Monday 23 December 2013

One Food Experience: Royce' Chocolates

Royce' is a Japanese brand of chocolates with international presence in the US, India, Russia, and South East Asian countries such as . Their only store in India is at the High Street Phoenix Mall in Mumbai.

I recently came across their Nama Ghana Bitter Chocolate (Nama means fresh in Japanese) and was simply stumped! The experience of buying (as heard from the friend's stories) and eating (as felt from my own experience) are one-of-a-kind and are totally worth having.


Royce' Nama Ghana Bitter Chocolate

When you go to buy this chocolate, they give it to you with a frozen cooling gel pack in the bag and seal it up so that it maintains the temperature required by the chocolate till you get home and can store it in the refrigerator. And apparently, the gel didn't completely melt off till the next day despite Mumbai temperatures and being out for about 2 hours at least during the afternoon. This in itself shows how seriously they take their chocolate!

Now, let me come to the experience of having this chocolate. The chocolate is cut up into 20 bite-sized pieces on which there is a sprinkling of cocoa powder. The chocolate has a rich cocoa smell, laced with hints of cool - frozen, fresh cool and not minty cool. You pick up a cool piece of the chocolate (yes, it is best eaten straight out of the refrigerator, you do not need to bring it to room temperature unlike other chocolates) and you immediately notice that it still has a soft texture with silkiness from the cocoa powder.


Royce' Nama Ghana Bitter Chocolate Up Close

Then we come to the actual eating part. I ate a couple of pieces of it and I enjoyed it better when I popped the whole  piece into my mouth. The texture despite being cold was not frozen. It had a lovely creamy yet solid softness that melts slowly on your tongue. As it melts, it releases a dense, not-to-sweet cocoa flavour, which unlike the name of the chocolate is not bitter. The only thing that was marred the experience a bit was the feel of the cocoa powder in the mouth. It was kind of dry that took away from the moistness and freshness of the rest of the experience of the chocolate.

With the coolness of the temperature and the fresh, softness of the rich cocoa flavour, it is quite an experience! I can keep describing it and using more adjectives, but it is an experience best had rather than heard of.


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