The strawberry one
Glico Bisco Strawberry Cream Biscuits — 15 Biscuits
$4.39
You are looking at this one
The range
Which one do I need?
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The original
Glico Bisco Milk Cream Sandwich Biscuits — 15 Biscuits
$4.39
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The salted butter one
Glico Bisco Fermented Butter Biscuits — 15 Biscuits
$4.39
Product information
About
The pink box in Glico's Bisco range: a strawberry cream between two crisp biscuits made with some wholemeal flour. It tastes tart rather than sugary, closer to strawberry yoghurt than to a strawberry lolly. If you have met Japanese strawberry sweets before and found them sweet and one-note, this is the argument against that. Everyday supermarket confectionery in Japan, not a gift-tin product. Buy it if you like strawberry things that lean tart; if what you want is a sweet, creamy strawberry biscuit, this is the wrong one: the sourness comes first.
ビスコ＜いちご＞, bisuko ichigo. The pink box, with the same boy on the front that Glico has been redrawing since 1933.
What you're getting
- Tart, not sugary. The cream has real acidity and feels grainy on the tongue rather than smooth, as though the fruit were in there. The list carries both strawberry powder and a separate flavouring, so it is not purely one or the other; what people notice is the tartness. Some find the smell laid on too thick: an argument about aroma, not taste.
- It is not sweeter than the plain box. Worth saying because it is the natural assumption about a strawberry cream. It reads gentle and not-too-sweet rather than sugary.
- There is wholemeal in this biscuit, and none in the red box. Glico builds this one on a milk biscuit made with some wholemeal flour and the original on a plain one, so the two differ below the cream as well as in it. It is not a wholemeal biscuit, the flour is mostly ordinary wheat, but it is a real difference between the two boxes.
- Nothing in the ingredient list colours it. The pink is faint, and it comes from strawberry powder rather than a colouring, worth knowing if that is something you check.
- Fifteen small biscuits in three sealed packs of five. They are small, and the three sachets are why the last five are as crisp as the first.
- The honest one: the sachets are stiff. They take a moment to tear, and a small child may not manage one on their own.
- Allergens: contains milk and wheat. Read the pack's own label before you rely on ours.
If you have seen Bisco sold as a long-life emergency ration in a sealed tin, that is a different product from this one: a different pack, made to sit in a cupboard for years. This is the ordinary box. The front of the pack makes a good deal of the cultures in the cream; treat that as part of what Bisco is rather than as a reason to buy it, because we are not making any claim about what it does. And if you are buying it for a child, Glico's own guidance is from about one year old, with an adult watching.
Ingredients
The maker's ingredient list, translated from the Japanese pack. Anything after the break is an additive — the Japanese label lists those separately.
Wheat flour (produced in Japan), sugar, shortening, lactose, wholemeal wheat flour, vegetable oil, inulin, whole milk powder, strawberry powder, fermented liquid, salt, wheat protein, starch, lactic acid bacteria
calcium carbonate, raising agent, flavouring, emulsifier, acidity regulator, vitamin B1, vitamin B2, vitamin D
The printed label on the pack is always the authority on ingredients and allergens, not this page — please read it in full before you rely on our summary. If you are unsure about an ingredient, contact us.
Allergens
The maker declares:
- Allergens
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- Milk
- Wheat
The printed label on the pack is always the authority on ingredients and allergens, not this page — please read it in full before you rely on our summary. If you are unsure about an ingredient, contact us.
Details
- Maker
- Glico
- Prefecture
- Osaka
- Made in
- Japan
- Net contents
- 15 biscuits, three sealed packs of five
Our guide
How to eat it
- Open one sachet, not the box. Five biscuits is the portion the packing was designed around, and leaving the other two sealed is why the last five are as crisp as the first.
- Chill them before eating if you like a firmer cream, or freeze them for a change of texture: both are ordinary ways to eat this flavour in Japan.
- For a cheesecake or tart base, crush them cream and all and press them into the tin. It is a standard thing to do with a box in Japan, and nothing else in that recipe needs a Japanese grocer.
- The individual sachets are stiff to tear. If these are for a small child, open them first. Glico's own guidance is from about one year old, with an adult watching.
In their own words
What Japanese buyers say
What do the numbers mean?
Counts of how many reviews mentioned each thing, not a score. One review can mention several. Every quote is our translation, with the original Japanese beneath it.
- What they like
A strawberry-yoghurt sort of aroma. Not the sweet artificial-flavouring kind of strawberry — you clearly taste the tartness.
いちごヨーグルト的な香り。あま〜い香料のいちごではなく、はっきり酸味を感じる
from mognavi
- What they like
The strawberry cream even has the grainy texture of strawberry in it — a well-judged tartness and a mild strawberry flavour.
いちごクリームはいちごの粒々食感もあり、程よい酸味に、いちごのマイルドな味わい
from mognavi
- What they like
There's tartness inside the sweetness, so it was just my kind of taste! The biscuit is crisp and doesn't assert itself, so the strawberry cream comes right to the front.
甘さの中に酸っぱさもあるので好みの味でした！ビスケットはサクサクしていて、味の主張が強くないのでいちごクリームの味が全面に感じられました
from mognavi
- What they like
The pink is only the faintest tint, and no colouring is listed — so maybe none is used?
ピンク色はごくほんのりなので着色料は書いてないのは，使われてないのかな？
from monolog
- What they like
The crisp texture is toasty and fragrant, and it goes with the sweet-tart strawberry!
さくさく食感が香ばしくて、いちごの甘酸っぱい感じと合う！
from mognavi
- What they grumble about
The quantity has come down a good deal, hasn't it. A bit of a letdown.
ずいぶん量が減りましたね。ちょっとガッカリです。
mentioned in 3 of 43 reviews we readfrom monolog
- What they like
As a child I disliked the cream inside and wouldn't eat it, yet as an adult I find it delicious. Strange, isn't it.
子供の頃は中のクリームが嫌いで食べなかったのに大人になると美味しく感じます。不思議ですネ。
from monolog
- What they like
It was in a prominent spot at the supermarket so I tried it. No overpowering flavour — the sweetness and saltiness are both well-judged and it's very good. I'd buy it again.
スーパーの目立つ位置にあったので買ってみた。強い風味なく、甘さ、塩味も程よくとても美味しい。また買いたい。
from monolog
- What they like
Both the biscuit and the cream have a softish, crumbly-crisp texture.
ビスケットとクリーム両方とも食感は柔らかめのさっくり。
from mognavi
- What they grumble about
I bought it because it was cheap, but the box has got a size smaller, hasn't it.
お安くなっていたので購入しましたが、箱が一回り小さくなりましたね。
from monolog
- What they like
I bought it as a snack for my child. They seem to prefer this strawberry one to the normal one and often pick it.
子供のおやつに買いました。ノーマルよりもイチゴのこちらが好きなようでよく選んでます。
from monolog
- What they like
My child liked the strawberry in the variety pack so I bought it often. I'm delighted a strawberry-only box has come out.
バラエティーパックのイチゴ味が子どもが好きでよく買っていた。イチゴのみの箱が出て、嬉しい。
from monolog
- What they like
A gentle taste — for some reason I've loved eating it with milk since I was a child, and I still can't stop as an adult. An unshakeable deliciousness.
やさしい味で、牛乳と食べるのが子供の頃から 何故か好きで おとなになってもやめられません。不動の美味しさです。
from monolog
- What they grumble about
Honestly I prefer the variety pack's two-piece wrapping, but it's too dear for me to buy.
ホントはバラエティパックの2個入り包装が好きだけど、お高くて買えない。
from monolog
- What they like
I love Bisco. I also like strawberry sweets, so I enjoyed it. Freezing it to change the texture works well too.
ビスコ大好き。いちご味のお菓子も好きなので美味しく食べました。冷凍して食感変えてもよい。
from monolog
- What they like
I've eaten several kinds of Bisco, and strawberry is the best one.
ビスコは何種類か食べてますが、イチゴが1番美味しいです
from monolog
Real quotes from Japanese review sites (mognavi, monolog), translated by us. We show no star rating from those sites.
The maker
Where it comes from
- Glico
- Osaka
Glico started in Osaka in 1922 and put Bisco out in February 1933, calling it the company's second nutritional confection after the caramel it is named for. It was priced from the start to be an everyday purchase rather than a treat.
The name is an abbreviation that wore down. It began as kōbo bisuketto, yeast biscuit, which got shortened to kōbisu, and said quickly and often enough, kōbisu-kōbisu-kōbisu turns into bisuko. Glico liked that it came out at eight strokes: the same as Guriko, which is how the company's own name is written in Japanese, and drew it with rounder letters than the parent brand.
Strawberry is the youngest of the three boxes we carry. The flavour lived inside Bisco's mixed variety packs before Glico gave it a box of its own.
Product facts here are checked against the maker's own page: glico.com (opens in a new tab)
Often bought together
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Glico Bisco Strawberry Cream Biscuits — 15 Biscuits
$4.39
You are on this one
