Lu Glico: Mikado (white chocolate)

Product name: Lu Glico: Mikado (white chocolate)
Purchase details: £0.69 for a 70g box (Tesco Superstore)
Calories: 11 per 2.3g biscuit
Country of origin: UK

Ah...Lu Glico: Mikado (white chocolate). Regular readers won’t be surprised to know that I’ve always preferred these to the milk chocolate version.

These ‘biscuits coated with white chocolate’ (55%) were made by Mondelez and came in a cream box. The overall concept was the same as the milk chocolate but, in terms of appearance, the ‘wonderfully creamy white chocolate’ provided a much paler colouring, particularly against the inner biscuit.

The aroma combined a mild but creamy white chocolate with rich tea biscuits, and the resulting taste was basic but delicious – the pretty thick chocolate was really sweet and milky but the biscuit’s flavour was also stronger than normal, and this was lovely too.

The texture was also as crispy and smooth as ever and so I thoroughly enjoyed this guilt-free snack.

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 7.5/10
Texture: 7.5/10
Overall score: 7.38/10

Lu Glico: Mikado (milk chocolate)

Product name: Lu Glico: Mikado (milk chocolate)
Purchase details: £0.69 for a 75g box (Home Bargains)
Calories: 11 per 2.3g biscuit

Country of origin: France

I seem to have a habit of reviewing the original version of a product after I’ve already looked at some of the variations. In this case, although the Daim and King choco (praliné) may have seemed more interesting types of Mikado, I was very happy to go back to the first one I ever tried: milk chocolate.

These ‘ultra-thin, crunchy biscuit sticks coated with wonderfully smooth milk chocolate’ were made by Kraft Foods and came in a simple white box that included an illustration of the product. I won’t go over the basic concept again as I did this with the Daim variety but it goes without saying that I was more than pleased with the low calorie count!

Almost half of each stick was taken up by the chocolate layer (49%) which was spread evenly and wasn’t too thin either. The aroma was standard but good – chocolate biscuits!

The biscuits themselves were the usual plain and crispy kind. The chocolate that coated these felt nice and smooth on the tongue and also provided a lovely chocolate flavour that included a sugary element. The lack of bumps on each stick’s surface meant I was also able to revert to my preferred method of consumption – gnawing them like a beaver!

There’s no pretending that Lu Glico: Mikado (milk chocolate) are essentially chocolate biscuits but their great format and lack of calories make them a big hit with me.

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 7.5/10
Overall score: 7.25/10

Glico Pocky: Milk flavour

Product name: Glico Pocky: Milk flavour
Purchase details: £0.65 for a 25g box (Sida)
Calories: 120 per box
Country of origin: Thailand

I’ve heard of quite a few varieties of Pocky over the last year or so but have never been lucky enough to find any on sale – I’ve just had to stick to the UK’s Mikado re-branding! In the end, I managed to get this box of ‘biscuit sticks coated with milk flavour confectionery’ on my first ever visit to an oriental food store. I’m shocked that it took me so long to set foot in one (I just don’t normally pass them on foot!) but I’ll definitely be checking them out in future.

The box was a bit bashed on purchase but I liked the imagery of a white cloudy sky with illustrations of a cow, milk, and the biscuits. I was also pleased to see a more interesting foil wrapper on the inside, featuring the Glico logo, rather than being plain silver.

These biscuits had been imported by ASCO Foods Limited and had a delicious scent that was like a cross between white chocolate and vanilla ice cream. They were coated in quite a thin, creamy yellow coating and so it was possible to see the biscuit’s markings through this outer layer.

To try and familiarise myself with the flavour, I sucked the first piece of biscuit I tried and, to be honest, I wouldn’t recommend it! The coating was really waxy and didn’t melt at all. I resorted to rubbing at it with my tongue and it just had a weird, slimy feeling which wasn’t great. It didn’t really taste of much either!

Chewing was definitely the way to go. Initially, I thought the product tasted like dried banana chips which, whilst nice, wasn’t at all what I’d been expecting. However, a milkier element did come through in the aftertaste, and it was at this point that I realised how bland milk actually is! I love it to drink but using it as a flavour for something else just didn’t give the tastebuds much to get excited about.

Despite this, there was enough going on for me to still enjoy my first try of Pocky. The main flavour soon developed into the biscuit itself, rather than the coating, and whilst the product was only slightly sweet, I liked how this contrasted with an almost saltiness at times.

Texturally, the biscuits had a dull crunch, and the waxy nature of the coating wasn’t an issue when chewing.

I certainly wasn’t put off Glico Pocky with this Milk flavour variety and I’m hoping the only way is up as I, hopefully, discover some of the more exciting offerings available. This type did have the bonus of containing 3% calcium, although I found it strange that it was listed as an ingredient!

Appearance: 7/10
Aroma: 8.5/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 7/10
Overall score: 7.38/10

Glico Mikado: King choco (praliné)

Product name: Glico Mikado: King choco (praliné)
Purchase details: £1.39 for a 51g box (Tesco)
Calories: 128 per 25.5g six biscuit portion (21 per biscuit)
Country of origin: France 

I was very excited to find this new variety of Glico Mikado from Mondelez International. As the name ‘King choco’ suggested, these biscuit sticks had a bit more going on than normal Mikado and, as a result, were more calories. However, they were still a nicely low-calorie snack.

I loved the imagery of the melted chocolate being poured onto the green box’s logo, and the raised chocolate rings on the picture of the treat looked like a cool little feature too. Designed for ‘chocolate lovers’, these praliné  ‘crunchy biscuit sticks’ were simply described as ‘chocolate with hazelnut flavour’ on the front of the box, but reading the back revealed that this was achieved by an infused chocolate coating  (47%) beneath the ‘lovely milk chocolate swirl’ (21.6%) that finished each piece off. What a fantastic amount of chocolate!

The packet was designed to provide two portions but I prefer to eat Mikado biscuits one or two at a time to use up spare calories. However, this didn’t in any way diminish my enjoyment of them.

The chocolate had a more matt appearance than the box had suggested, and the swirled chocolate was unsurprisingly more uneven and less perfect, but I loved how thick and dark the coating looked against the white biscuit core. Even better was the rich aroma that was emitted, incorporating cocoa, milk and nuts, yet remaining mouth-wateringly sweet.

As I’ve come to expect, the biscuit was pretty standard and plain, but this provided a great basis for the chocolate casing. I just loved the depth of the chocolate and how it provided a softness before reaching the crisp centre. This really thick feature was something that’s not present in the more standard Mikado varieties and it meant that you could choose to enjoy a few seconds of melting if preferred.

The chocolate had a dark chocolate taste with hazelnut undertones. It was really flavoursome with a slight bitterness and, to me, it tasted like a more sophisticated and less nutty Nutella. 

I’d noticed on my receipt that these biscuits came up as ‘kids’ biscuits’ but, if I’m honest, I think these were too good for children! Their flavour felt a bit too dark and grown-up for kids, particularly when considering the sweeter alternatives such as Lu Glico: Mikado (Daim) which seem like a more appropriate after-school treat.

Parents should definitely keep these King choco (praliné) biscuits for themselves!

Appearance: 8/10
Aroma: 8/10
Taste: 7.5/10
Texture: 8/10
Overall score: 7.88/10

Lu Glico: Mikado (Daim)

Product name: Lu Glico: Mikado (Daim)
Purchase details: £0.69 for a 70g box (Home Bargains)
Calories: 11 per biscuit
Country of origin: France

I love the Mikado brand – so few calories! It’s been a while since I’ve had space in my snack stash for them, though, and I’ve only had this Daim variety once before, so I decided it was time to buy them again.

These ‘biscuits covered with caramel flavour milk chocolate with caramel pieces’ came in an eye-catching yellow box that featured red branding for both the Mikado and Daim logos – I particularly liked how the Daim brand had been used to look like an explosion from the bomb in the background. The box also had images of Daim chocolate, as well as the long, thin biscuits – I could totally see the reason for the name ‘Mikado’ which is another word for the game ‘pick-up sticks’.

The clever thing about Mikado biscuits is the way one end is left free of chocolate to avoid messy fingers – I guess the result is not too dissimilar from corndogs! Going by the picture on the packaging, though, the rest of the sticks were coated in a decent chocolate coating and knobbly caramel pieces. Despite these contributing to 43.9% and 5% of the product, respectively, I did find the reality looked a little less impressive – the chocolate layer was very thin in places and the surface wasn’t as bumpy either. However, they were still attractive, and I liked the contrast between the biscuit’s golden surface and white innards.

This particular pack had been made by Kraft Foods and, on opening the inner foil wrapper, released a buttery caramel scent. Up close, a milky chocolate aroma was noticeable too. I was pleased that the caramel infusion was noticeable in the chocolate’s taste, with the overall flavour being quite deep – an almost burnt sugar taste against the sweet chocolate. In contrast, the biscuit was very plain, and was like an unsweetened rich tea.

These Mikado (Daim) were lovely and crispy to chew, and the chocolate melted away very quickly too, if preferred. However, this did leave behind the smooth but hard biscuit which, quite unusually, didn’t really dissolve. At 11 calories a pop, though, you couldn’t really go wrong with these!

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 7.5/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 7/10
Overall score: 7.25/10