Really, Shirogane has a nice feel. Very genteel. There are copper-covered spaceships everywhere, and up the streets on the northeast side of the main street, big, fancy buildings abound. And cat-themed delivery trucks.
Aeschbach’s Japan store seems to be a franchise operation – and if I remember correctly, the woman working there was the same as last time I stopped in (more than a year ago). I wouldn’t be surprised if she took a trip, or had a family posting, to Switzerland, and fell in love with their wares. The shop has a lot of Swiss touches and cute gift ideas.
Jesus, did I just write ‘cute gift ideas’?
But the main thing is the chocolate, and this sample plate shows their varieties. My top two choices were out of stock, which almost made me leave, but I soldiered on. There’s no fixed delivery schedule, she says, which makes me doubt a bit on the freshness. Of the chocolates I had, that three-colored one bottom left was very tasty (chocolate almond pastes) while the heart (hazelnut) and cylinder (dark chocolate) were a bit strong and artificial-tasting to me.
In sad news, the reason that I went here was that I had chocolate-brain after finding out Oriol Balaguer has closed the Shirogane boutique (except that it’s still listed on the website). Those were the best flavored chocolates I had last year, and I was actually sorta happy to get to shake his hand at Salon du Chocolat. If you needed chocolate-themed gifts in Shirogane, I’d go across the street from Aeschbach to Erica – decent quality, made locally, cheap at the price.
Still, if you were passing by and couldn’t cross the street…
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