Lotte Chococo

Chococo is what happens when a wafer-thin, melt-in-the-mouth biscuit and a smooth chocolate coating decide to team up and cause problems. The langues de chat style cookie brings a delicate, buttery crispness that shatters satisfyingly with each bite, and the chocolate coating ties the whole thing together with a richness that is thoroughly at odds with how light and airy the whole experience feels. It is the kind of snack that tricks you into thinking you are being restrained.

Each box contains 17 pieces, a number that sounds generous right up until the moment you open it. The individually elegant presentation suggests a snack to be savoured slowly, perhaps with tea, perhaps in polite company. In practice it is gone in one sitting with no witnesses and no evidence except an empty box and a vague sense of satisfaction. Lotte have been making Chococo since 1982 and show absolutely no signs of making it less irresistible. Some things simply do not need to change.