This post was written in 2006. Shop details and prices may have changed since then.
The Noir chocolate from Satie, a French chocolate shop in the Ginza Mitsukoshi department store, is my favorite chocolate in Japan.
It’s the only time of year they have a sale, on Valentine’s Day ^_^; Not that that’s why I went… umm… I just hadn’t had chocolate in a while
and felt like some.
A box of 8 for 525 yen. I wanted to buy a bigger box, but they were sold out… so I brought home four of these.
Here’s what’s inside. I didn’t keep them in the fridge, so they melted a little (T_T) I couldn’t eat them like this, so I chilled them in the freezer for a bit first.
But if you can, eat them before they melt. Once they melt, the flavor changes subtly…
Noir, my favorite, is a bitter chocolate. It’s a fresh chocolate (nama choco) that melts away the moment it hits your mouth, yet
it has a slight bitterness that makes you savor it slowly. Unlike plain sweet chocolate or high-cacao bitter chocolate,
the balance of sweet and bitter is something special.
Mitsukoshi was holding a luxury chocolate fair… but they wouldn’t let me take photos… tsk… it was full of delicious-looking chocolates…
Then again, buying them… Valentine’s Day isn’t a day for men to buy chocolate, is it (T_T)
The Armani store on the luxury-brand street between Ginza and Tokyo Station was selling chocolates… the sight of an army of middle-aged ladies lining up to buy them…
A street scene in Marunouchi.