Conbini Crimes: Japanese Chocolate Beer

By Manuel Gere

Sapporo (the beer company) and Royce (the chocolate company) have got together and produced... wait for it... a chocolate beer!

It's called Chocolat Brewery, it's a limited edition that will only be available for a few weeks (unless no one buys the stuff, in which case it'll be hanging around on conbini shelves for months to come), and at ¥294 for a 350ml can, it's BLOODY EXPENSIVE.

What do Sapporo and Royce have to say for themselves?

Quote:

"Chocolat Brewery is made from roasted malt and cacao, having the characteristic of aromatic chocolate flavor and bitter taste."

In reality, it only SMELLS like chocolate. It TASTES like stout with an infinitesimally small hint of the flavor of chocolate stowed away in there somewhere, deep beneath a slightly less subtle tone of bitter cocoa, but basically it just doesn't taste particularly chocolate-y.

Granted, the packaging is nice. Chocolat Brewery looks and feels like a luxury product - but even that's just a ruse to try to get you to forget that for ¥100 less you could have bought a Kirin Stout, which has a much more interesting, engaging flavor.

Or think of it this way: for the same price I could have bought a Guinness...

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