Chocola... seriously that is what it is called.

It's nearly Valentine's Day and "chocolate" beers are all the rage in the world of Ji-Biru. Most of these beers are chocolate only by name. The brewers use black patent and chocolate malts to emulate the flavor. Some brewers take the "chocolate" aspect a step further. Enter Shirayuki Brewery and their Chocola Premium: Bitter and Sweet. First, the name is horrible. Chocola? Come on. That is straight outa American advertising in the 50's. This replaces Kirin's Beer Chocolat as the worst named "chocolate" beer.

Chocola is 4.5% alcohol and tastes like the brewer dumped a couple kilos of Hershey's Cocoa in the pot. Seriously, this tastes like when you went to your friend's house to play in the snow and then his mom served you the cheap hot cocoa. Definitely a powdered chocolate flavoring was used in the making of this beer. You know the taste diference between powder and real creamer in your coffee? You get that here. Notice the Hershey's label below. It says "Great for Baking" not "Great for Brewing".

Miyuki said she tasted mugi-cha (buckwheat tea) on the end of the beer and, on second taste, I picked up on it too. This beer is a disapointment from beginning to end. It starts with a whiff of powder chocolate that should not be in beer, continues with a taste of thick seltzer cocoa, moves onto mugi-tea overtones and finishes with a flavor that can only be called grass. Actually, now that I think about it, Chocola is a great name for this beer!

The label says that this company is "since 1550". I hope that their sake is better than this crap. I paid 700 yen for this at Seijo Ishi outside of Nagoya Station. 700 yen! I could have bought almost 3 Tokyo Blacks for that price. If you see a Chocola in your area, tape a 'kick me' sign to it.