These Morinaga Choco Balls were amongst the wide assortment of Japanese candies given to me by my friend Michael. It took me a while to find the name of these. The Morinaga logo is fairly clear in the top left corner (they make the pretty ubiquitous Hi-Chew candies), but the Choco Ball 40th Kyorochan seal is harder to notice. I wish I knew what Kyorochan means – maybe Choco Balls are celebrating a 40th anniversary? If so, then I’m not surprised that they’ve been around for so long. One taste of these Choco Balls had me addicted.
The Choco Balls are basically a crunchy chocolate cookie inside a shiny white chocolate coating – think Whoppers, but with different flavors. Usually I don’t enjoy white chocolate, as I find it way too sickeningly sweet, but here, it’s delicious. Like many Asian chocolates, the white chocolate shell has a creamy, fresh milk essence that’s refreshing. Maybe that’s why that toucan-looking thing on the box has a dairy cow print body.
The balls are perfectly-sized for popping, making it easy to get addicted.They’re smaller than Whoppers but bigger than M&Ms, and wonderfully, uniformly spherical. The clever packaging has a built-in spout near the top, and I found myself constantly reopening it to pour more Choco Balls into my hand so I could pop them in my mouth. I wish they came in a bigger box, as mine was all too soon emptied. An OMG for sure.
Could you tell me where I’d be able to get these? They look so good! Thank you very much.
The original “choco ball” is a chocolate-covered fried peanut. There are several variations and Kyorochan’s body is different for each.
“Chan” is a suffix added to names to denote affection (the suffixes are “san”, “kun” and “chan” – “san” is like Mr. or Ms.). It’s a diminutive like adding “y” to a child’s name (e.g., Booby). I think Kyoro is just a name and means nothing.
When I lived in Japan several years ago, this was one of my favorite candies. I saved the proof-of-purchases and sent them in to get a Choco-balls tin filled with plastic toys. I still have the tin.
Natsukashi, ne!
Hi there, my name is Michael Davie, I appeared in a Morinaga Chocoball commercial shot on Australia’s Gold Coast in 1994 or ’95. I’ve always wanted to get a copy of the commercial. If there’s anyone out there who thinks they could help me get hold of the commercial, please let me know: michael@michaeldavie.com
Thanks
Michael
Wow this brings back good memories – I lived in Asia for a long time now I live in the UK. I think that Asian confectionery is a lot more exciting then western style – yum yum cant wait to see my parents in July – they live in Hong Kong and I will be filling up my sweet jar for my return visit.
I was watching the video rap de chocobo and it said chocobo originated from this I want it so bad it looks delicious where to buy in the us or online
Chocoballs have cute TV commercials too
http://www.japansugoi.com/wordpress/morinaga-chocoball-tv-commercials-in-japan/
I know a site where you can buy them:
http://www.nekochanstore.com/