At Whole Foods the other day, they were sampling these Hot Chocolate Mochi Krunch Spicy Brown Rice Crackers in Dark Chocolate made by Impressions Fine Foods the brainchild of Karen Shintaku who owns a gift basket and catering company. She and her daughter, a Pastry Chef, developed this "hybrid fusion treat" as they call it, and it totally rocks! The second I bit into these things, I wanted more....and more. The Mochi's are a tad bit bigger than the size of a nickel, and seriously, I have to be careful around these Mochi Krunches because I could eat half the bag lickety split.
The outside is Dark chocolate and the chocolating is done by artisan chocolatiers so you'll see inconsistencies in batch to batch because of the handcrafting. I thought that was really cool. In the picture above, I broke one of the Mochi Krunches in half so you could see the inside of it because this is where things get different.
The inside is made of Thai Glutinous Rice and Thai Brown Rice for the crunchy part, AND they add a hint of chili. So, when you take a bite you'll get the chocolate taste and crunchy sound first, but then the chili kicker comes right after. It's like a little surprise in your mouth because you don't see it coming. They call it a "Zensation" and yes it's kind of a corny word, but it does fit.
The chili kicker though is very mild so those who don't like anything hot will be okay with it. The chili adds a nice hot zest just ever so slightly, if I may be food cliche for a moment. Calorie wise is a nice story too. You can eat 20 pieces for 180 calories. If you like, you can get the complete nutritional breakdown.
I highly recommend these Hot Chocolate Mochi Krunch treats. They would be great to eat at the movies, for airplane snacks, or as a small dessert in a picnic lunch.
