Random Picture 62

There are cans of "retro drops" for sale irregularly in Japan. This is a product which is not very popular for its actual taste, as they are simply fruit-flavored hard candies, but rather for the style of tin that they are sold in. Wikipedia says they have a lot of nostalgia value since they have been available since the Meiji period (early 1900's). However, the company that makes these was established in 1948, so I guess that before that it was one of those hand-rolling and making it out of a little building deals (shinise) that you see less and less frequently in Japan.

I've never bought these candies, and I can't see myself ever bothering to review them because I'm guessing they won't be appreciably different from whatever is offered in the West. These do have the virtue of being made with real fruit juice, but the only reason to buy them besides cultivating a cavity is for the tin they come in, and frankly, I've got enough junk lying around my apartment already.

Pon Juice Orange Mikan Gummy

It's interesting to realize that I've had two "Pon Juice" products, but I've never seen nor sampled the juice itself. In my world, it seems as though the juice is named for an actual fruit, rather than a brand name for a product. One of these days, I hope to stumble across the juice itself and give it a review. In the meantime, I'll content myself with the sweeties made in its image.

I found the gummi candies at Okashi no Marche discount snack shop. It was only 99 yen ($1.15) for a 36 gram (1.3 oz.) bag. There are 9 candies in the bag and each is 13 calories, so it's 112 calories if you put away the whole thing.These are made by a company named "Sakuma Seika" and this is the first time I haven't reviewed their products before because they mainly make hard candies and those types of products are a small portion of my reviews. Their motto is "basic and gourmet".

When you open the foil packet, you can smell a lovely, sweet orange juice scent. The gummies themselves are two-tone and semi-translucent. They have little bumps on them to resemble real oranges, though I wasn't fooled. I knew it wasn't an orange because I've never seen one this small... not even in Japan!

The texture is typical gummi, though it's important to note that these were fresh and relatively soft. It had just the right amount of pliability coupled with chewiness. The flavor is like a sweet, juicy orange. Both orange and mikan are ingredients as are oblaat (the stuff used to make capsules for medicine) and gelatin.

These are quite tasty and seem like "adult" gummies. If you're a fan of gummi candy and orange, you almost certainly can't do better than these. I give these "only" a "happy" rating (rather than "very happy") because I'm not the hugest gummi fan in the world, not because they weren't damn tasty.