Mikado Milk Chocolate Sticks: Pocky Origins and Pairings

Mikado Milk Chocolate: The Biscuit Stick With a Handle

Mikado is the name Europe uses for the chocolate-dipped biscuit stick that Japanese confectioner Ezaki Glico sells as Pocky. Its cleverest feature is the uncoated end, which turns every stick into something you can hold without getting chocolate on your fingers.

Published 26 Sep 2026 Curator-written, not crowdsourced

Mikado Milk Chocolate: The Biscuit Stick With a Handle, in summary: Mikado is Europe's name for Glico's Pocky: a thin biscuit stick dipped in milk chocolate with one end left bare as a handle. A sharing snack: keep the box upright and cool, and pour strong black tea or coffee.

Last reviewed by the teas.co.uk team in September 2026.

Mikado is the name Europe uses for the chocolate-dipped biscuit stick that Japanese confectioner Ezaki Glico sells as Pocky. Its cleverest feature is the uncoated end, which turns every stick into something you can hold without getting chocolate on your fingers.

Pocky by another name

The stick reached Europe in 1982 through Générale Biscuit Glico France, a joint venture between Glico and the French maker Générale Biscuit, with production at a plant built at the Cestas factory near Bordeaux. The European name comes from the pick-up sticks game the biscuits resemble, and Mikado now sits within Mondelēz International.

It is a different idea from the usual British coated biscuit. Rather than putting chocolate on a substantial biscuit, the stick keeps the biscuit to a bare minimum and hands most of the job to the coating. Thin sticks carry a lot of coating relative to their weight, so each mouthful tastes more of chocolate than you might expect from something so slim.

Chocolate on the fingertips is what puts people off taking a second biscuit. Leaving one end plain gives each stick a handle, so a box can be passed round a table all evening and nobody reaches for a napkin. That makes Mikado a desk, film-night or table-sharing snack rather than something for a saucer beside a single cup.

People tend to eat them by the handful, several in a row, and that shapes what a good one needs to be. A single steady note of sweet milk chocolate over a clean snap does not tire the way a busier flavour would. The published allergen statement lists wheat (gluten), milk and soya, and warns that the sticks may contain nuts.

Upright in the box, and a cup with some bite

A stick this thin snaps under almost no pressure, so keep an opened box upright and closed rather than tipping the sticks into a bag or tin. Keep it somewhere cool as well, since warmth softens the coating. Do not dunk: with almost no crumb to hold its shape, the stick gives up in a hot cup and the coating comes away first.

There is nothing bitter in milk chocolate, so the drink should bring it. A strong black tea, a malty breakfast blend or a short espresso keeps the sugar in check, and an Earl Grey's bergamot adds a sharpness the stick does not have. Leave hot chocolate and sweetened lattes for another day; sugar on sugar makes the whole box cloying.

The packs we stock

Mikado Milk Chocolate Biscuits, 75g (barcode 3017760363396)

What the label says

The published ingredient list for Mikado Milk Chocolate Biscuits, 75g (barcode 3017760363396) says it contains wheat (gluten), milk and soya, and it may contain nuts. Check the current UK pack before purchase; formulations and allergen advice can change.

Ingredients, as published: wheat flour, sugar, cocoa butter, cocoa mass, skimmed milk powder, vegetable fats (palm, coconut), glucose syrup, milk fat, whey powder (from milk), salt, emulsifier (soya lecithin), raising agent (e503), yeast, flavouring. May contain nuts.

Typical values per 100g	Per 100g
Energy	477 kcal
Fat	19g
of which saturates	11g
Carbohydrate	67g
of which sugars	34g
Fibre	2.8g
Protein	7.7g
Salt	0g

Ingredient and nutrition data for this barcode: Open Food Facts (openfoodfacts.org), ODbL. The pack in your hands is the final word.

What to drink with it

Hyson Premium Breakfast Tea, 100 Tea Bags 180g: a brisk breakfast tea in bags to supply the bitterness milk chocolate lacks.
Yorkshire Tea Original Loose Leaf Tea, 250g: a full loose leaf everyday blend, brewed strong for a film-night pot.
L'Or Espresso Ristretto Intensity 11 Coffee, 40 Pods 208g: a short, intense coffee to set against a sweet coating.
Dragonfly Organic Earl Grey Rooibos, 40 Tea Bags 100g: an Earl Grey built on rooibos, whose bergamot brings the citrus edge the sticks lack.

Elsewhere in the Mikado range

The full range is on the Mikado brand page.

FAQ

Is Mikado the same as Pocky? Essentially, yes. Mikado is the name used in Europe for the chocolate-coated stick that Ezaki Glico sells as Pocky.

Why is one end of a Mikado stick left bare? It works as a handle, so you can hold the stick without chocolate on your fingers.

Where does the name Mikado come from? From the European pick-up sticks game, which the biscuits resemble.

Do Mikado sticks contain nuts? The published allergen statement says they may contain nuts. It also lists wheat (gluten), milk and soya.

How should an open box of Mikado be stored? Upright, closed and somewhere cool. A stick this thin snaps under very little pressure, and warmth softens the coating.

Curator's note: Put an open box in the middle of the table when people come round. A pot of strong black tea keeps all that sweetness in check. Lee, teas.co.uk, Tunbridge Wells.

In short: Mikado Milk Chocolate: The Biscuit Stick With a Handle

Field	Detail
Brand	Mikado
Packs we stock	75g
Category	Chocolate Biscuits
Allergens (as published)	It contains wheat (gluten), milk and soya, and it may contain nuts.
Dunkable	No
Best with	Strong black tea, espresso or an Earl Grey
Occasion	Film night, desk or sharing