Musée Du Chocolat Théobroma, Diable

Sunday, I started with this small item, which I got as my 4(+1 for a cake-off win)th cake from Musée Du Chocolat Théobroma, though most past purchases have been via their Cocoa Store shop nearer Yoyogi Park. This is Diable and is just what it looks like, chocolate custard on a chocolate puff pastry. It was definitely good, which is both better than I expected of the item just based on the concept and actually the second best "cake" I've had from this shop, so I was satisfied. 

Jean-Paul Hévin, Verrine Chocolat Menthe

Monday, I first went and got cake from Jean-Paul Hévin, as well as pick up knives from Isetan. It's verrine season, which is not my favorite, but I've allowed them as fresh cake and JPH doesn't have as many new cakes as I want. This time I got the Verrine Chocolate Menthe. I don't like mint in general, at least with my chocolate. Chocolate mints are usually pretty bad, except as a sweet way to consume mint. Still, I expected it to be better than the coffee one.

For exercise, before doing my indoor muscle training (excluding legs), went out to do some minor loops related to my recent neighborhood course. I did the little (600 m) Akasaka 3 loop, near Akasaka-Mitsuke Station, and did the Akasaka east loop next to Tameike clockwise correctly and varied the existence of a couple coffee shops, a Tulley's and a Starbucks, that give me an excuse to add a couple loops to the east and call the three a new clump, so I don't need to include the Akasaka east loop in the clump with the huge main Akakasa loop, which means I don't have to finish confirming it until I get to some clumps that are closer in.

I cake the verrine and it started like others, since I don't mix it up, but work my way carefully through the top chocolate mousse. When I got the mint part and mixed it in, I couldn't even identify it as mint, though there was a change in taste that harmonized with the chocolate. Partially in relief that the mint didn't destroy it, this seemed like the best verrine yet, so that I almost would call it great, but I'm not sure that I really need to have this particular one again, just my expectations for future verrine has improved and I'll call it definitely excellent.

I'll lump in Tuesday, since I forgot to take a picture, but I went to Théobroma(who supply Cacao Store) and got their Chocolat Classique. It's on the dry side of the classic chocolate cake spectrum, but not very dry. It was good but not remarkable. This is actually an improvement on the previous two cakes from there, which made me put off visiting, despite designating their signature chocolate cake as great. BUt it means that it's not at the top of the quite good group, so it won't be the one that will be a priority to explore to possible replace the low ones in the excellent group.


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Cake-off: Bien-être's Framboisier over Cacao Store (Théobroma)'s San Juaquin Dos

Thursday, having already had three weekday cakes, I ran again for cake-off research, this time to the Yoyogi area, where I had more success. Cacao Store promised to have their (actually, Théobroma's) San Juaquin Dos through Saturday. Bien-être admitted the possibility of something, but probably not Framboisier, which they had in stock at that time, but it was too late to go back to Cacao Store. 

So Friday after, after failing again elsewhere, I visited both and got the desired cakes, moving up the cake off by one day. I suspect that the Framboisier was left over from the previous day, but some cakes age better. No running Friday, just cycling. These are both pretty standard cakes, which is why I designated them great to begin with, but this time I was not convinced that San Juaquin Dos really belongs, though it is excellent as a dense chocolate cake that probably also can survive more than one day. More importantly, Bien-être had several new cakes on Friday, so I hope they will still have them when Christmas cake season ends.

Saturday I got my flu shot, so I took it easy. I still went out by bicycle to buy some chocolate for baking, take a picture Lotus, a café in Jinguumae that does cakes until 4 am, and got a Pain au Chocolat from Shibuichi Bakery. The pastry wasn't that impressive, though it was still somewhat good.

Sunday, I had repeats of cakes and no running. JPH cakes are still excellent.

Monday, I went for a long run to add a bunch of loops to my neighborhood course by doing a one-way neighborhood course run, which is taking a lot of time to update (partially because I found mistakes from last time I updated it to add loops). I don't usually try to combine photo-taking with the first such run, but I wanted to make use of the opportunity. I'm working on the path west from Roppongi Hills to connect up to loops that I previously thought I could only get to by a longer way circling around from the north. It was about 2 hours of running, plus walking and taking pictures. At L'Atelier du Pain, there just south of Roppongi Hills, I got a Pain au Chocolat. Though it's not looking so symmetric, you can see on the left that it's got proper layering and that it's well baked, so actually it was excellent. Usually I never go to Roppongi Hills, so it's not that convenient a shop, but it's at about the 1 hour mark, so next time I go out for a neighborhood run along that route, I can stop there again.

Cacao Store, Exotic Edamame

Wednesday, feeling fine despite Tuesday's long run, I did a run out to Bien-être, where they did not have any of their seasonal cakes, so nothing new for me to try. Rather than reserve something for another day, I finally followed up on the cake-off win by the Cacao Store (Théobroma) in Tomigaya, Shibuya-ku. My choice there was between Exotic (or maybe Exotique) Edamame, which is coconut and I suppose edamame (immature soybeans, usually eaten steamed, in bars) though I didn't look that closely, and an orange cream puff, so I went with the more traditional cake over the puff. I walked back mostly, because of carrying cake and just in case my body needed the rest, checking out a landmark in Harujuku, which I rejected as an ice cream place, which I don't want get into.

I've had great coconut cakes, though it's not my favorite flavor and this one did not have much else going on. It was still okay, but that's a pretty low level of appreciation, so I'm not even going to bother cross-posting to Twitter.

Cake-off: Cacao Store (Théobroma)'s San Juaquin Dos over Viron's Bonaparte

After more than two years, visiting Viron looking for previous great cakes finally paid off Friday, when I say that Bonaparte was brought back. I rate this as great but never did a cake-off, so that became the new priority. Prior to that, there was actually running, in the form of a one-way neighborhood run that got as far as revisiting both the Minami-Aoyama--Nishi-Azubu loop (which goes past Esola the Lab, where I got black cheesecake recently) and the connected Nishi-Azuba Northwest loop, which goes by the temple Choukoku-ji, as the main landmark, and is a neighborhood in which I've seen people out waking their (full-sized) pig on a leash a couple times. Note counting stops for stretches, it took about 68 minutes, after which I walked home. No cake or pastry, as I was banking them for the weekend.

Saturday, I did a cake-off, cycling, again resting my feet where I could. I stopped to take a few photos of, for example the entrance (since there seemed to be a guard and it's very private looking) to Central Tokyo Church of Perfect Liberty, which is a Japanese "new religious movement", started by a Zen Buddhist priest.

Viron opens early, so I went there first, choosing the Shibuya location because it aligned with my initial photography goals, and got Bonaparte, which is a chocolate cake flavored with prune. I took it home, did some other shopping, and then went out to Bien-être, where I found that they had canceled business, presumably because they were not finished with their renovations. My back up was Cacao Store, very close, where I got San Juaquin Dos (actually by Théobroma, like all their cakes), which is straight chocolate cake, pretty much, and their star attraction, seems like.

Both of these cakes involve, well, more cake than my usual choices: no caramel, mousse, cream, crunch, or nuts. My first reaction was, is just cake really great? But they convinced me of their merits over time. Initially, Viron had the edge, with its extra interesting flavor, but the Cacao Store chocolate cake, with its thick layers of ganache, won me over by the end. Next time a trip to Bien-être for a new cake fails, I know where to go.

In the afternoon, I went out again by bicycle for additional exercise and photos, covering the rest of a hatagaya--Honmachi loop for a neighborhood course (and finding a few flaws that needed fixing), as well as the rest of the north side of the Hatagaya--Motoyoyogichou--Nishihara--Tomigaya--Uehara loop, though one shrine was closed, so I would like to go back.

Lots of seasonal cakes appeared in September in the top shops, but I'm not going to sweat it, and just take them in order (of my original evaluations), so I hope that JPH's chocolate tart sticks around for October, so I can get it for a second-round cake-off.

Cacao Store (Théobroma): Tarte Berries

Went to Bien-être, but, no surprise, Friday evening they were sold out of the newer cake items in the lineup, so I went for a second cake from Cacao Store, the nearest shop I wanted to follow up on. The cakes are double-listed with Théobroma, which is reasonable since Cacao Store's focus is bean-to-bar chocolate, not cake. The only choice was the Tarte Berries, which is self-explanatory, at least with the picture. I walked back, still not that interested in running with cake, at least not in the evening heat. My expectations were low, and this tart failed to meet them. The fruit quality was reasonable, although blueberries (or whatever) aren't very flavorful and the base tart didn't have anything good going on in terms of crust or filling (there is custard, obviously, but this was very dry for a custard tart but not good as a butter tart). It was still ok, but "ok" is not okay with me, so I won't be back probably unless their first cake, which seemed great, wins a cake-off round.

Cacao Store (Théobroma): San Juaquin Dos

Defying the Sunday forecast that Monday was the violently hot day and the rest of the week would just true summer hot (30-35 degC), every day has been hotter than the previous this week and it looks like tomorrow is more of the same.

Nevertheless, I went running to Bien-être, where they had nothing new for me, so I headed down to Cacao Store in Tomigaya, Shibuya, where I got San Juaquin Dos, which actually comes from the Théobroma shop, which several blocks south. Now I know. Their closing hours are the same, I think, so it doesn't matter which I go to. Cacao Store is a little Bean to Bar & Chocolate Bar shop, whereas the other is an older shop on a larger scale, whatever that proves.

Anyway, in some ways this is a pretty basic chocolate cake, with high sugar glazing (to keep moisture in, of course). It was definitely excellent, and I'm really not sure how it is not as good as the best other chocolate cakes, so I'm going to call it great and put to the test, though I'm not in a hurry. However, as a cake shop, there was not much on offer there, just 3 other items (none chocolate), so I'm not sure that this shop can rise very high in the rankings. Also, I've yet to buy cake from Théobroma, so I'll have to see whether they actually have different things there (I know Théobroma has pastries, which Cacao Store doesn't).

I think I'm to try Bien-être again tomorrow, so maybe I'll find out, since the next nearest backup isn't so close and Théobroma is easily on the way. I'll go by bicycle, I think, so I might have time to get to some place that closes at 7 p.m. instead, such as 365 Days near Cacao Store, which has pastries and over 2000 photos posted on the main food rating site, so maybe I should try something; anyway, I've put it on the local neighborhood map, so I'll have to learn a new route.