This is the Morinaga Rurubu Hokkaidō Sapporo Shime Parfait Sando Cookie. It was part of the Rurubu series featuring regional flavours around Japan. This one focused on Hokkaidō, specifically the shime parfait from the city of Sapporo. From the prefecture’s own description of the item —
You may know “parfait” as sundae or knickerbocker glory. The word originally came from French meaning “perfect”. In France, parfait is a frozen dessert made with egg yolk and sugar, but here in Japan, one with fruits and whipped cream is common. Shime for shime parfait means “conclusion”. In Japan, we eat ramen (noodle) as a shime after a night of drinking, but people in Sapporo finish with a cold and sweet parfait instead. Sapporo’s parfait is often made of rich soft serve ice cream and fresh cream because more than a third of dairy farms in Japan are located in Hokkaidō.
This particular version of a shime parfait featured the popular flavours of caramel, chocolate and hazelnut in the form of a sandwich cookie.
Each box contained 8 individually sealed cookies. It contained 1.8% caramel powder, 1.2% cocoa, and 0.2% hazelnut. Each cookie measured about 4.5 x 3 x 1.2 cm and had a rich hazelnut chocolate aroma.
On tasting, the cookie had a dense yet crunchy texture, releasing a mellow caramel-vanilla sweetness. The thickness of the cookie was substantial compared to the layer of hazelnut chocolate cream, but the cream delivered a rich nutty and chocolaty flavour, reminiscent of Nutella, with a thicker, creamier consistency. By mid-bite, the cream filling melted smoothly on the palate, contrasting with the lingering, pleasantly sandy large crumbs of the cookie. The gentle caramel notes from the cookie lingered on the palate in the finish. Overall, these cookies were very enjoyable for their taste and texture, though a more restrained sweetness in the cookie would have made them even better.
This Morinaga Rurubu Hokkaidō Sapporo Shime Parfait Sando Cookie contained 8 x 11.6 g cookies. It was produced in Japan and purchased in Sydney, Australia in 2024.