MATCHA by Les Gourmandises de Miyuko & BESCHLE

I know one should never judge a book by its cover, but it seems like that rule doesn’t apply to chocolate. When I was in the Japan Centre in London the other day I caught sight of this:

This is MATCHA by Les Gourmandises de Miyuko & BESCHLE, and it’s absolutely delicious.

The matcha (抹茶 / powdered green tea) chocolate has a gorgeous dark green colour, a beautiful smell of green tea, and a perfect slightly bitter/tangy taste. It’s quite rich, and even I couldn’t eat a whole bar in one sitting.

Matcha, the chocolate packet tells us, was created over 800 years ago by Buddhist monks as a meditational drink, and is known today as the rarest and most premium of all tea varieties in Japan. Matcha is high in antioxidants, which means it has lots of benefits for your health.

This matcha chocolate, with its gorgeous graphics, was produced by Swiss chocolatiers Sara Hochuli of Les Gourmandises de Miyuko & Pascal Beschle of BESCHLE. Les Gourmandises de Miyuko was inspired by the Swiss fashion label ‘Ukiyo5’, and in 2011 a cafe/tea room of the same name was opened in Zurich (source). The cafe looks fantastic and I’d love to visit there! (Bristol could do with its own branch…) Sara Hochuli is an illustrator and designer, and her graphics inside the cafe, on her website, and on her products are clearly inspired by manga and Japanese culture.

Les Gourmandises de Miyuko

(Image source)

The chocolate is on sale in the Japan Centre now and online. It’s expensive at £4.94 per bar (in fact, I didn’t look at the price until after I’d bought it – oops!), but so worth the money if you compare it to other top-end chocolate. This is chocolate for adults – something to treat yourself to, or perhaps buy for a special present.

(Image source)