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| Cream Collon |
| 8/10 YUMS |
These are a unique candy... it's a wrapper of pastry that is about the same as Pirouline - very thin, flaky, crispy. Inside this wrapper is a substance I've never eaten before. It's like some sort of cream cheese and whipped cream combination, with a little bit of some spice in it that I can't recognize. But mainly it's all about that cream flavor. Perhaps that's why they call it Cream Collon. Or they call it that because if you're lactose intolerant like me, it could cream your colon.
I'm going to give these an 8/10, but it's a tentative rating... they definitely taste good, but there's just something a little odd, and I'm just not quite sure. If I had the equivalent little tube of pastry with actual cream cheese frosting in the middle, I'd be giving it a 10/10, but this is something a bit different!
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| Musk Melon Hard Candy |
| 7.5/10 YUMS |
It's hard to review hard candies, because I'm never as excited about them, but at the same time, they always taste really good (unless they don't, which is really bad). If you don't know what the oddly-named musk melon is, it's pretty much a cantaloupe. I researched a bit and I'm still not entirely sure if the cantaloupe is a species of musk melon, or vice versa, or they're both a species of some larger group. Some sources claim they're just different names for the same thing. Regardless, they're not very different, so these candies taste just like cantaloupe, and that's about all there is to it. A hard candy you suck on for a long time to enjoy a sweet cantaloupe flavor.
It's good, and I'll be happy to have these around for months to come, because that's how long they'll last. I rarely even want a hard candy, but they are really nice for getting a sweet flavor without actually having very many calories. Not so good for your teeth, though. The best rating I can guess at here is 7.5/10 Yums, which feels a bit unfair because the flavor is very good, but I just can't get all that excited about a hard candy.
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| Chocolate Wheat Puffs |
| 5/10 YUMS |
I'm making up my own name here, because the only English on the front of the package is "Wheat Chocolate", and the English label slapped on the back just says, in all caps, "CHOCOLATE". Which I can't argue is there, but it really misses the point. These are most definitely Chocolate Wheat Puffs.
Do you know the cereal Honey Smacks? Just like Honey Smacks, this is made from puffed wheat, the difference is that they coated the puffs in chocolate rather than honey. It's really unique and different, but I can't say I'm loving it. It's enjoyable for being different, and it's not unpleasant, but the chocolate is too dark for me. I'm not a fan of dark chocolate, and the wheat inside is also... I mean, it's just wheat, so it's not adding some delicious bonus, it just adds a styrofoam core.
Overall, I'm going to have to give these 5/10 Yums, because I'm willing to eat them in order to get sugar and chocolate into my body. If you like dark chocolate, I think you'll be much better off with these than I am. Sol Hunt appreciates these more than I do for sure. All in all, I'd rather eat Honey Smacks!
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| Pucca |
| 8.5/10 YUMS |
These come from the Hello Panda school of baking. But while Hello Panda is clearly some sort of cookie filled with chocolate, these are actually pretzels filled with chocolate. Very very thin walls of unsalted pretzel surrounding a fairly large blob of chocolate. And of course in the shape of a fish! There are assorted sea life shapes inside, which adds to the fun. As do a bunch of mazes and puzzles inside the box, but unlike your average Japanese 6-year-old, I can't solve the puzzles. It would help if I could read them.
I suppose I should compare these to Hello Panda and pick a winner, but unfortunately I somehow managed not to get any Hello Panda in this giant batch of candy, so I don't really have the proper data to do a comparison. I think these might be the winner if I did compare, actually. The thin pretzel layer is really quite satisfying to crunch through into the chocolate below. It's a little like eating a Peanut M&M, only inside out. Or those special rare Crispy M&Ms, since there's no peanut flavor. Anyway, they fairly deserve 8.5/10 Yums. There's nothing fishy about these tasty snacks.
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| Tomato Pretz |
| 7/10 YUMS |
We have another snack today! You can't eat candy all the time. Pretz is the savory version of Pocky. Just like Pocky, it's a long thin dry cracker stick - the exact same stick used in Pocky in fact. The only difference is what they put on that stick. And in the case of Tomato Pretz, what they put on the stick is a tomato powder. I think I taste a little mustard in there, and of course there's some salt, but mostly it tastes of tomatoes. Well, mostly it tastes of cracker, but cracker with tomato on it. What it really reminds me of is those Chicken In A Biskit crackers.
These are pretty good. They're not going to blow your mind, but you can sit and snack away any old time. But then again, why buy expensive exotic Japanese crackers when you could get stuff like Chicken In A Biskit here in the US for a tenth of the price? I give this 7/10 Yums for its actual yumminess, but I don't recommend you get it, because it's cheaper and easier to get a local equivalent. This isn't doing anything you can't get elsewhere, except being long and skinny.
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| Crunch Chocolate |
| 9/10 YUMS |
"Baked Chocolate Snack" or "Crunch Chocolate" is all the name I can find for this (given that I can't read the actual name printed right on the bag!). These are a really strange endorsement deal... it's a Japanese candy, covered with Suzy Spafford's art. She is a well-known American cartoonist who just sort of makes happy cute animals. I didn't know Japan had a shortage of those, but apparently they do, so they imported Suzy's art to emblazon this treat with.
But the wrapping isn't what's important! What is inside? Well, it's a baked chocolate snack. Pretty much, it's that thing you can make where you take Corn Flakes and pour melted chocolate over them and stir them up and let them cool (like Krispie Treats, but subbing in chocolate for marshmallow and Corn Flakes for Rice Krispies). That's about it. The ingredients refer to "corn grits" but I bet that's a mistranslation of corn flakes. So it's nothing really surprising and new, it's just something very tasty. You probably know what corn flakes and chocolate taste like together, and now you can enjoy it in a little bag with a cute animal on it!
Like Tomato Pretz (oops, I changed order - you'll learn about those later), you can achieve these flavors quite easily locally. But these are really yummy. I give them 9/10 Yums because yay. They remind me of Gzacky a lot, and I like to be reminded of Gzacky, but they are clearly inferior to it as well. If you're going to get a baked chocolate snack from Japan, get Gzacky. You won't regret it!
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| Panda Pocky |
| 6.5/10 YUMS |
Instead of the standard plain wheat Pocky stick, these Panda Pocky have a chocolate cracker stick, a little bit like the 'bread' of an ice cream sandwich, but more dry. Then the coating, to make it a panda, is a cookies & cream substance - white creamy stuff with chocolate cookie bits in it. I think the bits are actually Oreo material, but it's also possible they're just bits of what the stick is made of in the first place, which seems like a rip-off. As a bonus, the bags inside the box are decorated with very lovely cartoons of pandas waving Panda Pocky around.
This sounds like such a great idea, but it turned out to be a real disappointment. This is one of my least favorite Pockies! The chocolate sticks are not particularly sweet (regular Pocky sticks aren't sweet at all, but then they're not chocolate, are they?), and they break like crazy, they aren't nearly as sturdy as your standard Pocky. Then the coating is okay, but nothing special. There is a very distinct Oreo flavor to it all, but not nearly as tasty as actual Oreos. Almond Crush Pocky all the way, I don't need these pandas.
I give them 6.5/10 because they're okay, but other Pocky is so very much better.
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| Cheese Potato Snack |
| 6/10 YUMS |
Look, it's a snack instead of a candy! These are pretty straightforward: Take Cheddar & Sour Cream Ruffles and roll them up instead of laying them flat (and wavy), and you have Cheese Potato Snack. They taste the same, with that really strong artificial cheese flavor which is salty and sort of good and sort of disturbing, and other than that they're potatoes. Each one is sort of a straw made of potatoes, empty in the middle.
These are kind of enjoyable, but that fake cheese flavor is at once both good and off-putting, so I rate them 6/10 Yums. Incidentally, the fake cheese flavor is at least partially cheese, probably mostly. But it still tastes fake to me!
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| Pick Up |
| 9/10 YUMS |
Google Translate tells me that these are called "Strawberry Chocolate Pick Up". The English label declares this a "Chocolae Snack", which I will call a typo, although they're clearly not chocolate or chocolae. I am beginning to broaden my understanding of the word chocolate because the strawberry stuff which is present in many many different Japanese candies clearly IS chocolate texturally, it's just strawberry flavored instead of the standard chocolate flavor. Much like white chocolate, only it's pink chocolate. I like it, even though it's a fakey strawberry flavor.
The other odd thing about this stuff is that the ingredients list doesn't contain anything that appears to be the 'cracker' part of it (which to the best of my ability to taste is something of a rice cereal, like puffed rice chex), it's all sugar and chocolate ingredients and strawberry flavoring, and most oddly of all rosemary extract. I don't notice that flavor in there, but hey, interesting idea. I'm glad I don't notice it. The lack of rice in the ingredients is probably another oversight like "chocolae", because I'm quite positive that these crunchy bits aren't just solid sugar.
You know what's not odd about this? The yummification! They're just crispy and light and coated in a thick layer of strawberry goo that kind of softens them up a little, but not so much that they lose their crispiness. It's a little like eating cereal in strawberry milk, but you can trust it to never go soggy. Go pick up some Pick Up, you won't regret it. Although Sol Hunt says they're too squishy. 9/10 Yums from me!
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| Chococone |
| 10/10 YUMS |
The English label slapped on the back of this calls it "Baked Wheat Cracker With Chocolate", which is fair. It also mentions a translation for the big print on the front: Takenoko no sato, which Google Translate told me is "Village of Bamboo Shoot". That's pretty appropriate - I see a village on the box art, and a lot of bamboo. Although to be honest the styling on the candy itself doesn't look like bamboo at all, it's like pinecones. But my final comment on the confusing naming here is that I've had these before, in an English-labeled box, and those were called Chococones, so that is what I call them.
These are awesome. The idea is as simple as the label says: Baked wheat cracker with chocolate. But it's the cracker (cookie, really - this ain't no cracker) that is the secret. I still don't really know what's in there - I see almond paste in the ingredient list, and maybe that's the key to the unique flavor - but whatever it is, they taste like they're infused with coconut oil or something. They're greasy and yummy.
Also, the box is not terribly large, but it's packed really full of cones. I've been struggling not to finish these off since I had to write a review of them, but even so I feel like I've had many separate chomping sessions each full of lots of cones. I'm saying you get a lot of candy in the box. And it's good. 10/10 Yums. Eat Chococones every day, they bring you health and happiness.
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