(literal translation: fully jam-packed with 8 different flavours which composes of small fish, shrimp, squid)

If the other ones I tried were king, these are queen! Actually, they are both good, just that I have already given the "king" title to those already.

Similarly to the other snack, I do not know how they manage to fit 8 different types of "munchies", each with their own distinct flavours  into a packet and each munchy is able to preserve it's flavour without affecting the others. It is truly amazing!

back of package

I do not know why they had only introduced 2 products on the back when there are really 8. It was such a great experience tasting these because each was so distinctive in their own flavour, I never knew what to expect when I put one in my mouth. Here's some I tried Rice "Krispys", shrimp sticks, (when you look at the packaging, there are some with "white" tops, those white tops are actually wasabi! Some are coated in seaweed and others are filled with peanuts.

contents of a random pack

These were very crunchy, except for the fish. The fish was hard... my teeth almost gave in! I think there was too much "syrup" or sugar there.

I hope T & T puts mores of these munchies on their shelves so I can try more! These are definitely worth exploring!


website: http://www.denroku.co.jp/cgi-bin/products/productsdetails.cgi?category=mame&code=0008

McDonald's Angus swiss and mushroom burger review

Angus Swiss and Mushroom Burger

For those who are unfamiliar with Fast Food Chain burger classifications, "Angus Burger" represents a "premium" version of burgers. Most fast food chains in North America offer Angus Burgers which are supposingly better quality and better taste than their regular burgers.

On McDonald's Official website, The Angus Swiss and Mushroom Burger was marketed with the following features:

• thick and juicy third-pound (100% Angus beef patty)
• Special seasoning
• premium bakery style bun
• Swiss cheese
• Savory Sautéed mushrooms

Unfortunately, after eating this burger, I do not think they have delivered what they promised, the bun and Swiss seemed to be the only thing they were able to deliver from that list, these were the thought I had after:

• burger is too dry, there was hardly any sauce
• too much mayo, yet it wasn't able to moist the burger
• bun was well made and very fresh
• mushrooms were very dry and wasn't seasoned (they were fresh, they just were too dry from cooking)
• Swiss cheese taste wasn't obvious, it was also on the dry side.

While eating this burger, I was very frustrated, the dryness of the burger made the burger very "fragile", it was literally falling apart, crumbs of dry meat kept falling and bouncing everywhere after every bite (for your info, I am not a messy eater). The amount of mayo made it difficult to eat as well, almost after every bite I felt some mayo on my lips or cheeks, I think you can imagine the scenario I was in: after one bite, I would have to "clean" my face of mayo then clean the table of meat crumbs.

provided a paper sleeve to hold the buger

I really appreciated how they provided a paper sleeve for you to hold the burger in, I thought it was very considerate and hygienic.

I seriously hope McDonald's can improve on their burger, I have a few suggestions for them:

1. Have a "main" sauce: gravy, black pepper sauce, etc. so this can moist the burger, this will also add flavouring and moisture to the mushrooms.
2. Ease up on the mayo, the mayo didn't make the burger taste better, it just made the burger messier to eat

McDonald's has always tried to improve themselves. They have the money, resources and people to improve this burger. I have high hopes they will take the initiative to improve this burger, so I look forward to their improved "Angus Third-Pounder" burger. But in the meantime, I think I will stick to their classic burgers.

Official website: http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/food/product_nutrition.sandwiches.113.angus-mushroom-swiss.html

Penguin White Peaches (canned) review

If there was a product that I had to name that I felt was a total waste of money, it would be this can of Penguin White Peaches. Korean White Peaches (or any peaches for that matter) have a certain "peach" taste to it, no matter if they are canned or not. Korean White Peaches are known for it's delicious and sweet flavour.

The peaches in this can did not taste like peaches... and the syrup contained too much sugar...

The peaches in this can are exactly the opposite of any peaches/can peaches... don't buy it! They also cost a lot (I forgot the price but I remember it was darn expensive).

Yesstyle extends their free shipping offer to "indefinitely"! (Expired)

I hope you are all having a wonderful long weekend, I certainly had my wonderful share of pure relaxation and lots of shopping (online that is).

Did you make use of your Yesstyle last minute free shipping offer?

If you haven't, don't worry, I logged on Yesstyle today and discovered... they decided to extend their free shipping to "indefinitely!!!!! Absolutely no minimum purchase required!!!!

Who is up for some Free Shipping from Yesstyle.com indefinitely? This is available for both yesstyle.ca and yesstyle.com customers!

I have checked and turns out besides clothing, beauty products, and accessories. This offer is also available on their "lifestyle" products (things for your home like clocks)


(Lisa, I think you and your wallet are in deep trouble now!) ;)

As I mentioned in my previous post, please refer to my friend's Yesstyle Guide, This guide is more catered towards Canadian readers though, but I bet you will learn a lot about Yesstyle (if you aren't familiar with them))

For those who are more experienced, you may view her guide about different brands on yesstyle.