Ryoura, Reverie

Got out by bicycle between the morning and afternoon rains kicked up by the freak (for its west movement across Japan) typhoon and went to Ryoura, which is my number two priority right now, after Bien-être, which I just visited and is accessible on weekdays (though I might have to go a weekend, as getting to the new cakes at the end of a workday is becoming more difficult).

Went with the Reverie this time, which I've had my eye on. Obviously, this is a delicate type, but the outer shell held up well from the road vibration, even if the whipped cream on top suffered a little bit. This is rose-flavored red fruit cake, very light and creamy inside as well. This is much lighter than the types of cakes I prefer, so my initial thought was that although this was definitely good, it doesn't rate higher. But I don't need heavy cakes every time, or strong flavors in my light cakes every time, so I decided that it was fair to call this excellent, but certainly I would recommend it more to someone who likes light cakes (like the ubiquitous shortcakes).

So Ryoura remains at the top of the quite excellent shops, partially by virtue of my not having sampled as many of their cakes yet, and there is a strong sampling bias. For the same reason, Ryoco is in some sense also at the top of this list (I have two metrics that put different weights on different cake ratings), with only 7 cakes, but since Ryoco almost never have anything available, and even then I think you have to go online and order at exactly the right time, they're a just a remnant that I keep until Ryoco actually closes their shop completely.