Hojicha Biscoff Castella by Muji Cafe from their Festive Menu

This was the other dessert I tried from Muji Cafe's festive menu - their Hojicha Biscoff Castella cake. They layered hojiocha castella sponge, hojicha chantilly cream and Biscoff (speculoos) cake and crumble. 

Hojicha is Japanese tea made from roasting their tea leaves, and paired with milk such as in hojicha latte, the mellow and dark fragrance from the roasting comes out beautifully, like a cross between an oolong tea latte (or bubble tea) with a rich dark roast mocha. 

As such, I thought the idea of pairing it with speculoos was excellent and mostly well-executed. The caramelised and slightly sweet flavours of the speculoos was a perfect complement to the woody dark fragrance of hojicha. I can imagine this duo tasting excellent if turned into the usual range of desserts like cookies and puffs.

Their hojicha castella and cream were excellently executed. The castella was moist and very soft. The cream was smooth and brought out the mellow fragrance of the hojicha well, while adding the milky fullness of the cream, like a top notch hojicha latte.

The speculoos was standard good fare, with a small point of improvement: I thought its flavours did not come out as strongly and was a bit drowned out by the hojicha. They seem to have used a bit of speculoos spread, but increasing the amount might have helped the speculoos and hojicha flavours mix more to bring out the true magic of the idea.

For more on their festive menu, I did a review of their Gingerbread Apple Prune Roll and some comments on their Christmas 4-deli set here.