Glico Komekko Barbecue Flavor Snacks

It probably seems like I just toss these reviews out without putting too much thought or effort into them, but the truth is that I try to do at least a little research on every product. If I'm lucky, I just go to the manufacturer's corporate web site and click on the products button and find the food I'm reviewing listed somewhere. Sometimes, I'm not so lucky and can't find the product and then I have to start chasing down information in some other way.


In the case of this salted snack, which I picked up for 100 yen at a local convenience store, I Glico seems to be hiding it somewhere deep in its pages rather than listing it on the main products page. I guess it's not high profile enough to warrant being listed along with the glamorous likes of salty treats like Cratz. When I finally found the right page, it was woefully devoid of meaningful content, so I can't tell you any fun facts about this or provide a link to a desktop picture showing it's happy little salty mascots. This is one of Glico's lesser children.

When I bought this, I did so very impulsively and didn't pay attention to what the box said. I saw "baked", "chicken", and "barbecue". I also checked the calorie counts and saw that one 30-gram (1 oz.) packet (there are two in the box) has 140 calories. That didn't sound too bad. What I didn't see was that one of the flavors is shrimp, and I hate shrimp.


These smell mainly like shrimp and the first bite tastes like the same sort of shrimp flavoring that is so often applied to salted snacks in Japan. This does not bode well for the likes of me. Fortunately, after you eat a few more, the shrimp flavor becomes muted and a tare (Japanese sauce often used for grilling) flavor starts to really kick in. I love tare, so that helped balance out the experience. The tare flavoring starts to grow more and more pronounced giving these an authentic Japanese barbecue flavoring.

I was very surprised to find that I genuinely enjoyed these. The texture is light and crispy and you get a lot of these in the bag for 140 calories. They're satisfyingly salty without starting to burn the corners of your mouth. I would certainly consider buying these again, particularly if I wanted something nicely savory, not too expensive, and not too fattening.