Nendo’s by | n chocolatexture bars are what happens when one of Japan’s most innovative design studios decides to explore the experience of premium chocolate, a quintet of intricately patterned bars embellished with their own distinct texture to engage the palate to optimize flavors.
Imprinted with three dimensional patterns of stripes, dots, zig-zags, checker boards, and waves, each bar’s surface isn’t just an aesthetic decision, but an invitation for the eater to roll their tongue over and across, bite, chew, and eventually swallow each of the 12 segments. In theory more subtle flavors inherent in the premium chocolate is revealed by allowing the chocolate to hit more parts of the taste buds (if this sounds silly, note cacao beans are similar to coffee, capable of revealing “earthy, fruity, floral” flavors with only a little practice).
Nendo’s chocolatexture bars for by | n come available in five different flavors – milk, strawberry, white, bitter and matcha – undoubtedly assured to be in great demand and limited supply like their previous designer counterpart, the Maison & Objet 2015 chocolatexture lounge chocolate sets.
Accompanying the bars is the chocolamixture set, a sort of cacao-oriented laboratory kit of taste. The kit includes four flask-shaped chocolates and 5 test tubes of “freeze dried mango and raspberry, popping candy that bursts in your mouth, 3 coloured heart-shaped sugar and chocolate puffs with a unique texture”, designed to be dispensed and mixed within each vessel. Look carefully, each of the flask lids are actually made of white chocolate, the color made to match a cork in color!
Photos by Akihiro Yoshida.