12.20.08
Meiji Coffeebeat
Heh. Coffee Beat. At least it isn’t Coffee Beet which I wouldn’t put past the Japanese to also make. My…errr…Beats seemed to have suffered a little cold weather blooming which is unfortunate but not unexpected given I ordered them mid November. I won’t count that against the Beats when I give my final rating but I will say that if it has affected them any then Coffee Beats are even better than I think they are. Which is pretty darned good.
My expectations were that these would be some sort of chocolate covered espresso bean done à la Japanese. However, one bite and that myth was busted. Instead, Coffeebeats are bean shaped coffee flavored chocolate blobs with a crispity outer coating shell. The crispy is more of a thin sugar crispy layer rather than a dipped M&M like coating which gives them a fun micro crunch. It’s also a very sweet candy coating layer.
My expectations also did not include finding a ring of cute cartoon critters when I pulled off the top. Hee points for unexpected anime.
The next layer is not so grand and just seems to take up space until you get to the chocolate blobbit. I would recommend chomping your Coffeebeat rather than sucking on them because that middle part between sweety crispy coat and delicious coffee flavored chocolate blobbit is a little tasteless and quite disappointing. However, if you don’t take the time to dissolve your Beats in your mouth then you don’t even notice that underwhelming middle layer.
The chocolate blobbit is a stiffer chocolate than I am used to seeing come from Japanese candy but it’s still a just a tad softer than a semi-sweet chocolate chip. It is also nicely coffee-rific and what gives Coffeebeat its decent coffeeness. To tell the truth, if Coffeebeat had as much caffeine as chocolate covered espresso beans I’d be eating Coffeebeat on the long road trips up north. If there’s one drawback to the chocolate covered espresso beans it’s the bean shrapnel you have to deal with when you nom them. I’m not so fond of that. Coffeebeat has all of the flavor and none of the grit of a chocolate covered espresso bean, even if it might be slightly less coffee intense than an actual bean. I don’t think there is a way around that, given that there are no beans in Coffeebeat, but it sure tries its best to emulate chocolate covered espresso beans.
It gets the job done too. Quite well may I add.
Rating of 3.5 wasabi peas out of a possible 5 wasabi peas.
