Hokunyu Fruity Tomato Yogurt

When I was a kid, I loved tomatoes so much that I'd eat one like an apple. I'm guessing that back then they were better tasting tomatoes than they are these days, but I still eat raw tomato several times a week, if not everyday depending on how the prices are looking. 

I mentioned in some previous posts that tomato seems to be a fad food in Japan at present and you'd think I'd be happy about that, but the Japanese can take something as pure and fabulous as a tomato and pervert it into something bizarre and disturbing. There are tomato gelatin desserts, candies, and caramels. The caramels are an especially scary concept as they are packaged and presented like these Kabaya caramels that I reviewed previously. 

I think that there was potential for this to be good depending on how things came together. Plain yogurt, especially Greek yogurt or yogurt cheese, could go decently with tomato. It's not out of the realm of possibility that this would be nice. Well, it isn't!

When I peeled off the foil and gave it a sniff, it smelled like regular yogurt. The texture is quite firm and betrays the presence of gelatin to thicken it. Among the other ingredients are tomato puree (12%), orange juice, and sugar. The taste is like a strange combination of sweetened yogurt with a tomato aftertaste. I ate the entire container which afforded me 78 calories of energy and little else besides this review.

The main problem is that this is just a freaky mix of flavors, especially with the strong tomato puree aftertaste. It's like mixing yogurt, sugar, and tomato paste together and this tastes as good as that sounds. The company that makes this sells other dairy products including a few of types of pudding which are supposed to be like a famous cheesecake and chocolate cake maker named Tops. I've had Tops cakes before and they are delicious. I hope that Hokunyu does them better justice than they did this unholy marriage of tomato paste, sugar, and sour dairy.