If you’ve got such a powerful sweet tooth that you worship chocolate, these might be just the treats for you.

Being located in Kyoto, Japan’s center of traditional culture, you might imagine chocolate specialist Cacao Magic’s offerings to have an elegant air to them. You’d be right, too, as the confectioner’s sweets are designed to be a treat for the eyes as well as the palate.

You may also expect Cacao Magic to produce some uniquely Japanese chocolates, and again you’d be right. While most of its candies take the orthodox forms of hearts, squares, and discs, you’ll also find something called the amasumi butsuda in the product lineup. “Butsuda” means “head of the Buddha,” and that’s exactly what they look like, as you can see in the photo above.

But butsuda is only half of the name, and thus half of the story, of amasumi butsuda. “Sumi” means “charcoal,” and while they may not be such a common seasoning in Western cuisine, it’s not an entirely unprecedented flavoring in Japan.

What is unusual though, even by Japanese standards, is the “ama” portion of amasumi” which means “hemp.”

Yes, mixed in with the chocolate used to make amasumi butsuda is a measure of hemp charcoal. Given the stringent anti-drug stance taken by both Japanese law and culture at large, it’s unlikely that eating amasumi butsuda will cause any of the narcotic effects associated with other uses of the herb.

▼ It’s also worth noting that Cacao Magic is neither a head shop nor specifically courting the stoner crowd, as the rest of its extensive catalogue of chocolates is entirely hemp-free.

Instead, Cacao Magic simply states that the special ingredient adds “a deep flavor” to the dark chocolate from which the tiny heads are shaped.

If you’re interested in finding out just what exactly that deep flavor is, Cacao Magic is currently taking preorders for amasumi butsuda through its website here, with prices starting at 1,500 yen (US$12.50) for a pack of three.

Source: Hachima Kiko

Images: Cacao Magic (edited by RocketNews24)