Product information
About
A biscuit stick baked thin and rolled into a hollow tube, with strawberry cream painted around the inside. The strawberry is tart rather than sugary: there is a real sourness running through the cream, and the biscuit around it is toasty and only faintly sweet. Buy it if you like a strawberry with some sharpness to it; if you want the sweet pink-lolly kind, this is the wrong biscuit.
On the pack: ピコラ いちご (pi-ko-ra ichigo).
What you're getting
- Tart, not sugary. A clear sourness runs through the strawberry cream.
- Thin and crisp: the wall shatters rather than snaps.
- The cream sits on the inside of the tube, not around the outside. That is the opposite way round from Pocky.
- Ten sticks, five to a sealed bag. It was twelve until a few years ago.
- It sheds crumbs as you eat it. It is a hollow tube, and it breaks apart easily.
- Allergens: contains wheat, egg, milk and soy. Read the pack's own label before you rely on ours.
You will see this shape sold as wafer rolls, cookie sticks, crepe cookies, biscuit sticks, or even "egg rolls": all the same thing, and the last one is a translation quirk rather than anything savoury. One more word before you read the reviews below, because it will look like a contradiction otherwise: Japanese shoppers call a set cream filling choco, チョコ, or チョコレート, whether or not there is any cocoa in it. Reviewers below say "chocolate" and "strawberry choco" throughout. They mean this strawberry cream. There is no cocoa in the product.
Allergens
The maker declares:
- Allergens
-
- Wheat
- Egg
- Milk
- Soy
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
- Yamazaki Biscuits
- Prefecture
- Ibaraki
- Made in
- Japan
- Net contents
- 10 sticks, two sealed bags of five, 49 g
Our guide
How to eat it
- Hold the open end with a finger as you eat. That is what keeps the crumbs off your lap.
- Chilling it first is a serving preference, not a requirement: cold, the cream inside sets firm.
- The two bags are sealed separately, so opening one leaves the other five crisp.
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
Crisp-textured cookie with a cream that has a real strawberry tartness — a superb balance, delicious.
「サクサク食感のクッキーに苺の酸味がきいたクリームが絶妙なバランスで美味しいです。」
mentioned in 11 of 50 reviews we readfrom monolog
- What they grumble about
Only ten sticks in it — the value does feel poor………
「１０本しか入ってないのは、コスパ悪い気もする………」
mentioned in 11 of 50 reviews we readfrom monolog
- What they like
Crisp and light, a really delicious cookie with the chocolate soaked right through it.
「サクッと軽く、チョコレートの染み込んだとっても美味しいクッキーです。」
mentioned in 16 of 50 reviews we readfrom monolog
- What they grumble about
It's got thinner and the choco's gone sparse — I won't buy it again.
「細くなってるしチョコの量カスカスなってるしもう買いません。」
mentioned in 7 of 50 reviews we readfrom monolog
- What they like
The cookie has its usual crisp texture and toasty aroma; the choco inside is mellow but pleasantly tart strawberry choco — not too sweet.
「クッキー生地は相変わらずのサクッと食感で香ばしく、内側のチョコはまろやかだけど程よく酸味のある苺チョコで甘過ぎず。」
from mognavi
- What they grumble about
It crumbles far too much when you eat it…
「食べる時にポロポロこぼれすぎる。。。」
from monolog
- What they like
I like Picola better than Pocky or Toppo.
「ポッキーや、トッポよりピコラが一番好き。」
from monolog
- What they grumble about
I do think the rolled cookie could stand to be a bit thicker.
「もう少しロールクッキーに厚みがあってもいいかなぁ。」
from monolog
- What they like
Ultra-crisp crêpe wafer with tart strawberry choco — irresistibly good.
「サックサクのクレープ生地に酸味のあるいちごチョコがたまらなく美味しい」
from mognavi
- What they grumble about
A shame there was only a little strawberry choco inside.
「苺チョコは少ししか入ってなかったのが残念。」
mentioned in 5 of 50 reviews we readfrom monolog
- What they like
The strawberry cream inside is nicely sweet, with a tart, refreshing strawberry flavour.
「中のいちごクリームは程よい甘さで酸味のある爽やかな苺の味わい」
from mognavi
- What they grumble about
Crisp and light, and I enjoyed the strawberry — but there's so little it's over at once.
「サクサク軽くていちごの味も楽しめて美味しかったけど、少なくてすぐ食べ終わってしまう。」
from mognavi
- What they like
The sweet-tart strawberry choco was so good I couldn't stop.
「いちごの甘酸っぱいチョコが美味しくて手が止まらなかった。」
from monolog
- What they grumble about
Didn't it used to have more in it?
「昔はもっと入ってなかった？」
from monolog
- What they like
Chilling it in the fridge firms the choco up and it's delicious.
「冷蔵庫で冷やして食べるのがチョコが固くなり美味しい。」
from monolog
- What they grumble about
I was startled that there are only five sticks in a bag…
「一袋に5本しか入ってなくてびっくりしました…。」
from monolog
- What they like
The refreshing strawberry flavour is pitched just right.
「いちごの爽やかな風味がちょうど良い感じ。」
from monolog
- What they grumble about
The tartness and the flavouring stood out.
「酸味と香料が際立っていました」
from mognavi
- What they like
The aroma the moment you open it is just the best.
「開封した瞬間の香りがもう最高」
from mognavi
- What they grumble about
If it were split into more small bags I could spread it over several sittings.
「もう少し小袋に分かれてれば何回にも分けて食べられる」
from monolog
Real quotes from Japanese review sites (monolog, mognavi), translated by us. We show no star rating from those sites.
The maker
Where it comes from
- Yamazaki Biscuits
- Ibaraki
Picola has been made since 1976, and it is named after the piccolo, the small flute, because that is the shape of a hollow rolled biscuit stick.
The making of it is the interesting part. A sheet of dough is baked very thin and rolled up, and the cream goes around the inside of the roll rather than over the outside. Baking it that thin and rolling it is what makes it crisp.
The company was called Yamazaki Nabisco until 2016, when the Nabisco licence ended and it became Yamazaki Biscuits. It has a plant at Koga, in Ibaraki. Picola turns fifty in 2026.
Product facts here are checked against the maker's own page: yamazaki-biscuits.co.jp (opens in a new tab)
Often bought together
-
YBC Picola Strawberry Cream Filled Wafer Rolls — 10 Sticks
$4.73
You are on this one
