{"id":716,"date":"2008-12-20T00:25:04","date_gmt":"2008-12-20T05:25:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quirkspace.com\/jsfr\/?p=716"},"modified":"2008-12-24T20:11:58","modified_gmt":"2008-12-25T01:11:58","slug":"meiji-coffeebeat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quirkspace.com\/jsfr\/?p=716","title":{"rendered":"Meiji Coffeebeat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/quirkspace.com\/jsfr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/coffeebeat.jpg\" \/><br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nHeh.  Coffee Beat.  At least it isn&#8217;t Coffee Beet which I wouldn&#8217;t put past the Japanese to also make.  My\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6errr\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6Beats seemed to have suffered a little cold weather <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ghirardelli.com\/chocopedia\/tips.aspx#Bloom\">blooming<\/a> which is unfortunate but not unexpected given I ordered them mid November.  I won&#8217;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.<\/p>\n<p>My expectations were that these would be some sort of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fantes.com\/images\/5440chocolate.jpg\">chocolate covered espresso bean<\/a> done \u00c3\u00a0 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&amp;M like coating which gives them a fun micro crunch.  It&#8217;s also a very sweet candy coating layer.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/quirkspace.com\/jsfr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/coffeebeatcritter.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nMy expectations also did not include finding a ring of cute cartoon critters when I pulled off the top.  Hee points for unexpected anime.<\/p>\n<p>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&#8217;t take the time to dissolve your Beats in your mouth then you don&#8217;t even notice that underwhelming middle layer.<\/p>\n<p>The chocolate blobbit is a stiffer chocolate than I am used to seeing come from Japanese candy but it&#8217;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&#8217;d be eating Coffeebeat on the long road trips up north.  If there&#8217;s one drawback to the chocolate covered espresso beans it&#8217;s the bean shrapnel you have to deal with when you nom them.  I&#8217;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&#8217;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.<\/p>\n<p>It gets the job done too.  Quite well may I add.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/quirkspace.com\/jsfr\/?page_id=2\">Rating<\/a> of <strong>3.5 wasabi peas<\/strong> out of a possible 5 wasabi peas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,15,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-35-peas","category-coffee","category-sweet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quirkspace.com\/jsfr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quirkspace.com\/jsfr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quirkspace.com\/jsfr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quirkspace.com\/jsfr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quirkspace.com\/jsfr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quirkspace.com\/jsfr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quirkspace.com\/jsfr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quirkspace.com\/jsfr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quirkspace.com\/jsfr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}