Nongshim Banana Kick Snack

I've often thought that it would be cool to work for the art department of a snack company. You can come up with all sorts of kooky mascots for equally kookily (not actually a word, I know) named products. I'm sure someone sat around frowning in concentration to come up with a banana that is kicking into the air at an invisible soccer ball when pondering this bag's design.

The "genuis" of this design isn't the anthropomorphic 'nana. No, that was easy. The hard part was deciding his attire, and, I'm sure, if he might have been a scandalously nekkid banana. I'm sure there was much more frowning and thinking as the designer came up with a little word association to think of what to do besides put on a flirtatious and energetic-looking banana. You could imagine him saying, "hmmm... hmmm... (though likely he said "hmmm..." in Korean since this is a Korean product)... bananas... banana split... banana boat... banana peel... bananas shake... bananas and... bananas and monkeys! Yes, who doesn't associate monkeys and bananas? So, we've got a monkey. Why would a banana hang out with a monkey? Well, he must be on safari. Yay! Ideao acquired!

Now that I've gone through the sophisticated creative process, I'm far less certain of the cool factor of working in the art department of a snack company. Perhaps it would be better to design the flavors or food varieties, but that's a post for another time. I've procrastinated long enough and it's time to talk about the actual food contained within the bag.

I bought these because, frankly, they sounded awful. I picked them up at a Korean market for about a dollar and I did it because it was too strange not to. It's not strange because it's banana, but rather because it's a banana salted snack puff. We don't tend to put fruit flavors on our puffs here, so this seemed like a chance to try something quite different.

I assumed this would be sweet, and I'm not exactly a stranger to sweet corn puffs after living in Japan for awhile. It is sweet and has a strong, but not particularly fake, banana flavor. The puffs themselves are super light and crispy. I've had this bag sitting around for more than 2 months, but it stayed fresh (shockingly). That being said, the date was July 11, 2014, so I beat the expiration. Of course, it was sealed.

The banana aspect of these reminds me a great deal of the type of banana chips that are shellacked with sugar on the outside and that people eat because they are supposed to be healthy. There is also an undercurrent of basic corn puff flavor. This could be a cereal, except that it is sweeter than even something like Cap'n Crunch.

The first ingredient in this is corn flour followed by sugar, rice bran oil, banana powder, palm oil, skim milk powder, artificial flavor, salt, lactose, egg white powder, and turmeric (no doubt for color). It's no shock that these are so sweet given that sugar is second on the list. They are surprisingly not so fattening. The entire bag (45 grams or about 1.5 oz.) is only 190 calories. For a salty treat, that's not bad.

These are not bad really, but it is too sweet for my tastes. I was never a fan of banana chips in general, but I could see this really appealing to someone who loves them. Not only does it tastes like them, but these are more fun to eat due to the light texture. They're very close to being something I like, but ultimately, just too sweet to merit a "happy" rating.

Starbucks Banana Chocolate Cream Frappucino (product information)

Bananas are one of the most accessible types of fruit in Japan. They're cheap and you can buy them nearly anywhere including conveninece stores. Of course, they tend to not be very tasty or sweet compared to some of the bananas you can get in other places (at least the Tokyo ones). I'm guessing this Starbucks concoction is going to be quite a bit sweeter and tastier than the standard imported banana (which I believe come from the Philippines). You really can't go wrong with chocolate and cream, though I'm guessing this won't live up to its potential if the banana is fake.

If you find yourself ordering one of these (I wouldn't try this as I love bananas, but not things flavored with banana), let me know what you think. 

Fujiya Sweets Torte Banana Caramel Pancake Chocolates

I've been crazy for pancakes since coming back to the U.S. I did have them occasionally in Japan, but I tended to not eat them too much because the syrup had about, oh, a billion calories in it and a pancake without syrup is simply fluffier bread. One of the reasons I crave pancakes here is that I can buy sugar-free syrup. Besides being carcinogenic, it weighs in at about 30 calories per quarter cup whereas the real stuff is 240 per cup. That makes it a lot easier to eat pancakes without going up a size.

Since I've been on a pancake kick lately, these chocolates caught my eye. I was certain that they'd taste just like a banana pancake because I'm just that stupid. The main problem with anything "pancake" flavored is that it's missing the essential element and that is the texture. More often than not, "pancake" means maple syrup and I was hoping that wasn't what this was going to be.

The "sweets torte" line by Fujiya is an attempt to make a fairly complex and sophisticated chocolate for the consumer market. To that end, they tend to layer a little cookie with a few kinds of chocolate and syrup. This should add in multiple flavors unless they all happen to come together into a melange of horribleness.

Fortunately, I can say that this keeps at least some of it's flavors distinct. The first thing you get is the outer chocolate coating following by something which is reminiscent of an actual pancake's taste. The kicker is a banana flavor. Unfortunately, it's a little too strong and knocks out that hint of actual pancake flavor pretty strongly.

This is not a bad chocolate. It certainly is interesting and has some complexity. However, the banana part is a little too strong for me and these are somewhat expensive candies. I can't remember what I paid for it, but it was between $2.50-3.00 for a tiny box with 5 individually wrapped pieces. As a one-time novelty, I don't necessarily regret trying it, but I wouldn't buy it again.

Mister Donut Choco and Banana Fair (Product Announcement)

Images from Mister Donut.

There are many things I miss about Mister Donut. Actually, I should pause and reconsider that statement because the truth is that there is mainly one thing that I miss about it and that is the delights of an angel cream. It was the perfect donut for me. In fact, I could wax poetic about the cloud-like creamy filling which was fatty and rich, but not too heavy, the delicate yeast-risen pastry which was sprinkled with just enough granulated sugar to sweeten it without being overbearing, and the absolutely perfect size that offered a little under 200 calories of deliciousness. The closest I can get to that here is Krispy Kreme's nearly 400 calorie "kreme" monstrosity which is too big and too glazed. No one else even sells something with a whipped cream filling. Sigh.

This is an interesting campaign from the fine folks at Misdo, but it's one that I probably wouldn't avail myself of even if I were still in Japan. I love a good banana, but I don't like banana-flavored things. On the other hand, my husband would likely sample his way through most of the donuts that are about to become available for a mere 100 yen on July 10 and go away on July 15.

The flavors include banana and chocolate banana old-fashioned (shaped like bananas), banana whipped cream, pon de ring banana and pon de ring banana cream, banana whip French, and banana chocolate. The picture above shows a variety of chocolate-based donuts as well.

Frutabella Bananada Cremosa

When I hear a word with "cream" or even "creme" as part of the name, I expect, well, rich, fatty, white goodness. What I don't expect is a brown turd-like object which clearly has nothing to do with skimming the fat off of fresh milk. Life is just full of surprises. They're not necessarily happy ones that inspire giddy, girlish glee, but they are technically "surprises" in that they find you totally off-guard.

My husband picked up this object at the Portuguese deli and market at which I found my Brazilian Pez. He saw "banana" and decided this was of interest to him. I saw "cremosa" and thought it might be of interest to me. It ended up that we were both wrong. This food-like item is of no interest to either of us, though we did gamely give it a try despite its resemblance to bodily waste.

It should be noted that I don't speak Portuguese, though I did study a little Spanish and they're like cousins to one another. However, that really didn't help much in this case because "cremosa" means "creamy" and that was simply a big, fat lie. Even if I understood perfectly, I still would have been mislead.

Be honest. Your first thought was, "who forgot to flush!"

What this is is a wad of sugary fruit puree that has enough cohesion to not smoosh into a smattering of paste, but is still very pliable. It's more grainy than "creamy", though I have to say that it probably is about as "creamy" as pureed banana mixed with sugar and potassium sorbate is going to get. The flavor is strange in that brown sugar dominates. The "banana" aspect mainly comes through as a sour, nearly rotten banana taste at the end of each bite. On the bright side, and in what I see as the only sunny side of this, the dusting crunchy sugary coating on the outside adds an interesting textural element to the banana goo. If nothing else, this product reinforces my already strong sense that Japan isn't the only place where they sell weird food.

This is a profoundly weird thing, which I'm sure is supposed to be health because it's fruit and only 92 calories for a blob about the length of my thumb. The web site for this product talks about how bananas have great nutritional benefits as does potassium. I agree with their logic, but not with the monstrosity they've created from a perfectly good banana. I say, stick to a real banana and give this mass of fruit paste a miss.

Random Picture #134

There's a huge snack shop in the Ameyokocho shopping district in Ueno, Tokyo that is so dizzying in its vastness (both because it has two stores and two floors) that I couldn't drink it all in when I went there. It not only carries a plethora of imports, but also about every sort of Japanese manju (traditional sweet) that one might imagine. The shop is called "Niki no Kashi" and is well worth a visit if you find yourself visiting Tokyo.

On the occasion that my husband and I visited, the big challenge was always to choose from among the huge variety of options at hand such that we could actually consume what we purchased before said foods acquired house guests (of the bacterial or insect variety). Since things are relatively cheap there, it's that much harder to walk away. The banana manju pictured above was a tricky one because my husband likes all things banana and it has a dopey saying on the box. "It finished only using the delicious banana selected carefully. Please enjoy momentary tea time." I guess you wouldn't want your tea time to drag on too terribly long.

We didn't end up buying this because I'm not a huge fan of banana snacks, even if they are crafted with delicious and carefully selected fruit.

Tirol Premium Choco Banana

I thought that my days of reviewing Tirol chocolates were over when my airplane left Narita airport on March 29, 2012. I figured that, of all of the things which might be imported, these tiny little squares of 20 yen (26 cents) chocolate would not make the cut. This is because they melt easily, have a low profit margin, and they are not famous among foreigners so people wouldn't know what to make of them when they saw them in stores, unlike KitKats.

The truth is that finding KitKats hasn't exactly been easy in America either, despite the relatively high level of interest in exotic Japanese KitKat flavors. Even places that carry a lot of imported Japanese items tend to focus on sembei (rice crackers), Pocky, and various cooking ingredients rather than on candy bars. I did, however, finally make my way to a major chain of Japanese markets and discovered not only overpriced Japanese KitKats ($7 for a bag of minis), but also this flavor of Tirol candy. Of course, these cost 49 cents and were nearly double their Japan price, but I wasn't going to quibble when I wasn't the one who had to fly over  to Japan and keep the box on my lap on the way home. Also, I'm good with making an investment of about 50 cents to sample something and not so happy about $7 (548 yen, not too different from the retail price of a bag of them in Japan, but no one pays the retail price) on a KitKat flavor that is just a small step removed from what I've tried before. Incidentally, the KitKat flavors on offer were green tea, vanilla ice cream and raspberry, all of which I've had in other iterations before.

This is quite a sophisticated little piece of candy for something you buy in a plastic and foil wrapper in a market. I was impressed that it had four different layers. The outside is a very thin shell of white chocolate. Under the top surface is chocolate syrup with a small amount of banana goop under it. The bottom is a semi-sweet chocolate and the center is a marshmallow. The flavor depth on this is quite surprising. You get banana, which tastes good and as close to "real" as I've had in a such a sweet and a deep semi-sweet chocolate (very reminiscent of Hershey's syrup) which is properly balanced. This actually tastes like a real chocolate banana, but it has the added pleasures of the texture and compactness of chocolate.

Each candy is 49 calories for about a 1" (2.54 cm.) square and is well worth the sugar investment if you're a fan of chocolate-covered bananas. I found these at Nijiya Market in Mountain View, CA. Nijiya has shops in many cities in California as well as one in New York and a few in Hawaii. The package design led me to believe that it was a summer release (the fans) and Tirol's web site lists this as a current variety that one can purchase in convenience stores in Japan. Unfortunately, I know of no mail order options for this or any other Tirol candy. Nijiya has an online shop, but snacks don't tend to be listed there.

This was much more tasty than I expected, particularly since I tend to be unimpressed by banana candy. I love bananas, but find that infusing it into candy tends to be nasty. This worked and I'd definitely buy it again.

Incidentally, if you are interested in some cute wallpapers, you can download them from Tirol's web site here.

Glico Bisco Banana and Strawberry

Bisco is one of those things I've seen for decades but never expected to sample. This is because the front of the package depicts a baby and I assume these are biscuits for teething children. My view on this matter did not change, but was rather changed for me when I bought a small package of Collon for review. I didn't heed the signs very well and when I got to the check-out counter, I was told that I needed to buy three of the small packaged snacks for 100 yen ($1.24) so I rushed over to the rack and grabbed two of the first things in the general vicinity of the Collon. They were these two packages of baby biscuits.

So, now that I've spent all of 66 yen on these, I'm going to review them no matter how silly I feel eating food marketed for little kids. Based on the image on the package, these are pretty darn close to being teething biscuits... not that I'm embarrassed or anything to be gnawing on something designed for people who have no teeth. I probably will, one day, also have no teeth, though with no hope of new ones coming in.

Each little cookie is about half the size of an Oreo with a smidge of cream filling inside. The machines that make these aren't particularly careful about how they assemble them. The bottom of the cookie is sometimes the top (as you can see by the one on the right above). Each smells a bit of the fruit it is supposed to be. Both are comprised of the same fairly bland, cracker-like cookies sandwiching a modestly sweet filling with good, but not overpowering banana and strawberry flavors.

I liked these, to be perfectly honest. They're certainly not an Oreo or Nutter Butter or super sweet sandwich cookie, but I really liked the flavor of the outer biscuit. It has a real sense of being an old-fashioned baked cookie which wasn't formulated to get people addicted to eating tons of them. They're made with wheat germ which brings in a somewhat earthier flavor than usual for a cookie. Each packet has only five cookies (approximately 20 calories each, about half the total size of an Oreo) stacked on top of each other. They pair well with tea.

Would I buy these again? Absolutely. I might not buy them a lot, but if I was at work and wanted a little packet of cookies to have as a snack, these would suit me better than some sugary alternatives. That being said, I'm not sure they're going to be that appealing to people who aren't very keen on whole grains and less sweet biscuits.

Zackly Choco and Banana Cream Crackers

In addition to eating junk food on a regular basis, I also cook healthy food and investigate new recipes. In fact, I have an ambivalent relationship with food porn sites like Tastespotting and Foodgawker. I dislike their snobbery and picky nature when it comes to their pictures (that means they never accept my pictures and I'm bitter). That being said, I can't fault them for being high-handed about the types of food they'll show because on multiple occasions, I've seen what could be called recipes for what is often called "magic pudding". This is saltine crackers with chocolate pudding and whipped topping that is allowed to sit awhile and then you're supposed to think is a tasty pastry dessert.

I mention this because I've actually sampled the monstrosity of magic pudding before and the truth is that there is something appealing in the mixture of salty and sweet that comes from layering instant pudding on a cracker. The main problem with magic pudding is the part where it sits around for awhile and gets soft kills any sort of texture enjoyment. You essentially have soggy cracker with crappy pudding.

The Zackly cracker makers (made by a company in the Philippines called H & H) probably never heard of magic pudding, but they've got the basic notion down in this offering. Take three saltine crackers and layer chocolate between a pair and banana between the last and middle one. This equals sweet plus salty with subtle banana and chocolate flavors. The fact that the banana isn't too extreme is good since it's so easy to overdo fake banana.

Sorry for the washed out picture. I took 5 and this was the best one, but, really, it's just saltines with hardened goo between the layers... not much to see.

The cream doesn't extend out to the edges of the crackers so it's a very mild taste experience near the edges and only quite sweet and intense near the middle. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad one. As junk food goes, there's something oddly appealing about this. You know it's bad, but if you're in the right mood, it sort of works as a flavor combination and the crispy crackers are quite nice. One triple cracker combo is 135 calories, and it's a fairly good size snack for that. It's essentially the same calorie cost as a Pepperidge Farms Sausalito cookie, which most people are probably going to enjoy more than this.

My husband thought this was a bizarre combination and he wouldn't eat it again, but I liked it in the way that I used to like certain weird food combinations (e.g., cottage cheese with Doritos crumbled in it or French fries dipped in chocolate milk shakes) when I was a child. I can't recommend this, and I don't anticipate buying it again any time soon. It's the sort of thing I may develop a peculiar hankering for once every 3-5 years in a fit of hormonally induced craving or a revival of my child-like tastes in weird food. At only 100 yen ($1.21) for a whole package, it's hardly a financial risk to sample it if you spot it and the general description sounds interesting to you. Just keep your expectations appropriately low.

Luna Banana Nata de Coco Yogurt

While the plain yogurt offerings continue to be decimated on store shelves due to supply chain problems and (likely) panic-buying, small cartons of flavored yogurt tend to be left behind, at least in small quantities. In my area, I've noticed that low or no calorie options are less popular than regular versions during the current atmosphere of crisis. I guess if you're going to hoard, it's important to make sure you have stuff that will fatten you up as much as possible.

I found this Luna yogurt at the local Lawson's 100 convenience store (100 yen/$1.21), but I've seen it pretty much everywhere. Since I've had very good experiences with the other offerings in this low-calorie line (a mere 65 calories) that Luna is creating, I thought I'd take the risk on banana yogurt. When I say "risk", I mean that I was risking the heartbreak of fake banana flavor, which is always a possibility.

After sampling this, the phrase, "it's better to quit while you're ahead" came to mind. Sigh. The banana flavor is too intense, and fake. The nata de coco pieces are firmer and tougher than some and the sweet and sour balance is not very pleasant. It's as if intense yogurt sourness is purposefully being off-set by equally intense artificial sweetness.

Though this is only 65 calories and makes for a light snack, I wouldn't buy it again because the flavors just don't work well and the textures are disappointing. I think if the nata de coco had been nicer, I'd be more forgiving even of the fake flavoring and unpleasant sweet and sour. Sorry, Luna, we have just had our first bad date, but I'll give you another chance in the future.

Sun Lavieen Monkey Banana

If I were a typical American kid, I'd think this was the sort of treat designed to sneak something into me that I wouldn't want to eat. In this case, the food of dubious value would be white beans. They happen to be the first ingredient in the list for these castella-based cakes. For those who don't know, castella is a type of Portuguese sponge cake that is very popular in Japan.

My husband spied these at Peacock supermarket and decided he wanted to give them a go. At only 100 yen ($1.20) for a 70-gram bag (2.5 oz.), I was game to invest. Besides, anything with "monkey" deserves a few brownie points and "banana" is an added bonus. I'm not sure, incidentally, what these do to earn the good name "monkey", however. They don't look like monkeys. They don't taste like monkeys (that I know of). And, unless Japanese monkeys are fed a diet of white beans and castella, they aren't monkey food.

This was more first sampling of a product made by Sun Lavieen. I checked out their web site and they make a variety of cakes designed to sit on shelves for a prolonged period of time without spoilage as well as some chou-based, eclair, and waffle offerings which are in the chilled sections of markets. All in all, they appear to be a youngish (by Japanese standards, established in 1963) mid-size company (290 employees) that fills a certain niche. The thing which most distinguishes them from other companies is that they appear not to have any cartoon mascots.  Their motto is "we propose stylish tea time by delicious confectionery."

The expected issue with these was that they would be dry, and they are. In fact, they're exceedingly dry both because they are castella and preserved. The flavor is of fake banana, reasonable sweetness and the usual cake and margarine mixture. Note that there is no actual banana in the ingredients list.

I'm not sure who would enjoy these, not because they are truly bad, but because they are not very good. Mainly, they are dry and not sufficiently flavorful in nice ways (fake banana doesn't count as "nice"). About the only thing they have going for them is that each ring-finger-sized cake is only about 35 calories and they'll probably last awhile without spoiling or getting any drier even after being opened. I imagine these also would be good as part of a trail food kit that you can toss in a pack and carry around for several days. Aside from that though, I can't imagine pondering having these again, though my husband and I may slowly finish the bag.

Kracie Man Banana

Doing a rough translation of the name of the this product, which literally is "man banana" (男バナナ), I realize there is an unintentional implication there. If you're expecting something remotely phallic, you're in for an incredibly big disappointment. I think that a better translation would be "banana man", but where's the fun in that?

This product seems to have been inspired by the episode of The Simpsons in which Homer decides to get in shape and climb "The Murderhorn". While he's getting in shape, he tells his wife, Marge, that he will only eat food in bar form in order to release its awesome power so he takes two pounds of spaghetti and compresses it into a bar which he eats and then calls the hospital. This candy is trying to release the awesomeness of bananas, raisins, and mangoes by compressing them into little 30-calorie cubes of chewy candy.

My husband found this candy at NewDays convenience store and was drawn to the banana aspect of it. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't be reviewing this since I'm not a big fan of banana snacks. That being said, he ate one piece of this and then never went back for more. To him, it tasted like nothing more than hyper-concentrated banana. This is no surprise since it is 90% fruit. A sniff tells you that banana is definitely the main component, but I could also taste the raisin's telltale sweetness and strong over-ripened flavor.

This candy is not your typical soft chew. It's rather more like a block of dried fruit/fruit leather. It's a little difficult to bite off a bit, but not exactly tough. Because it doesn't have much except fruit, dextrin and gelatin, you can get some idea of what it might be like to eat.

This reminded me a bit of eating banana chips without the added sweetness or crunchiness. It wasn't bad, but I am not the biggest fan of dried fruit flavors. To me, a lot of the value of fruit is in its moist real textures, not in hyper-concentrating those flavors by drying them out and squashing them. Though this isn't bad, I can't help but give it an "unhappy" rating because neither my husband nor I will eat the remaining 4 pieces of the 6 piece pack. Fans of dried fruit may feel otherwise, but I would really rather eat an actual banana than eat something like this.

Meiji Pucca Banana Milk

When I was titling this review, I was thinking about what I should call them. They're not quite cookies. They're not quite crackers, and though they're made with pretzel-like shells, they're definitely not them either. Like Pocky, I'm thinking Pucca is in a class by itself. The closest way to describe it is as a sweet version of a Combo that is made with more finesse and care.

I reviewed the classic Pucca with a chocolate filling and I liked it a lot. It was only that fact which drew me to sampling this banana milk variety. The truth is that I'm always a bit of wary of banana-flavored foods because they are often very fake. The main point about Pucca that works for me is the contrast of the pretzel-like coating with its rye flour notes and the sweet filling. I hoped that would work for this as well as it did for the chocolate version.

The cookies smell like strong, somewhat fake banana. The filling is super sweet banana with just a hint of a vanilla flavor. The "milk" part doesn't really come through strongly, but it's something you sense more as a creamy texture in the filling. On the first bite, you really mainly get the overwhelming sweet banana flavor. By the third, the sweetness detectors on my taste buds were overwhelmed enough to start picking up the pretzel exterior's unique and pleasant flavor. As is the case with all Pucca, the outer shell is thin and crispy and the filling is fatty and creamy. The entire box is 237 calories or about 10 calories per fish.

I liked these, even though the banana flavor is undeniably strong and fake and they're incredibly sweet. It's fake in a good kind of way though my husband didn't care for it (and he's generally less fussy about such things than me). I can't recommend these for just anyone, but I can only say I'd consider buying them again. They're cheap at 100 yen ($1.20) for a 46 gram (1.62 oz.) box and so intense in flavor that you don't have to eat many to feel satisfied.

Meiji BizCharge Banana Yogurt with Konnyaku

Have you ever asked yourself whether or not there is a yogurt out there that is masculine enough for you? It seems that Meiji has pondered this question as well and has determined that existing products lack the Y-chromosome appeal they need.

The reason this is called "BizCharge" is that it is marketed as yogurt for businessmen. Yes, this isn't your typical sissy food for little girls trying to watch their weight. It's a man's yogurt. The top tells you exactly how to use this product (Open->Charge->Go), in case you don't know how to peel the foil off the top of a cup of yogurt and consume it. I guess those businessmen aren't as well educated as they used to be, or that they lack the energy to think before consuming this yogurt.

Part of the promotion for this mentions that you get 86 calories of the total 137 calories in this from banana, though only 5% is banana. The idea is that men can power themselves up on that banana fuel. The ingredients list includes coconut oil, banana sugar, Stevia, and banana juice. The portion size is rather bigger than usual, 170 grams (6 oz.). I'm guessing the bigger size is due to the fact that this is for men to energize themselves on, and the calories aren't higher than they are because konnyaku has no calories to speak of.

The yogurt smells nice and banana-like and has a lumpy texture. The lumps are both bits of banana and little chewy balls of tapioca-like konnyaku. The yogurt isn't as sour as most and not as sweet as some others. It's got a good, authentic banana flavor and has excellent fruit, yogurt, and sweetness balance.

I found this at Seiyu supermarket for about 120 yen ($1.37). I haven't seen it in other markets or convenience stores, but I'll be honest and say that I rarely pay exquisite attention to the yogurt sections as I always buy cheap, plain low-fat yogurt or Luna vanilla yogurt. This caught my eye because of the name. Banana yogurt also isn't very common, but this was really good. I'd definitely recommend any yogurt fans sample it, whether they are businessmen or not.

Mixed Juice KitKat (mini)

I vowed some time ago to stop buying bags of KitKat minis in order to review them. Most of them are simply not worth having such a large quantity of and it takes forever for me to eat them. With summer coming on fast (as it always does in Tokyo), I have to keep chocolate in the refrigerator or risk it melting away. I decided that I'd only try these oddball flavors if I could find a single mini on sale at a convenience store. This tends to end up with me trolling all of my local "conbini" for single minis on sale, and mainly failing. Frankly, I wish Nestlé Japan would either stop selling things in big bags of mini bars or improve their distribution of lone minis in convenience stores. It'd sure make my life easier.

During the Golden Week holiday, a week with a string of national holidays in early May, my husband and I took a very long walk and stumbled upon a 7-11 that had the mixed juice mini that one of my commenters had told me about. One bar was about 40 yen (44 cents), I think. The truth is that I didn't save the receipt or pay much attention. I was just glad to find a single mini on sale somewhere and opened my wallet and tossed money on the counter. I had also seen this reviewed, rather unfavorably, on Jen's KitKat blog. My expectations were appropriately low.

This smelled rather "fruity" in the way that I remember children's "tootie fruitie" types of candies when I was a kid. It's like an indistinguishable mishmash of fake fruits. I think that Juicy Fruit gum has a not dissimilar scent, though the intensity of the aroma coming from this bar was far less than with that gum.

The first taste of this was of apple. Note that the wrapper doesn't show apple, and Nestlé Japan's web site says that the flavors are peach, strawberry and banana. They also indicate that this is "fresh and sweet" and ideal for family get togethers during Golden Week.

The second flavor was banana. I really didn't detect anything else except rather sweet white chocolate. The ingredients list doesn't reveal anything about the fruit used in this, but it does let you know that the orange coloring comes courtesy of paprika. Note that there is no calorie information on my package, but I'm guessing this is in the 65-70 calorie range, as is often the case with mini bars.

This wasn't bad, and I kind of enjoyed the fruitiness of it in a nostalgic way. It isn't the sort of thing that I'd like to eat again and again, but it was an interesting sampling. If you're pretty open-minded about sweet white chocolate and fruity flavors (particularly fake ones), you might enjoy a nibble of this. I definitely wouldn't recommend buying a big bag unless you're sharing with your office or friends. The bottom line is that I don't regret having a few bites of this, but I wouldn't buy it again.

Banana KitKat (big bar)

Having grown up in the United States, I've often felt bigger is better, particularly when it comes to food. After living in Japan for quite some time, I've come to realize that bigger isn't necessarily better. It really depends on what you're talking about, and those of you with dirty minds have no doubt rushed to some interesting conclusions. How do I know you're doing this? Well, I was there way ahead of you.


This is the second banana KitKat I've reviewed recently and the other was a limited edition Okinawa banana KitKat mini bar which I was not an especially great fan of. So, the question is, did making a banana KitKat bigger make it better? Oddly enough, as is the case with other banana-shaped things, bigger is better. (What? I was thinking of a boomerang... what were you thinking of?)

This bar smells like yellow circus peanuts and the taste is of very strong banana flavor. It's very sweet and actually tastes like banana circus peanuts minus the strong esthers flavor which makes that candy so gross. As fake banana bars go, this is pretty good, but so sweet. It has more of what I'd call a "candy" taste to it than a chocolate one. This bar will set you back 243 calories for a 44 gram (1.5 oz.) bar. You can buy it for 100 yen at most convenience stores right now.

I give it happy rating if eaten in small doses. I think the sweetness would make it hard to eat too much at once. My husband, on the other hand, would give it a "very happy" rating as he likes sweeter things and banana-flavored treats more than me.

And, yes, banana-flavored stuff is pretty hot right now. It's everywhere in Tokyo, so you're likely to see more in the near future.

Tohato All Banana Cookies

This is the latest in Tohato's "All (fruit name)" series of somewhat healthy cookies. Previously, I sampled their "All Osatsu" (sweet potato) and "All Cranberry VE" cookies and rated them both positively. I had somewhat lower expectations for these banana cookies since, if there's one thing sweets makers can manage, it's to screw up banana-flavored treats. That being said, I was game to give these a try to see how Tohato did with giving them the "All" treatment.

A bag of these contains 14 cookies that are about 5 x 4.5 cm square (2" x 1.7"). I bought these at Tomod's drug store, but I'd be surprised if you couldn't find them in most grocery stores in Tokyo. Each cookie is only 29 calories.


The process of making these cookies is offered with an illustration on the side of the bag. They show a layer of cookie, a 10-cm. (3.9 in.) layer of bananas and another layer of cookie. Apparently, they press a ton of banana between the two cookie layers to make the somewhat chewy, but still soft morsel pictured above.

I've sniffed a lot of snacks (recreationally, I'm not a hard dealer in snacks or anything) since starting this blog, and these smell better than any banana treat I've tried in my life. They smell like strong, real banana. In fact, the closest thing I can describe the scent to would be banana chips.

These have a nice natural banana flavor, like dried, moist real banana mixed with a generic cookie and cake hybrid flavor. It's very lightly sweet, and gets most of its punch from the banana filling. The ingredients list starts with flour and then goes to the banana followed by sugar, grape sugar, margarine, shortening, and eggs. Somewhere down the list is also cinnamon. That's an unusual inclusion in cookies in Japan.

If you like bananas, I strongly recommend trying these while they're still available. They taste great, have a good texture, and they keep very well. If you're looking to snack on something a little healthier when the old blood sugar drops, these would be a good choice to keep in your desk at work. Two or three of these with a cup of tea really hits the spot.

Tokyo Choco Banana Bars

Recently, one of my students said that she waited in line for an hour to buy a modified Swiss cake roll. I asked her what made it so special that it was worth the wait and she said it was because the cake was not rolled in a swirl and was essentially like an omelet full of whipped cream. She said the whipped cream wasn't very sweet, so you could eat a lot of the cake without getting full. I never did extract a reason why being able to eat a lot of fattening cake was a bonus, but I told her that I would never wait in line to buy any food, no matter how popular it was.

It's not uncommon for a particular food to become very popular as a result of being hard to get when it is initially released, and then for it to later be more fully available. Things like this Tokyo Choco Banana start out that way. First, they are sold in one place only and become popular enough for people to wait in line for them. Later, they start to open up shops in other areas and finally they vanish because everyone gets bored with them. Incidentally, I discovered that the exact cake that my student waited in line for an hour to buy was available line-free at a local station. I don't have the heart to tell her about it though.


Tokyo Banana shops are mainly in major stations around Tokyo. The number of them has been steadily growing and their products' market infiltration has reached a point where select items are carried at all-purpose high-end sweets shops. My first encounter with their products was a sign at a tony store in my area that specializes in traditional Japanese treats. I actually heard of them quite a bit sooner than that via one of my readers, Nate; he had written to me last November and mentioned that he had bought a chocolate bar with a delicious banana cream filling. At that time, I hadn't come across this candy bar because it wasn't on offer at Tokyo Banana shops at that time. Clearly, it is either seasonal or available at certain shops only.


My husband bought a box of 3 of these bars for 530 yen ($5.94) at Shinjuku station when he encountered them. He loves banana sweets, but I'm only so-so on them. The box is designed as a gift or souvenir and does not include calorie information. The web site, however, says that one 40 gram (1.4 oz. ) bar is 243 calories. Each square is about 48 calories. The ingredients are vegetable oil, sugar, whole milk powder, cocoa mass, cocoa butter, banana powder, maltose, lactose, skim milk, egg yolk powder, emulsifiers and flavoring.

When I unwrapped the bar, I was greeted with a heavenly chocolate smell. It really had a terrific aroma. The first bite was of very strong banana at first and extremely fine, smooth, soft milky chocolate second. On the second bite, the banana flavor becomes slightly more subdued as the taste buds acclimate to it. The texture is wonderful for those who like fatty chocolates. It has a creamy center and smooth chocolate that feels rich and decadent on the tongue.

Though I'm not a fan of banana chocolates, the texture of this really drew me in. My husband, on the other hand, found the banana flavor so intense that it came across as fake to him. I think this is the sort of treat that one might take to or not based on how strong banana flavors are perceived. This was a real borderline product on the rating. My husband would have given it indifferent, and I actually would not be inclined to buy it again, but really did enjoy it. I gave it a grudging "happy" rating because it's so high quality and I did like it, but am unlikely to purchase it again for myself due to a low affinity for all things banana-flavored.

Note that these bars can be purchased at the airport in addition to being available at scattered shops throughout Tokyo. They can also be bought on-line if you can read Japanese.