Belgian chocolatier and Japanese confectioner are both tofu newcomers, but can their powers combine for something special?
Godiva is one of those companies that’s so famous for its flagship product that you don’t even have to mention what it is. Tell somebody “Someone gave me a box of Godiva,” for example, and they’ll immediately understand that you’re talking about chocolate.
However, in addition to making chocolate, Godiva Japan is also involved in making tofu.
The Japanese division of the Belgian chocolatier hasn’t ventured into this field all by itself, however. Instead, they’ve partnered with Fujiya…a Japanese confectionary company that also isn’t known for making tofu. However, the tofu the two companies created was so popular that all available inventories quickly sold out when it went on sale last December. With a restock finally happening, though, we were determined not to miss out this time, especially since there are now two types of Godiva tofu being sold, and so we snatched up one of each as soon as we saw them at our local supermarket.
Both of them are types of gomadofu, or sesame tofu, and first up on our taste test list is Godiva’s standard Chocolat Gomadofu. The tofu comes packaged in its own little cup, like an individual-serving pudding, but we decided to get fancy and plate it.
Doing so revealed that there are two layers to this angular yet soft treat. Flipped upside down onto a dish like this, the top section is a layer of milk chocolate cream, and underneath it is a stratum of sesame tofu with dark couverture chocolate (high cocoa butter-percentage chocolate).
We took a bite, and sure enough, this had immediate and obvious elements of gomadofu and Godiva chocolate. The texture is exactly what you’d get with sesame tofu, but the flavor is the delicious and sophisticated sweetness of Godiva chocolate. The overall effect is a little reminiscent of eating chocolate mouse, but with a more substantial consistency with a little extra enticing stickiness to it.
Thoroughly satisfied, we moved on to the new Godiva tofu flavor: sakura chocolate!
Once again, the bottom layer (once the tofu is flipped over onto a plate) is dark couverture chocolate sesame tofu. Now, though, the top is a chocolate cream enhanced with the flavor of cherry blossoms, a salty, faintly floral sweetness. We were just a little worried that Godiva and Fujiya might be pushing the envelope a little too far here, what with tofu, sesame, two kinds of chocolate, and now sakura flavor too, but it turns out that all those pieces come together in such a beautiful harmony that we were very happy we made room for during the bust sakura sweets tasting season that’s now upon us.
Both of Godiva’s chocolate tofu types are priced at 350 yen (US$2.25) and available at supermarkets across Japan. This batch is scheduled to be on sale until April 30, so we’ll definitely be picking up a few more, especially if we need to bring something special to a cherry blossom viewing party later this month.
