Kabaya Strawberry Crunchy Panda Biscuits

Look at the poor panda on the cover of the packet. He looks as if his cranium is being smashed by two strawberries that weigh as much as an anvil. Either that, or he's having some creepy orgasmic response to the tube of condensed milk in his right paw. Either way, it's not a pretty picture.

Incidentally, strawberries in Japan are frequently consumed with sweetened condensed milk. It's a semi-translucent, milky liquid that is often used in slightly dirty-minded ads and video by dewy-eyed idols. It's supposed to conjure up salacious notions in the minds of those with a more lecherous bent... not that I know anything about that.


Getting back to business though, my husband picked up this packet of cookies from snack maker Kabaya at New Days convenience store. He then proceeded to leave it in his bag throughout a hot day. There were 6 cookies in the bag and 4 of them looked like they'd gone through one of the types of transporter accidents you see on Star Trek. The combined blob wasn't fit for photographic recording, but the two above weren't as badly harmed.

The cookies smell like white chocolate and strawberries, which is no surprise since that is the main selling point. The biscuits themselves are pretty bland and all about the crunch. My husband found the cookies too hard and I found the white chocolate too sweet. The strawberry flavor is not bad. It even has a finishing tang to it which has verisimilitude with consuming actual strawberries. One of the ingredients is "strawberry sugar", so I'm guessing there is some real fruit in them somewhere.

Each cookie is about 30 calories and so sweet that your teeth will ache. They're not bad at all. In fact, I can easily see how someone who is into super sweet cookies would enjoy them, but they just weren't my cup of tea. The bag was finished, but neither my husband nor I would want a repeat of the experience.