Gouté de Roi Cacao (Cocoa Rusk) by Gateau Festa Harada

I absolutely loved Gateau Festa Harada's original butter rusk (Gouté de Roi), and prefer their non-chocolate coated rusks such as their Hors d'oeuvre Rusk Sommelier, so this cocoa version of their original rusk got me excited. 
Gouté de Roi Cacao by Gateau Festa Harada
At first, I thought that they just added cocoa powder into the dough, but looking at the ingredients (photo below), they actually use chocolate, and they knead crushed chocolate and cocoa nibs into the dough before baking it and turning it into rusk. The chocolate melts into the dough during baking presumably, so it turns the dough a dark brown, while all you see after baking are the cocoa nibs that remain.

Like with all their rusks, they add some salt, spread butter on the bread and coat it with granulated sugar

Tastewise, it had a delightful fragrant malty taste of cocoa with a hint of buttery nutty notes, in addition to the usual butter of course. It didn't seem dark like a dark chocolate. (This was why I thought it was cocoa powder at first.)

Naturally, this fragrant malty flavour with the nuttiness complemented the creamy and rich butter, salt and sweetness of the sugar well for a very balanced taste overall. 

The cocoa nubs also added an extra crunch of a different texture to the granulated sugar and the bread's crispy crunch. 

Overall, this is a nice variation on their original butter rusk, adding a rich and complex depth to the butter and wheat.

Ingredients list

Finally, here is the ingredients list (click to enlarge).
Gouté de Roi Cacao by Gateau Festa Harada - ingredients list
Packaging

A photo of the front packaging for reference. It is individually packed like all their products, so it is a great souvenir to distribute to friends after returning from Japan.
Gouté de Roi Cacao by Gateau Festa Harada - individual wrapping

Comments

Post a Comment