My husband and I have adopted a weekend habit of walking along the long and winding shopping street near our home. This is always a pleasant way to spend some time getting some exercise and doing some necessary shopping. Unfortunately, it has also brought along a less useful habit of checking out snack shops and buying up whatever catches our fancy. My buffer of posts is growing bigger and bigger, as is my stash of uneaten snack foods.
During one such stroll, we went to Okashi no Machioka and came across some bargains. We bought some KitKat mini flavors we'd been ignoring at their original price of 300-400 yen, but were now on offer at a discount. We also picked up some new items including these strawberry cookies. My husband being an aficionado of all things strawberry (and banana) snapped them up for about 280 yen ($3.10). Note that we sampled one strawberry cookie in this brand as part of a variety pack before, but it was a different cookie than these ones.
The package contains 16 small individually-wrapped cookies. Each is 4 cm in diameter (1.6 in.) and 49 calories. The front of the bag says that these are made with "tsubu tsubu" or "pebbly" strawberries. That is a reference to the fact that little bumpy bits of strawberry can be seen in the coating on the top of the cookie.
Like all Country Ma'am cookies, these are slightly crispy on the outside and tender and chewy on the inside. They also are better when heated in the microwave or toaster oven. I've got no issues with these cookies on the texture front. The problem I have with them is the taste. At first, the strawberry hits you rather mildly and pleasantly, then you get to the chocolate chip cookie flavor in the center. By the end, when the somewhat sour and tangy strawberry flavor starts to flower in your mouth, the combination tastes discordant. I think the strawberry flavor which worked pretty well in the previous non-pebbly variety isn't working so well here. Perhaps the little bits of fruit make the tart strawberry flavor a bit too intense such that it doesn't make a nice pairing with the chocolate chip cookie.
My husband would give these an indifferent rating. He'll finish the bag, but wouldn't buy them again. I would be tossing the rest of them out because I just found them unpleasant.
What a bummer about the cookies, I do like their other flavors, esp if I heat them up in the microwave... YUM.. have you tried their Macadamia nut yet?
ReplyDeleteI was looney when they came out with the Macha version... do you notice, this time of year, everything is strawberries and sakura?
From the looks of those cookies, I'm not too surprised about your rating. I don't think I'd enjoy them, either. Oh well, every brand misses now and then.
ReplyDeleteApril Marie: I did notice everything is cherry and strawberry this year, but actually, after doing this for awhile now, I've noticed that there are frequent fruit "themes" in the spring. Of course, sakura is a big one, but it can be any fruit. Banana seems bigger throughout the winter, but is available year-round (probably because it's cheap year-round). Fruit flavors definitely come out of the woodwork around spring!
ReplyDeleteEbidebby: I've noticed that some brands miss more now than then. ;-)
Thanks very much to both of you for taking the time to comment! :-)
Country Ma'am continues to shrink! Unfortunately Country Ma'am has chosen to take the route of reducing the size of the cookies over the course of the past two years. What was once a regular size "Japanese" cookie has turned into something less than bite size - all while keeping the price the same. Sneaky. I refuse to buy these.
ReplyDeleteHi, Danny, and thank you for commenting and reading. I had thought the cookies were getting smaller, but I didn't pay much attention to their size in the past so I didn't know for sure.
ReplyDeleteIt is irritating that they have gotten smaller and smaller, especially in light of the fact that each is individually wrapped!