Rusk from Hakone Rusk is a popular souvenir from Hakone, which is known as a vacation destination for hot springs. I purchased my rusk from the gift shop of my hotel in Hakone and from the Grande Rivière Hakone Yumoto Store. The other Hakone Rusk store location is in Sengokuhara in Hakone. I think the Sengokuhara store is the main location, and it has a cafe on the second level. I also saw some Hakone Rusk at the Hakone Open Air Museum.
Since I tried a lot of rusk from Grande Rivière in 2023, here are my comments on the ones I purchased. I did not take pictures of all of them because I was too busy being gluttonous. The official store locations do allow you to try almost all the flavours on-site, but some of the samples seemed slightly stale.
To help you understand my perspective, I feel that rusk should be firm to touch, break easily when bitten, and be brittle and fine on the tongue. I prefer my rusk sweet.
Plain Rusk
Plain Rusk is sold in bags of 8 individually packaged pieces for JP¥540. By “plain”, they mean sugared and buttered. I can smell the butter as I put it in my mouth. It has good texture and it is sweet, but the aftertaste is like normal toast.
Earl Grey Rusk
JP¥540 for 8. I can definitely smell and taste the claimed flavor (and a little citrus), but how would I enjoy this with just any tea? I think there is a higher chance of incompatibility when something is already tea-flavored.
Caramel Almond
I thought the Caramel Almond was one of the best flavours! It is slightly more expensive at JP¥600 for a bag of 8. I would rate it 5/5 taste! The texture is interesting between the almonds and rusk and there was no regular toast aftertaste.
Maple
Maple Rusk is JP¥540 for a bag containing 8. It tastes like maple syrup on the Rusk, as it well should.
Maple Nuts
Maple Nuts tasted similar to the Maple, but the addition of nuts and the fact that it is baked in smaller pieces gives it a darker flavour. Not every piece has nuts, mind you. This flavor is sold in bags of small pieces.
Croissant
Most of the Rusk comes in bags, but the croissant Rusk comes in a box. The croissant Rusk is in small pieces, is buttery and has some sugar. It is not significantly better than the plain, but it has a different aftertaste that I like better.
Basil
The Basil rusk was more salty than sweet and tasted strongly of basil and oil. It reminded me of croutons that people put on salads, honestly, though certainly of high quality. The fact that it was in small pieces like croutons helped the impression.
Chocolat Bake
This one comes as small pieces and was JP¥570 per bag. I am not as fond of chocolate, so it may be of little surprise that I was not as interested in this.
Milk Qube Chocolate Rusk
The Qube Rusk was all JP¥650 per bag. It was not as sweet as the other varieties. I did not like it very much, but I liked it better than the Chocolat Bake rusk. However, I am not as fond of chocolate in the first place.
