This Ishiya Shiroi Koibito Black follows on from the White that is the original of the two flavours. The Black comes pre-wrapped in dark brown paper illustrated with white snow and silver snowflakes.

Unlike the White, which is available in a tin, Shiroi Koibito Black are available only in boxes (as here) or in tins mixed with the White. While the White featured a colour palette of light blue on white, the Black uses a colour palette of orange and brown on cream.

The underside of the lid introduces us to the story behind Shiroi Koibito: after returning home from skiing one December, the founder casually remarked: It has started snowing white lovers.

The box contained 18 pieces, with six stacks of three cookies.

Each Shiroi Koibito cookie is individually sealed in packaging illustrated with dark blue snowflakes on a white background and labelled Chocolat a Croque et Langue de Chat.

These cookies consist of a square of dark chocolate sandwiched between rounded square langue de chat. The cookie part is identical to the White, with the type of difference being the type of chocolate used.

These cookies smell of a rich, dark chocolate. As with the White, our palate first encounters the light and fine-crumbed cookie before reaching the softer slither of chocolate. The chocolate notes are rich and creamy, but the bitterness is more mellow than we’d expected from the rich aroma. That said, the chocolate flavour does still dominate from mid-bite, drowning the mellow sweetness of the cookie and leaving only its delicate meringue-like crunch. We enjoy Shiroi Koibito Black for its richer flavour, but the lightness of the White is more easily appreciable.

The design on the Shiroi Koibito Black featured on the 27 piece tins from the early 2000s.

This Ishiya Shiroi Koibito Black contained 18 pieces. It was produced in Japan and purchased in Sapporo, Hokkaidō, Japan in 2018.