Mont Blancs (or monburan) are impossible to avoid in Japan if you are one of those people who spends lots of time peering into pastry shops or wandering through bakeries. (I freely admit I am one of those people.) Apparently, in France the dessert is a meringue base topped with chestnut puree and cream. Here, it is a shortbread base with loopy rings of chestnut puree surrounding a creamy middle, usually topped with a big chestnut that looks as shiny and plump as a cartoon dog nose. (A peek here will give you an idea.) Mont Blancs are okay, but I'd rather have a Beard Papa cream puff, thanks.

Lucky for the Mont Blanc Mocha Takenoko no Sato candy, the geniuses at Meiji decided to make the cookie base coffee-flavored. The bitterness of the cookie cuts through the sweet milkiness of the chocolate perfectly. It's like a dessert-plus-coffee set at one of those pastry shops I'm always peering into. Earlier in the week, as I sat on my couch knitting, rain falling outside, this candy was the perfect thing to munch on while pretending it was already autumn. Unfortunately, my fake autumn was short-lived and today's heat has reduced the chocolate tops to mush.

So please wait for the real autumn before eating these. Unless you're too busy eating actual chestnuts. But you probably won't be, unless you're one of those stick-wielding old Japanese ladies who comb the ground under chestnut trees until every. last. chestnut. is gone. But you're probably not one of them. They're usually too busy foraging to get on the internet.