February 2025, Kisaragi Yawame (Gentle)

Well, I’m not exactly a huge chocolate lover, so take this with a grain of salt, but I have to say: European chocolate is better than Japanese chocolate.

Among the more affordable and widely available chocolates, I really like Finland’s Fazer chocolate. It’s properly sweet without that weird artificial aftertaste you sometimes get. My favorite is the “Geisha” variety, which is paired with hazelnut cream—it’s straightforwardly delicious. Back in the day, you could eat as much as you wanted on Finnair flights, but those days are long gone.

When it comes to luxury chocolate, I’m a big fan of Switzerland’s Läderach. A friend sent me some, and that’s how I first discovered it.

They make these large, rough-cut chocolate slabs, kind of like a mix-and-match assortment. I visited their shop in Geneva once, and they had these huge 50 cm square slabs of chocolate in all kinds of flavors.

You’d pick out what you wanted, and the staff would break off chunks, toss them into a bag, weigh them, and ring you up. The process is casual, but if you’re not careful, it’s easy to rack up a crazy bill.

Still, Läderach chocolate is amazing—there’s nothing flashy about it, but it’s just so obviously good.

Being standard yet totally different is quite the achievement, don’t you think?

Anyway, I’m writing all this because Valentine’s Day is coming up.

Is the whole “homemade is best” vibe still a thing these days? I can’t get on board with that.

Maybe this will ruffle some feathers, but I feel like the whole “I’m making homemade chocolate” thing is more about loving the idea of yourself making it than about whether it actually tastes good.

Don’t get me wrong—spending time and effort for someone is a lovely gesture. But honestly, if you’re going to put that much effort into it, I’d much rather see some creative chocolate research. Or better yet, don’t worry about spending time on me at all—just get me a convenience store chocolate sampler set. That’s perfect. Actually, no—how about we just scrap Valentine’s Day altogether?

Maybe it should be a day for high schoolers to enjoy, and once you’re an adult, you’re off the hook. Wouldn’t that be nicer? Something you grow out of. I think that’d be kind of wonderful.

2025.2 Yosuke Sakai