Morozoff spins off a caramel-only brand, and gives it a department-store counter of its own
Morozoff, the Kobe confectioner behind Japan's standard-issue heart-shaped chocolate box, is opening a dedicated caramel brand's first permanent store on Hanshin Umeda's basement sweets floor -- a narrower bet than its usual seasonal gifting range, on a confection that travels well as a gift.
Hankyu Hanshin Department Stores said Morozoff will open Caramelion (キャラメリオン), a new brand built entirely around caramel confections, at Hanshin Umeda Main Store's basement-1 confectionery counter on November 18 -- the brand's first permanent store anywhere, according to the company.
The flagship item, also called Caramelion, sandwiches caramel between two baked sablé cookies and sells in a box of two for ¥1,080. The rest of the opening line-up plays variations on the same idea: a Caramel Melty Cake layering sponge, raspberry sauce and caramelised almond over a sablé base (2 pieces, ¥1,080); a Caramel Espresso Pudding finished with a salted-caramel glaze and espresso sauce (4 pieces, ¥1,080); a Caramel Amber Galette, a thick butter galette topped with lightly salted caramel (5 pieces, ¥972); and, as a seasonal autumn-winter item, a fig-flavoured Caramel Fondant Gateau (12 pieces, ¥1,728; 6 pieces, ¥864). A Caramel Rich Pie and an assortment box also feature in the opening range, though the release did not price either.
The brand gives Morozoff a narrower, single-ingredient play on the basement food hall's highest-traffic category -- entry-level gifting, usually ¥1,000-¥2,000 a box -- where confectioners increasingly launch sub-brands rather than extend an existing one, to earn a fresh display and a fresh story without touching the parent name's positioning. Hanshin Umeda, for its part, gets a genuinely new tenant on a floor department stores otherwise fill by rotating the same handful of national names through pop-up slots.