If you love the soft and chewy taste of mochi, you like chocolate and strawberries AND you're on a tight budget, there's a sweet snack you can get for just around 45¢. Impossible, you say? Not if it's a Tirol.

Since they first appeared on the market in 1979, Tirol chocolate squares have become ubiquitous in Japan. The inexpensive little chocolates are found everywhere from supermarkets and grocery stores to convenience stores and station kiosks.

The next time you stop into a Japanese convenience store, look for Tirol's latest offering in their namamochi 生もち (fresh mochi) series: いちご大福 ichigo daifuku, or strawberry daifuku.

A daifuku is a traditional Japanese sweet made with a soft mochi wrapper and a sweet red bean paste filling. However, as the image on the wrapper above indicates, a strawberry daifuku is the same with a whole strawberry stuffed inside as well.

While real strawberry daifuku use fresh strawberries, Tirol uses freeze-dried strawberries in their chocolate. After all, it only costs 42 JPY + tax, or 46 JPY, which is US 45¢ at today's rate.

Still, they're real strawberries, so you'll get that authentic sweet and tart strawberry taste, combined with chewy mochi and chocolate, which is a great combination and a perfect little pick-me-up. You can even buy two for just one 100 yen coin.

These namamochi ichigo daifuku Tirols go on sale from November 16th.


By - Ben K.