Friday, June 25, 2010

Kamu Kamu Hi-Chew



Taking picture of food isn't exactly an exciting endeavor, but taking pictures of Hi-Chew's lumps of goo is even more boring than usual. This blob of "kamu kamu" stuff looked like a small piece of fatty ham.

Kamu kamu is the Japanized version of camu camu, a bush that bears red fruit and grows in the area of the Amazon river. This is the second in the "world fruit" series of Hi-Chew. Previously, I reviewed the American cherry version. Morinaga's information on Hi-Chew lets us know that the fruit for their candy is from Peru.


Though Wikipedia identifies this as a "berry", the picture on the candy's label shows what looks like grapes. This does smell a bit like grape and tastes like the most intense grapes you have ever eaten. In my opinion, these are like a cross between a grape and a cherry with the sour notes of cherry and the sweetness of grapes.

At 19 calories per candy, these are a pretty nice little sugar-based pick-me-up. They're also cheap since you get 12 candies per pack at an average cost of 100 yen ($1.10). If I were a greater fan of Hi-Chew in general, I'd almost certainly give this a "very happy" rating. These are the tastiest Hi-Chew I've had to date according to my taste buds.

2 comments:

Dani said...

I LOVE Hi-Chews!! They used to make a most wonderful passion fruit-flavored chew, but I can't find it anywhere now. I suppose they release special flavors in limited release? My other favorite flavor is mango.

I actually have this very same Kamu Kamu pack at home. I purchased it at the Mitsuwa market here. I didn't quite care for it. It does taste like tart grapes, or more like tart fruity-something, as I could not discern the flavor well. Perhaps it's because I'm not familiar with the camu camu fruit, but the flavor of sour grapes doesn't do a thing for me. At least they were to your liking! :)

Serena said...

I love Hi Chew! I wish I could find them easier here. They have them at Hastings but they are expensive..And they only have strawberry and occasionally some other flavours.