Beard Papa is currently selling a limited time Mashle set (and offering free acrylic standees per 6-pack), so of COURSE I just had to get them. Here's my rating of all the cream puffs from best to just good.
The descriptions in italics have been copied from the Beard Papa website.
1. Dot Barrett: A strawberry crumble puff filled with strawberry cheesecake cream.
* Review: Dot's puff is the best in both looks and taste. It's one of two unique crumble puffs in the pack, and its delightfully crisp crumble packs a nice, sweet strawberry taste. This is further complemented by the strawberry cheesecake cream, which is so fruity and smooth and wonderful. Dot may not be the main character of Mashle, but at least he takes the lead in a pack of cream puffs.
2. Mash Burndead: A classic vanilla custard-filled puff topped with whipped cream and powdered sugar. It’s Mash’s favorite puff.
* Review: It's no wonder this is Mash's favorite. A vanilla custard cream puff is one of those classics that's hard to beat for a reason. While you can make more exciting varieties, you don't have to. This is a definitive cream puff, and I'm happy this is the one that was duplicated for the set to reach 6. (Also, I respect Beard Papa for not changing how they make cream puffs to match Mashle's cream puffs exactly. Instead, they replicated the manga/anime's cream puff style through a visual extra stripe of whipped cream)
3. Finn Ames: A yellow-lined chocolate éclair filled with chocolate cream.
* Review: After sampling vanilla and fruit-flavored creams, it was a welcome change to bite into a mouthful of bold chocolate. The chocolate in the cream may not be dark, but it's strong, and you're sure to enjoy it if you're a chocolate lover. The chocolate icing on top is good too: it's not a super thick layer of chocolate, but it snaps when you bite down on it, making you eat solid chocolate along with your chocolate cream. This puff is #3 because while the chocolate covering is good, it does make you work through a solid layer before getting to the actual cream puff goodness. This means there's a danger of the cream oozing out messily, especially if you're trying to cut it. Still, I really enjoyed this one!
4. Lemon Irvine: A lemon crumble puff filled with strawberry cheesecake cream.
* Review: Despite also being a unique crumble puff, Lemon's cream puff has a couple limitations. The first is that while the crumble is crisp and lemon-flavored, the filling is strawberry cheesecake. Don't get me wrong, that filling is good, and it's perhaps a clever reference to how Lemon's favorite food is strawberries. But the filling doesn't complement the lemon crumble as well as it does Dot's strawberry one. The strawberry crumble provided a candy-like strawberry taste that matched and accentuated the filling's fruit-like strawberry taste. The lemon crumble provides a strong candy-like lemon taste that unfortunately overpowers the strawberry filling. Perhaps if the filling was also lemon, I could have noticed and appreciated it more instead of being distracted by the very-sharp lemon crumble. I want to appreciate the cream in a cream puff the most, not the topping. Still, it was good!
5. Lance Crown: A blue-colored white chocolate éclair with rich chocolate cream.
* Review: Admittedly, this one is last due to a personal bias. I don't like white chocolate. It doesn't taste that good to me. Fortunately, the rich chocolate cream is so strong that I can focus more on that, and the white chocolate topping is so thin that it subtly complements the heavy chocolate taste. Still, at the end of the eating experience, I'll recognize twinges of white chocolate and roll my eyes. While this cream puff definitely isn't bad, and I'd absolutely eat one if someone got it for me, I'd personally just choose another Finn puff if I was in the mood for chocolate.
If you're in the US and are near a Beard Papa, I highly recommend trying these for yourself!
