Sakuraco

Box Four - June 2021

Part Two

May 24th 2021

At Sakuraco, they're offering prizes for photos of their boxes taken on sunny days. It's the end of autumn, and winter has arrived early! It's been raining on/off for the past 24 hours and my feet are freezing, I'm wearing a fluffy dressing gown and the heater is on. But enough complaining: without further ado: the thrilling conclusion to my review of Citrus, my fourth Sakuraco box...

My picture wall is growing!

Freddy the Messenger by The Daily Christine

but I think of him as 'A Froggy went a-wooing'

The Food (part two)

Hojicha Warabi Mochi

Cha always means 'Tea': in fact, the British occasionally refer to it as 'Char' - apparently it's about how the product reached UK: 'Tea' (or, originally, Tay) if exported from the Fujian province in China via the Portuguese; 'Char' from 'Chai' etc. when coming from India/Sri Lanka. Hoji-cha is a green tea that is roasted instead of steamed, and supposedly has a nutty, caramel taste. I like the packaging - the design is similar to the previous warabi mochis, but done in a clear plastic, which adds a mod feel, and done in deep autumnal colours.

As you can see the deep caramel colour is not served well by the dark tray, and makes it fade into the background. The smell is oddly ricey, like monaka wafers, and the provided kinako also has a slight tea scent, as well as it's usual roasted character. I think if I liked tea, I would like this - it is strongly flavoured with the Hojicha, unlike the previous jelly-mochis which were rather tasteless. The texture is the same, and that's never going to change. I can't say I enjoyed this mochi, but I did enjoy it more than previous jelly-mochi (there doesn't seem to be a collective term for these two 'mochi-like' desserts. So far, it seems fair to say I like true mochi, but not the 'mochi-like'.

Cocoa & Orange Fruit Tart

I'm not sure when 'Cocoa' started to replace 'chocolate' in common parlance, but I don't like it. If it was being used as a synonym for dark chocolate, or a less sweetened 'chocolate' offering, I'd be ok with that, but it just seems to be a bit pretentious (We don't use chocolate, we use cocoa! Which is odd, because cocoa is so much easier to using in cooking - but, I digress). The package is very cute and simple - no question that you are getting something with citrus, as guaranteed by the cute graphic representations of oranges tastefully scattered. The smell is of a jaffa, which, if you're not familiar with Australian chocolates, is similar to an oversized smartie/m&m: round with a red/orange crispy shell and orange flavoured chocolate inside. Fair enough, really! The pastry is delicate and cakey: the filling is much more solid. It doesn't tastes very chocolately (is that why they say cocoa, instead?), but there are generous pieces of peel, and it's all quite elegant.

Uji Matcha Cake

According to the tasting notes for the Uji Matcha Castella that came in Box One, 'Uji Matcha is the highest grade of matcha' - like that castella, it also has azuki baked into it but over all the shape is just a bit sad - like an old, worn sneaker.

So sad. In order to cheer him up I did a little styling - a cute rubber in the shape of a sakura blossom. I don't usually style food with stationary, but needs must when the devil drives.

Flowers make everything better. I guess the first thing to note, is this is a really large sweetie.

It's not a full sized cake, but it's definitely no cupcake. The package is matter-of-fact, telling us exactly what we need to know - it's a cake, it's matcha, azuki beans will be involved and it will be green. There's no subtlety involved, and none needed. This is not a castella, so it's not quite as moist, but its still lovely and soft. Again there is that licoricey-herbal note that I found in the castella of box one, but haven't found in later matcha-flavours (perhaps it's an element of Uji-matcha?). I also don't think this is as strongly flavoured as the first one, but then my memory might be wrong. One end (the left if you're interested) has less azuki, and I prefer it - especially after getting bean flavoured one - like eating a pea!

Mochi Azuki Jelly

This one sounds like a good one on paper "Mochi wrapped in a dessert that is, it's self, another mochi" (with apologies to James Corden/ Phil Bourne*). Now, technically, this is a jelly not a Mochi/Jelly-Mochi (I assume, I can't read the ingredients), but you know what I'm trying to say. The packaging is very cute, with pink spots which contrast with the white mochi, and the dark azuki.

I'm going to say, right here and now, I don't like this (I am trying!), and mostly it's the look - I'm too young to have lived through the style, but this looks like "Jello-Salads" - jelly with diced carrot, peas, asparagus stuffed olives, hard boiled eggs, SPAM - post-war *hurk*travagazas. Take this to a Hallowe'en party, tell them it's eye balls and bloodclots, and you'll have some suitably grossed out tweenagers. Like previous Jelly-mochi, there's no real taste, buckets of texture, the flavour is softly sweet, and the whole beans is just odd. I think I could have dealt with it, if it had been a layer of azuki paste or mixed through, lightly mashed (I get that azuki sinks and mochi floats - which would have been good to know before I attempted my cocktail ... still experiments and all that). While eating, I carefuly excised my mochi but after being floated in amniotic fluid for so long the mochi (Did I mention they look like hard boiled eggs? Consider it said) seem to have lost it's chewy resiliancy. It also tastes sweeter than the jelly.

*For Heaven's sake, if you haven't watched Wrong Mans, stop reading now! This will keep!)

Plum and Wasabi Okaki

Okaki are rice crackers made from dried mochi that has been deep fried (A bit like using up stale cake in chocolate truffles or trifle). I love the packets, how they're same-same-but-different (and love that you get two packs), proof positive that good design is both an art, and not limited to fancy materials, colours or shapes.

My first thought on opening the packet was "Smells like peanuts".

They also look like peanuts...

She's like a hound with that nose of hers.

There's also the strong sulpherous scent of wasabi, and when I taste them (so crunchy after jelly!) there comes the strong taste of wasabi. It activates quickly and is quite hot (not quite uncomfortable, but spice-heat is notoriously personal) but it quickly fades to leave a warm mouth feel and pleasant prawn/fish tastes, which is sweetish but definitely not fruity (I'm looking at the plum tea in box two...). These are really delicious!

Salt Yokan

I Love the pants off these wrappers - they remind me of what six-year-old-me refers to as 'Japanese Cool Guy Jackets', but Grown-Up me knows are called Happi. The strong geometry of the genjiguruma coupled with the contrasting colours of the red, blue and ochre, along with the white, make this a tour-de-force of art and design. I especially love the opening mechanism - there's a little arrow on the seam, you pull it and hey Presto! the top half of the wrapper comes off! It comes undone so easily, no breaking, no ripping, unlike every other version of this feature I've seen (and, if you think it was a fluke, the other package opened just as gob-smakingly easily!!). They come/came joined together, so it's cute to think of a giant conveyer belt of yokan and wrappers, getting pinched together (I love 'How it's Made' videos), Yokan is basically azuki paste/ anko thickened with agar to make a very sturdy ... wagashi. Probably the closest Western sweet would be licorice. Yes, think of this as an azuki flavoured licorice, glossy, pliable and only slightly sticky (ignore the fact that licorice is a flavour: this joins the ranks of raspberry, strawberry, kiwi and mango 'licorice'). It's a smidgeon softer than licorice, and it cleaves of a piece, with no stretch. Because it's salted, and brown, I kept thinking that it would be stretchy like toffee or caramel. It's lightly sweet, lightly salty, very smooth and slippery - no real stickiness, and no real taste of azuki. As for what "Waraku no Sato" means: Not. A. Clue. Google-Translate thought 'Waraku no" could be 'straw', but gave up at the whole phrase.

The afternoon was getting dark so I had to turn the light on

- makes the tray look glittery!

You can just see that genius opening arrow

Matcha Infused Genmaicha Tea

Genmai-cha (roasted/browned rice tea), is traditionally made with a lower grade of tea-leaves than sencha, and roasted rice is added to give a new flavour (fun fact: 'Genmai' means 'brown rice', but Genmai-cha is made with roasted white rice [i.e. it has become brown] because brown rice roasts too dark). Like the sencha in Box Three, the genmai-cha is served in a simple package with a pyramid tea bag - that's quite clear from the packaging - it lacks any real design sensibility, but the orange does contrast nicely with the tea in the cup.

The dry tea has sweet, hay-like notes, along with rotting leaves (I calls it how I smells it) - and the bag looks to have very fine, very dark green leaves intermingled with coarser yellow-green leaves. The Tasting notes suggest serving it cold: brewed hot and then chilled with ice. I'll try anything once (that's a total lie).

With the ice-cubes added there is a simple, ricey smell (which is to be expected). The taste is bitter, but not unplesantly so, with a roastiness. As the drink continues the bitterness builds at the back of the throat, then subsides.

All sorts of thoughts fill my mind:

Am I getting used to the bitterness of green tea?

Can I acquire this taste?

Do I like Genmai-cha?

Is it not brewed enough?

Do I like cold tea?

I'm called away for some time, and the tea is stone cold: it's so bitter, I have to throw it away.

Sigh.

Moomin Books

That's all Folks, the Box is done, and I give it 10/10, again for taste, satisfaction, beauty, value for money, all those good things:

This time the box had savories, which was very nice but (still) no Sakuraco Exclusives. One thing I did find surprising, is despite the box's theme being citrus there was no use of tachibana as a decorative motif (yes, I know it's usually a winter motif).

Again, there was a good number of doubles (for the record, I ate them watching the Grand Final of Lego Masters - Scott and Owen were robbed, robbed, I tell you!), and best of all, no headache!