Melon de Melon [Mimi's World Tour]

Bakery: Melon de Melon
Address: 30-1 Shimosanjocho, Nara 
Website: http://www.melon-de-melon.com
Style: Japanese 
Price: $$ 

Perhaps I may not have known it at the time of purchase, but Melon de Melon is a fairly large bakery chain with dozens of locations throughout Japan. It never really dawned on me until doing research for this review, since I never saw it anywhere else; in this, I was a little disappointed. I never really like when that happens...

 Still, Melon de Melon is a bakery specializing in, as the name indicates, melon buns: those airy buns with a crusty, sugary top. This particular location, at any rate, is more like a take-out counter and when I say they specialize in melon pan I mean it; it really is the only thing available for sale. The selection, then, is in the 6-7 varieties including plain, strawberry, matcha, and a bunch of one-of-a-kind flavours.

One such flavour was the earl grey melon pan (210 yen). I'm a regular, pretty much die-hard drinker of earl grey tea, so I was intrigued by this one, and while it didn't have the colour or pop other flavours may have had, it did have the delicate and subtle flavours you'd expect with hints of citrus and a nice amount of bits of tea leaves mixed right into the dough. I particularly liked how the crust -- by far the best part of any melon bun -- had great coverage, going right down the sides of the bun. Delicious crust, soft and moist underneath, and a nice, larger size. ;) Add to that the fragrant and flavourful taste of early grey. Yummy! Maybe not the "melon de melon" of melon buns, but one of my favourites from my trip!

Rating: ***1/2