Yuraku Kyoto Black Thunder Chocolate Bar

Kyoto Black Thunder puts the matcha in the coating rather than the filling, which is the decision that defines it.

Most matcha confectionery works the flavour into a cream or a biscuit; here the cover chocolate itself is matcha, made with two Uji matchas, so the bar comes out deep green all the way round and the tea is the first thing you taste rather than something arriving underneath.

Uji has been Japan’s benchmark tea region since the Muromachi period, and it sits just outside Kyoto — which is why this is the Kyoto edition rather than a generic matcha bar.

The cocoa cookie underneath was reformulated to sharpen the finish: a matcha coating needs something bitter rather than sweet beneath it, or the tea reads as flat.

The product is supervised by Bijuu, the Kyoto confectioner behind Otabe, the city’s best-known nama yatsuhashi — a credential printed on every wrapper.

The tagline translates as the biggest shock since the Ōnin War, a joke about the fifteenth-century conflict that burned much of Kyoto to the ground, which is the kind of reference only Kyoto would make about itself.

Sold in Kyoto and the wider Kansai region, in 12-bar and 20-bar boxes.

About this item
Item Name : Kyoto Black Thunder
Brand : Yuraku Seika
Item Form : Semi-Chocolate
Allergens: Wheat, milk, soybean
Number of Items : 12 Counts, 20 Counts (Box of 1)