Japanese chocolate: what to try and what it is

Three organising principles that European markets treat as minor. Limited-period flavours released and then withdrawn are a standing category rather than a promotion. Regional exclusives connect to a gift convention of bringing something back from where you travelled. And Valentine's Day concentrates an enormous share of annual sales into a short window with its own vocabulary.

The practical consequence for a visitor is that a great deal of what is worth trying is not permanently available, and that the interesting products are frequently in a station or an airport rather than in a chocolate shop.

Matcha and hojicha, yuzu and sakura, black sesame, soy, miso and sake lees. Most of them are carried on white chocolate, and that is a technical decision: white chocolate is cocoa butter, milk solids and sugar with no cocoa solids, so it carries delicate aromatics that dark chocolate would bury.

Matcha chocolate specifically stands or falls on the matcha. Good matcha brings umami and sweetness alongside the bitterness; culinary-grade matcha in quantity brings only colour and a flat bitterness.

The one category to try if you try only one. A firm ganache cut into dusted cubes, sold refrigerated, formulated to melt on contact. Japan's labelling code defines it by minimum chocolate and cream content, which makes it one of very few confection names anywhere that means a specific composition.

It is a fresh dairy product with a shelf life measured in days. It does not travel well, which is why it is a thing you eat there rather than bring back.