Sadaharu Aoki, Chou Ginza Chocolat Pralin, Matcha, and Saya

Sadaharu Aoki has a counter at Ginza Mitsukoshi through August 25th, so I went there last Sunday. I didn't know they would be there that long, and I was buying a snack for two, so I got three special items: Chou Ginza. I say special, because they are different from their usual variety, not being split open, and they have flavors matching their cakes, except the vanilla, though I suppose they have a vanilla mille-feuille. I got Chuu Ginza Chocolat Pralin, Chuu Ginza Chocolat Matcha, and Chuu Ginza Saya. Unfortunately, not very exciting, though all good, and the shop remains in my top three shops for now. Hopefully the vanilla is better, and hopefully they'll have other new cakes soon, either there or their main shop. Under current conditions, they are just trying to get back on their feet, so I can't blame them for doing what they can.

Les Cacaos, Pistache

Went out by bicycle and confirmed a couple sites I had just added to the revised loop south of Shibuya Station, then went as far out as Oyamadai to check the line-ups of a couple shops, and returned east to get cake from Les Cacaos. It's been a while, and the one great cake I've had there has been absent for several years (probably because Cuban chocolate is not so common). This time I got Pistache, which is pistachio and a high amount of cacao, supposedly. Neither made much of an impression separately or in harmonization. This is a soft (sponge) cake, but may with some sort of fruit with seeds, because there was some of that unpleasant raspberry seed feeling, though I didn't track it down. It didn't taste bad, but especially under the new rating system, I want to say that this was just ok. Les Cacaos hold on its shop group status (which I'm going to change from excellent to exceptional, in revising to avoid overlap between cake ratings and shop ratings) was weak to begin with, but I'll have to see what the competition can manage. Specifically, it and La Vie Douce were identical before this cake, so it wouldn't take much for me to swap these two shops.

Avranches Guesnay: Pistache

Went for a run to Avranches Guesnay and got there with no cash. I decided to tour Jean-Paul Hévin shops, Marunouchi, Mitsukoshi, and Omotesandou Hills, in case any of them had speciall 15th anniversary cakes like at Isetan but was not surprised to find that they did not. What I had not know, though, was that the Motesandou one had moved locations and now has a café space, like all but the Ginza one. Total, I ran about 17 km at around 9 km/h, though a little slow at the end. I went back by bicycle after lunch (, which mostly worked, except the cake flipped in the box and cracked, but didn't leak, fortunately.

If I remember correctly what I read, the outer shell, which is pretty thick, about 1 cm, is white chocolate and pistachio paste with pistachio bits stuck on. Inside, there is a solid lower half and raspberry sauce, which splits out when you cut into the center, but is reasonably thick so that you have some all the way through (assuming that you done each the cake top to bottom; I ate radially). This was definitely good, but I'm feeling in a strict mood these days, so this was not special enough to lift this shop from their current Excellent rating to fill the gap in the Quite Excellent listing.