Koalas are one of Japan’s most popular exotic animals. Its supposed resemblance to a (cartoon) bear, makes it a prime candidate for the affection of a culture so invested in the kawaii. Indeed, the website for the Australian Koala Foundation, a conservation group for koalas, is fully functional in the Japanese langauge.

And so it is that these Lotte Koala’s March Matcha have a cute cartoon koala as their mascot. Sales of Koala’s March support the Australian conservation group Australian Koala Foundation.

Each bag is decorated with koalas sporting various facial expressions and contained 11 matcha creme filled cookies in the shape of a koala.

Not only is the cookie in the shape of a koala, each cookie is stamped with a picture of a koala on the outside of the cookie doing various activities.

Fragrant vegetal notes of sweet matcha come through on opening the packaging. Biting into each koala shaped biscuit gave a pleasant crunch before reaching the soft matcha cream. The cream has a slight chewiness with a mellow matcha flavour that’s easily identifiable as green tea with a balanced sweetness and without any bitterness. The cream melts by the end of the bite, leaving a sweet aftertaste with slight lingering notes of matcha.

I enjoy these Lotte Koala’s March Matcha, although the mellow matcha flavour was suited more to the palate of the younger audience at which these were targeted. I’d prefer a more robust matcha flavour with a hint of bitterness.

This Lotte Koala’s March Matcha contained 10 bags each with 11 pieces. It was produced in Japan and was sourced from Hong Kong in 2015.