Konbini Kinyoubi: Mochi Chocolate and Mont Blanc Pancake Sandwich from 7-11

Welcome to Konbini Kinyoubi, where every Friday (Kinyoubi) we visit our local convenience store (Konbini) and buy something delicious.

This week our konbini trip was to 7-11, where we got a haul of new treats. Convenience stores in Japan regularly churn out new items, so there’s almost always a chance to try something you’ve never tried before.

To follow up on a previous post where I sampled the Family Mart latte, I decided to include the 7-11 hot latte in this week’s post.

The 7-11 machine has fewer options than the Family Mart machine, only allowing for hot or iced coffee and a hot or iced latte of two sizes. Confusingly, the two sizes at 7-11 are Regular and Large, while the two sizes at Family Mart are Small and Medium. Or it’s the other way around. We’re having trouble remembering because we did this last Friday and I’m writing the post six days later, but the point is they use different sizes. It reminds me of when I used to go into the Coffee Bean and ask for a “Grande latte” and the smug barista would say “You mean a medium?” and I’d scream “YOU KNOW WHAT I MEANT JUST GIMME THE COFFEE!!”

The latte itself was very similar to the one from Famima, but without the added sugar, a more natural flavor but rather bland as it's still just coffee from a machine. After a few sips, I definitely detected less foam and a stronger coffee taste. If you go to a gas station in America and get a latte or cappuccino, you're really just buying a big cup of sugar, so it's nice Japan has something that's not as bad for me as a candy bar. Now, onto all the candy bars we got.

First up is the Mont Blanc pancake sandwich, known here in English as “Pancake with Chestnut Cream.” Until I moved to Japan, I had never had a Mont Blanc, which is a French dessert made with, you guessed it, chestnut cream. From the first bite, I fell in love with the sweet, creamy, airy delicate nature of this dessert. Last year, Paris cafe Angelina sold special Mont Blancs at a department store in Kobe, and we went to get some for Eriko’s birthday.

I know it looks like brains, but trust me, you want this in your face.

They were so delicious I am planning a trip to France just so I can try them again (my wife and mother think we’re going because I love them, so let’s keep the real reason between us).

You might remember that I also love pancake sandwiches from the convenience store, so a combination of the two seemed like a wise investment.

As you can see, the brainy raw meat texture and gray color are still present. Unlike other pancake sandwiches, you only get one in this package, but damn if that one doesn’t look appealing.

It was pretty thick, with big, fluffy pancakes on the outside. And there was quite a lot of filling in the middle too.

Eriko took a lot of good pictures so I used them all.

This last image shows the problem I had with it: along with the chestnut cream was a layer of whipped cream, and that layer was much too plentiful. It overpowered the Mont Blanc taste, leaving me with nothing but whipped cream flavor in my mouth. It was a light dessert and didn’t bowl me over, but I wouldn’t say it tasted enough like Mont Blanc or a pancake sandwich for my taste.

Eriko says: “I like.”

Up next were a trio of matcha mochi chocolates, a nightmare for the spell checker.

The picture on the package explains it pretty well. You’ve probably experienced matcha in the form of a tea, but it’s also often used in sweets covered in green powder with a distinctive taste. Mochi is usually only seen in America either encasing ice cream or as a yogurt topping, but there are many kinds of mochi in Japan. It’s a chewy, stretchy, taffy-like substance made with, of course, rice. It’s available in savory and sweet versions, and we sometimes enjoy entire meals of mochi.

What I expected was a chocolate with a mochi shell and a complete dousing in matcha powder, which I wasn’t looking forward to because I’m not crazy about matcha. However, I was pleasantly surprised.

There’s three because they want you to fight over the last one and destroy your marriage.

While I was expecting a mochi layer with a piece of chocolate inside, this was a solid piece of chewy mochi. It wasn’t too difficult to eat (sometimes mochi can get stuck in your throat) and had just the right level of sweetness.

"Delicious," says Eriko.

There was also only a dusting of matcha so it didn't overwhelm the whole experience and/or leave you with green powder everywhere. Matcha and mochi and choco go well together. I approve of this treat.

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Now we come to the big dog: Hazelnut Black Thunder. In case you haven’t noticed, we tend to cover Black Thunder a lot on this blog, and whenever there’s a new flavor, we try it. This one, like all the others, was delicious.

Oh my. It was like covering a Black Thunder in Nutella. The nuts not only added taste, but a nice crunch. This was decadent and sweet and overwhelmingly tasty.

However, the hazelnut added on top of the Black Thunder taste was a bit of overkill. With normal BT's, I could chow down on an entire field of them. No way I could handle more than one of these, and they're tiny. A wonderful treat to try on your wedding day, but too indulgent to become a weekly staple. The original will always be king.

So that’s our haul from this week. The verdict: 15/10 sugar is wonderful. Until next week, we leave you with the remnants of our day’s work: