Godiva curry bread from a convenience store? Only in Japan…but should it exist at all?

A company known for neither curry nor bread combines both at a budget price.

With close to 100 years in business and a worldwide reputation for quality, many would say that Godiva is the first name in chocolate. Just as many people would probably also say, however, that Godiva is the last company they think of when they’re craving curry.

And yet, right now you can buy Godiva curry bread in Japan.

At first, this might seem like a bizarre new sphere for Godiva to be trying to force itself into. A number of home chefs in Japan, though, swear by adding chocolate to their curry, melting a piece in with the rest of the roux for another layer of complex richness.

Godiva isn’t going solo on this, either. The new Godiva Beef Curry Bread is a joint effort with Japanese convenience store chain Lawson, and as such, it’s a very affordable 280-yen (US$2.70) luxury.

▼ At that price, we could afford to splurge on three of them!

So what makes the Godiva curry bread special? First there’s the roux, which boasts Godiva chocolate as one of its ingredients. There’s also the bread itself, with Godiva cocoa powder mixed into the dough.

Because of the chocolate, the bread has a darker color than the light brown normally associated with Japanese curry bread. It’s almost black, and taking a sniff you can detect a faint chocolatey aspect to the fragrance.

Since we had three pieces, we decided to eat them three separate ways, starting, naturally, with just chowing down on one as-is.

It’s a perfectly serviceable curry bread like this, with enough spice to tickle the tongue without being punishing for more sensitive palates. However, the chocolate flavor is pretty subdued, mostly coming through after extended chewing of the bread. Eaten like this, we’d say the flavor is 10 percent chocolate and 90 percent curry.

For our second piece, we popped it in the microwave for 20 seconds, and this made a big difference. For starters, heating everything up enhanced the aroma, and gave the bread’s outer layer a glossy appearance.

Taking a bite, we found the heat had made the curry’s texture creamier too, and now it tasted like 20 percent chocolate and 80 percent curry.

Finally, for piece number three we heated it for 20 seconds in the microwave, then popped it in the toaster oven until it got a crispy texture on the outmost layer.

This is where the Godiva curry bread really achieves its full potential. Not only did we have the improvements that come with heating it in the microwave, crisping the bread helps the different tastes in the flavor profile shine. The first sensation is of bittersweet chocolate, then the curry and spice come rushing in, for an overall sensation that’s 40 percent chocolate and 60 percent curry.

So while the convenience store isn’t the first place we’d go to look for Godiva products, and Godiva is one of the last companies we’d have expected to make curry bread, this is a definitely a winning combination.

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