Friday Feature: Chocolate stick showdown

Chocolate coated biscuit sticks – how hard could it be? We compare four different brands, and find out how wrong this simple recipe can go.

	#4: Hana Chocolate Cream on Sticks This is what happens when chocolate sticks go horribly wrong. The coating is chocolate in name only as it tastes artificial and has a weird coconut aftertaste. The biscuit is dense and chewy, and feels unpleasant in the mouth. A total failure.
	#3: Lotte Pepero Original This is the sweetest of the bunch by far, overwhelming any trace of chocolate. The biscuit is dense, though without the unpleasant chewiness of the Hana brand. Sadly, it still tastes like stale bread.
	#2: Meiji Lucky Sticks The biscuit has a bit of chocolate flavouring, as if to make up for the skimpy chocolate coating. In fact, the biscuit is the overwhelming flavour of this stick, with the chocolate being more of an afterthought. A thicker layer of chocolate added to the thick biscuit would have brought a party to my mouth.
	#1: Glico Pocky Original The original and still the best, Pocky boasts the richest chocolate flavour, and the best ratio of chocolate to biscuit. The biscuit is airy, but substantial with the flavour focused on the chocolate. This is a good thing, because the Pocky chocolate was the best of the bunch. Instead of a sweet, milk chocolate, the coating appears to have a dark chocolate flavour.