Byron Bay Gluten Free White Chocolate Macadamia Cookie

National Azabu is a supermarket hidden away in the somewhat un-Japanese area around Hiroo Station.  I used to go there for various goodies (cheese, cereal, frozen meat pies), and since being unable to eat most foods, I've taken to going there to get the few random gluten-free foods they carry.

There are very, very few.

So I was really surprised when I turned around to humor myself at the cracker and cookie kiosk and saw the words "GLUTEN FREE" staring back at me from a display of cookies.

"Whaaaaaat?" I said to myself in my head.  And I grabbed up one of the white chocolate macadamia cookies and two of the triple chocolate cookies (the only two that were left).

I am a cookie racist.  I automatically assume that a chocolate cookie will be better than a white cookie.  So I only bought ONE of the white cookies despite a relatively full display.  And I ate it relatively soon after purchasing my cookies, thinking it was "the bad one."  I always save the best for last.

Oh no.  No no no no no.  It was the good one.  Nay, the BEST one.

I'm sure I had a Byron Bay cookie in the past, when I could eat the wheatins freely.  I don't remember it being exceptional.  But somehow the flavor of this particular cookie was just ... awesome.  Oftentimes cookies are too sweet in a really odd way, like the way my old nemesis RAISINS are sweet.  These cookies are pleasantly sweet, but not too much.  The white chocolate and macadamias are almost indistinguishable by texture and sight, but both have a distinct and lovely flavor.  (And let me be honest, I do not like white chocolate.)

My only gripe would be that the cookies are fairly crumbly, but that's something you expect from gluten-free goods.  And crunchy cookies.  See, I don't usually even like crunchy cookies.  But this one tastes so good that I don't care that it isn't chewy.

Oh, and I have another gripe.  EXPENSSSSSIVE.  I thought I was being ripped off at 315 yen per cookie here in Japan, but then I saw that if you buy the cookies in US$ they're about $3 each anyway.  I think the company is Australian, so maybe that has something to do with it.  (Australia is full of hardy, Vegemite-eating, kangaroo-ass-kicking people who are 8 feet tall and can handle paying $3 for a cookie.)