Nama chocolate
A refrigerated ganache slab cut into dusted cubes. One of the very few confection names anywhere that carries a compositional definition on its home market.
What it is
Nama chocolate is a firm ganache, cut into small cubes and dusted with cocoa powder, sold chilled. There is no shell. The name refers to the freshness of the cream rather than to anything being raw in the sense the English word suggests.
Japan's chocolate labelling code defines what may be sold under the name, setting minimum proportions for the chocolate content and for the cream. That is unusual: praline, truffle and bonbon are all conventions rather than definitions, and nama chocolate is one of the few confection words that means a specific composition where it is regulated.
The texture is the product. It is formulated to yield instantly and to melt at body temperature, which a tempered shell would interrupt, and it is that softness rather than any flavour characteristic that distinguishes it from a European truffle centre.
- Category kind
- A confection form — this describes how it was constructed
- Legal status
- Legally defined, and defined differently by jurisdiction
- Also called
- fresh chocolate, 生チョコレート, pave chocolate
- Flavour families
- bitter, caramel
- Texture
- creamy, melting, smooth
What the percentage means here
On this product the meaningful figures are the chocolate content and the cream content of the finished piece — not a cocoa percentage. A cocoa percentage, where one is given, refers to the couverture used before the cream went in.
Legal minimums
These differ by jurisdiction, and the difference is real rather than technical: the same words on a wrapper describe different products either side of the Atlantic.
| Jurisdiction | Component | Minimum | Instrument |
|---|---|---|---|
| Japan | chocolate content of the finished product | 60% | Fair Competition Code concerning the Labelling of Chocolate Products |
| Japan | cream content of the finished product | 10% | Fair Competition Code concerning the Labelling of Chocolate Products |
- Japan: The code sets minimum proportions for both the chocolate content and the cream content of a product sold as nama chocolate. The figures recorded here are as commonly reported and have not been passage-verified against the code itself; a reader relying on the exact number should treat it as citation identity rather than as a checked value. The code is an industry fair-competition instrument binding on its signatories, not statute of general application.
- Japan: The cream minimum is what makes nama chocolate a perishable fresh-dairy product rather than a shelf-stable confection, and it is the reason the category is sold refrigerated.
How it tastes
Yields on contact rather than after a bite. The cocoa dusting supplies the bitterness that a shell would otherwise contribute, and the chocolate reads softer and less sweet than a European truffle of similar cocoa content.
Working with it
Keep it cold and cut it cold, with a warmed blade wiped between cuts. It is a fresh dairy product: days, not weeks, and no room-temperature display.
Commonly misunderstood
That 'nama' means raw in the sense of unheated or unroasted. It refers to the fresh cream. Raw chocolate is a separate and unrelated category.
Related
Commonly confused with
- Chocolate truffleBoth are ganache in cocoa dusting, and a rolled French truffle is genuinely close. The shell — where there is one — is what changes shelf life, texture and whether it can leave a refrigerator.
- Raw chocolate'Nama' means fresh and refers to the cream. It is read as 'raw' in the sense of unroasted, which describes a completely different and unrelated category.
An easier starting point than
- Filled chocolateNo shell, no moulding and no tempering — which makes it the achievable first project for somebody who wants to make filled chocolates and is not ready to temper.
Pairs with
- MatchaMatcha nama chocolate is a standard variant in its home market, and matcha's astringency sits well against a high-cream ganache.
Covered in
- Japanese chocolate explainedWhat is actually in it, and how to handle it.
Compared in
- Nama chocolate vs truffleSet against Truffle, which readers frequently believe is the same thing.
An easier starting point
- Dark chocolateNamed on the Nama chocolate record as a place to start instead. Cocoa solids, cocoa butter and sugar, with no milk solids. The percentage on the front adds those first two together and says nothing about their ratio.
Sources
- ChocolateHQ editorial synthesis — ChocolateHQ(citation identity confirmed; passage not re-read)
- Fair Competition Code concerning the Labelling of Chocolate Products — Japan Fair Trade Council for Chocolate, under Japan's fair competition code system(citation identity confirmed; passage not re-read)