Luckin Coffee's Daifuku - Salted Egg Yolk, Black Sesame, Matcha Adzuki, Tiramisu, Sea Salt Cheese, Blueberry Bliss
I had been impressed by previous attempts trying Luckin's desserts, namely their cheesecakes and strawberry daifuku, due to the relatively pure ingredients (few artificial additives or preservatives), low price, convenience and great taste balance. So when they launched a new red and green flavor for Christmas - Matcha Adzuki Daifuku, I thought I'd try it along with the remaining untried flavour, Tiramisu Daifuku. I also tried Sea Salt Cheese Daifuku, Blueberry Bliss Daifuku, Salted Egg Yolk Daifuku and Black Sesame Daifuku on separate visits. Currently, my favourite is the Tiramisu (which is very unfortunately no longer available) and the Black Sesame.
1. Matcha Adzuki Daifuku
First off, the matcha one. Actually, the green tea flavor wasn't really matcha, as real Japanese matcha is more grassy. It's more like the Chinese jasmine woody green tea type of tea flavor.
The azuki was firm and Japanese style (light woody fragrance) as opposed to Southeast Asian style (which has more of a thick dark, nutty and toasty fragrance).
I didn't particularly like this dull bitter green tea and sweet shallow azuki combination, so the flavors weren't nice.
But as with the other flavors, the daifuku skin was extremely soft and stretchy, like freshly made authentic Kyoto yatsuhashi mochi.
The major disappointment for me was that the cream was quite fake, unlike the other flavors. As you can see from the ingredients list below (hopefully you can read the small text after the automatic image compression), they used non-dairy cream. As a result, it was too heavy, a bit stiff and greasy. Not nice at all. (I already felt something was off before reading the ingredients list, so I don't think it's a cognitive bias.) (Click the photo to enlarge.)
2. Tiramisu Daifuku
In contrast, the tiramisu flavor was excellent and saved the day. Besides using real fluffy whipping cream which has the natural light fragrance of milk, they also used rum and real cheese. Comparable to top notch restaurant desserts in taste and quality. I know in real tiramisu they use kahlua, and I couldn't taste the rum much, but if you ignore the name, the overall taste and experience was really good IMO.
The cocoa and coffee powders blended perfectly for a flavourful daifuku skin.
It also has the super soft stretchy yatsuhashi mochi-like quality.
And check out the ingredients list - pure cheese and whipping cream was used. (Click to enlarge.) And the list is much shorter than the matcha version above.
This one was an exceptional treat for the price. If you have parties you could buy these en masse for a great experience.
Verdict: The tiramisu daifuku is top notch and comparable to top restaurants' or patisseries' quality in taste. The new matcha one isn't worth trying IMO. I hope the matcha one is an exception and that Luckin doesn't lower their quality standards with new offerings.
3. Sea Salt Cheese Daifuku
This cute blue daifuku was released at the same time as the matcha one, but it was sold out then, so I only got to try it recently. Doesn't it look so cute with the blue colour? Like one of those anime slimes.
Despite the interesting name, it felt more like a cookies and cream cheese filling, and wasn't particularly interesting. It did taste quite natural and wasn't too sweet. The sweetness and saltiness felt equally balanced, so that was good.
However, the cookie bits were quite mashed, so instead of seeing distinct lumps of cookie crumbs, it was just this brownish cream cheese paste. There was also barely any crunch or bite to any slightly larger crumbs either, so it wasn't a very nice addition, save for a vague chocolate cookie taste (like Oreo). I wish they had focused more on the pure savoury cheese flavour, like their Hanjuku Cheese Cake.
So I would recommend just ignoring this and going for the Tiramisu Daifuku instead.
Nonetheless, it turns out the ingredients were relatively pure (click to enlarge), despite debuting at the same time as the bad matcha one. They used actual cream and cheese, and there's no sight of vegetable oil on the list, although I don't know what they put in their cookie mix. So if you prefer the chocolate cookie and cream cheese taste over tiramisu, this is a decent alternative to try.
Check out the pleasant and cute purple colour this time. =) On the label, this was accurately labelled as blueberry mousse daifuku.
The skin was the same good quality as a first-rate mochi - really soft and pully as usual without sticking to your teeth.
The filling tasted like the mousse version of a berry ripple ice cream, so there was a nice berry flavour with comforting creaminess. However, it somehow reminded me of raspberry ripple ice cream, rather than blueberry.
The ingredients seem relatively pure as well (click to enlarge ingredients list below), disregarding the texture modifiers. They used blueberry jam, and interestingly also added cheese, which probably contributed to the fullness and creaminess.
5. Salted Egg Yolk Daifuku
I think out of all the flavours, I can say that this is by far the most interesting one, because who would have thought of blending salted egg yolk with mochi? I think the closest similar creation I can think of might be in the realm of egg custard snow skin mooncakes, but the typical egg custard's flavour is quite different from salted egg yolk.
The other thing I loved about it was the bright happy yellow, that's similar to the smiley face emoji yellow. The filling was actually slightly paler than the mochi skin.
Overall, the taste was good, but I would say it is more subtle than intense compared to say an egg custard steamed bun or bao (or liu sha bao). It was less sweet and also slightly less salty than the majority of intense egg custard desserts and pastries, and unlike typical Chinese egg custard pastes, this one leaned more savoury than sweet as is expected of a salted egg yolk filling.
But the good thing is that the salted egg yolk's cured eggy and yolky flavour was distinct, and I loved that. In a sense, it might appeal more to a cultured nuanced palate due to how it relies less on sugar and salt, and more on the actual food's flavour.
There was no curry leaf or spice taste, unlike some of the local salted egg yolk offerings.
The texture of the filling was also very interesting. It was not like a cream and so was different from the other daifuku above, but was more like a very smooth praline paste from a top tier chocolatier that has been put in the fridge. So it seems solid to the bite, but then immediately becomes creamy and melty in your mouth. This is quite special. And at first I thought there might be a bit of waxiness as it melted, but if anything it was similar to how natural cocoa butter feels. Think of it as a slightly more solid nama chocolate (like the Royce variiety) but in salted egg yolk flavour, wrapped in a mochi skin.
Note, however, that the daifuku is served cold, so this texture was when it was chilled. If you wait until it is room temperature, it might turn into a more lava custard type of consistency.
The ingredients list above also seems quite pure (click to enlarge). They used real cream. I'm not sure if the salted egg yolk paste contains other things besides the egg yolk itself. Also interesting is that they used pumpkin puree, which could have helped with the amazingly happy yellow colour, and cheese, which might have helped with the smoothness, creaminess and savoury taste. They also had white bean paste, which I wouldn't have guessed from how the texture felt.
Overall, this is an amazing and unique snack. I would say it is my 3rd favourite flavour so far, and not the top only because the praline-cocoa butter texture of the filling was a little bit unexpected hence weird to me. But I might decide that I like it on my 2nd try.
6. Black Sesame Daifuku
This was something I enjoyed because it had the usual intense fragrant black sesame taste, and that is always a good pairing with mochi in my opinion.
But what stood out to me was that there was something particularly rounded and full about the black sesame filling, besides it being intense and fragrant.
Upon studying the ingredients list (click to enlarge), I would say it is due to the butter that they added, which is highly unusual because Chinese black sesame desserts tends to be paired with Chinese cooking oil rather than butter which is more often used in Western pastries.
It was this use of butter in the black sesame paste that makes this flavour rank as one of my top 2 favourites out of all their daifuku offerings.
Check out these reviews of unusual Luckin drinks
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