McDonald's Salt Caramel and Mango Passion Orange McFlurry (product announcement)

When I was growing up, McDonald's had two ice cream options. You could have a shake or a pathetic little sundae made up of vanilla ice cream and some anemic chocolate sauce. Because I am not a fan of any fast food, and less of a fan of the golden arches than most other types of said cuisine, I hadn't really noticed the whole "McFlurry" business. I have a hazy recollection of when they were introduced and that they were either a collaboration with Dairy Queen or a rip-off of their "Blizzard" concept, but that's pretty much it. I've never had one in either Japan or America, but every nerve in my Spidey sense says they are probably pretty sweet.

The specimens above are new McFlurry flavors - salt caramel (252 calories) and a mixture of mango, passion fruit and orange (230 calories). If someone were to force feed me one of these, I'd go for the fruity one, though I have to say that the salt caramel one could be intriguing. The funny thing about these is not the flavors. Though they are somewhat unusual, the whole salty sweets thing has been a big fad for years now (it was in force when I left in March 2012) and passion fruit is the only slightly uncommon element in the fruit one. The bizarre thing is that McDonald's plans to offer these only between 10:30 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. It strikes me as weird that they'd choose such a time period as it makes these seem more like "brunch" options than a sweet treat. Personally, I think offering them from 1:00-4:00 would have been a better choice, but I'm guessing this limit is based on the effort and time it takes to make them than when consumer demand might be highest.

KitKat Baked Purin (Pudding) mini

I've spoken before about how there must be a think tank of sorts inside Nestle Japan in which they're sitting around trying to figure out what new gimmicks they can use to try and separate their product from the horde of consumer-grade confectionery. The person who decided that they should create a way for something that usually melts to be baked probably got a gold star, and possibly some fairly quizzical looks and disapproving frowns from those who doubted his ingenuity.

Speaking of said ingenuity, I'm not sure what had to be done to these to make them bake-able without making them turn into a puddle of white chocolate goo. The ingredients list includes chocolate, wheat flour (for the wafer, no doubt), vegetable oil, lactose, sugar caramel powder, whole milk powder, cocoa powder, yeast, cacao mass, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, artificial flavor, baking soda, and "yeast food". The final item appears to be "mineral yeast" which is used to alter the way dough works (not as sticky, softer), so I don't know if it is the magic ingredient. My lack of food chemistry knowledge means that I can't pinpoint what keeps them from becoming ooey messes, but someone did some alchemical homework.

At any rate, I'm on the late side to this party because it took awhile for this to reach my shores. I found this at Nijiya market in San Jose. Given the high novelty factor, and my husband's shared interest in trying these, I forked over the $5.99 without a second thought. How often do I get a chance to set my toaster oven on fire in the name of blogging?

The instructions on the back tell you to line the toaster oven tray with foil. It explicitly says that you should not use aluminium cups or foil pans. Apparently, the difference between sheets of aluminum foil and folded containers ostensibly made with the same stuff is another chemistry lesson I need to learn. At any rate, I wasn't going to argue with the people who made the product... at least not until I actually tried the product and had a reason to do so.

Once you have lined your tray with foil and lined up your KitKats - the illustration shows four bars being made at once, but I only wanted to make two so I may be violating the recipe in some fashion - you're supposed to bake them for about two minutes at 1000 W. In Japan, my toaster oven had wattage listed on the instructions. My oven here has temperatures (in both Celsius and Fahrenheit) and food types.

So, I did some research and got myself thoroughly confused about what the temperature should be. Answers ranged from complex formulas that I tried to use, but gave me ludicrous results like I should be using 1000 degrees F. to "watts measure something different and can't be converted to temperature settings".  I decided to take the middle road and use 350 degrees because I'd rather it cooked too slowly then exploded in a burst of sugary molten madness. That temperature seemed to be a good one.

I had been warned to keep an eye on it by readers who commented on the product announcement and it is a warning I will repeat. This will go from uncooked to nicely browned in the blink of an eye. I didn't burn it, but I'm thinking it will burn fast. Do not walk away from it unless you want to risk it being ruined.

The plain, uncooked bar tastes like very sweet white chocolate and has the nuanced flavor of Japanese "purin" (pudding). It's the barest hint of caramel flavor. Since the bag touts the inclusion of .5% caramel powder, this is no surprise. When I gave it a sniff just after opening the package, caramel was the only thing I could detect aside from the white chocolate itself.

I think this is actually sweeter than other KitKats I've had recently, but that could be because many of my most recent tastings have been the "adult" versions which have tamped down sweetness levels. As an uncooked bar, it's probably a mediocre experience for someone who isn't an enormous fan of white chocolate and a bad one for someone who hates it or very sweet candy.

The sad-looking baked version.

The real question is whether or not it gains something in the baking and the answer is that it does. I sampled this slightly warm and my husband tried it cool. I wanted to try it both ways to see how the texture changed. In both states, baking it takes on a caramelized sugar flavor which reminded both of us of the sauce used in flan. It's not nearly as intense, but the bar is definitely better in its baked state.

This is what happens if you try to pick it up while warm.

In terms of whether you should eat the baked version warm or cold, I definitely say wait for it to cool. If you try to remove it from the sheet warm, it will separate and fall apart. The warm chocolate is an interesting sensation, but you loose the lacey edges which carry much of the intensified caramel flavor (and it sticks to the sheet).

A cooled half - much easier to handle and you don't lose any part of it.

The cooled version not only keeps all of the caramel edges intact, but comes off the sheet cleanly and is easier to handle. Clearly, this was never intended to be eaten warm off the sheet and, if you don't want to risk a burned tongue (I didn't get burned, but it is a risk) or a disintegrating bar, then be patient... not that I was impatient.

At the price I paid ($5.99 for a bag of 13 minis), these are 46 cents per bar. This actually is  not an outrageous price per piece. It's not exactly cheap, but it's not incredibly expensive. In Tokyo, you'd probably pay closer to $3.50-$4.00 (350-400 yen), but it's not really fair to compare import prices to domestic ones. You will always pay between 50-100% more for rare or imported items. These are currently being offered on eBay for $8.54 by someone (including shipping).

A better bet if you want to try these and have no access to an Asian market that carries them is Candysan. They have them for the bargain price of 345 yen at present, but the shipping is 480 yen. However, if you make a larger order, you get a better per item deal on shipping as it scales more slowly (or not at all) after the first item. They also carry other somewhat exotic items which may be worth trying like purple sweet potato KitKats and "big little" orange KitKats. Of course, they have other interesting items as well. At present, I'd say that Candsan offers the best prices on Japanese snacks by mail order in terms of a place that allows you to choose what you receive (as opposed to the services that send you monthly or bi-weekly surprise packages).

In terms of whether or not you should try this, I'd say that it is for people who have curiosity or desire novelty in their food rather than as a "must have" treat. It's a different sort of experience. It's fun and it tastes pretty good as well, but it's not fine quality stuff. I think it'd be a great thing to do with your friends if they're the sort that enjoy unique things and are open-minded. I imagine kids would go crazy for it as a general concept. I have to imagine that since I don't have kids. ;-) At any rate, I'm happy that I tried it, but I'm not sure that I'd go for it again. Once is a good experience, and it's enough.

Nestle Baked KitKats (product announcement)

This is a party I'm a little late to so you may have already heard of this. Nestle Japan is offering a KitKat that you can bake and it won't turn into a melted pile of goo. It's supposed to brown up and taste like custard or vanilla pudding. Apparently, this is availabel at the Chocolate Cafe in Ikebukuro in Tokyo. The cafe is open from 10:00 am to 9:00 pm (except closing at 8:00 on Sundays and holidays) so you can get your baked KitKat on between those hours.

You're supposed to bake them for 2 1/2 minutes in a toaster oven at 1000 W. They say you should put foil down on the tray first and keep an eye on it because it could catch fire if you overdo it.

This is the brainchild Yasumasa Takagi, their chef in residence it would seem. The concept is supposed to yield a result which turns the outside the texture of candy-like sugar, caramelize the flavors, and create a unique textural experience once it has cooled down to safely eat.

This sounds like an absolutely awesome concept, but I have my doubts that it will be a great flavor experience. Still, if these come up in shops around here, I'll certainly buy one and try it.

A bag of 13 bars is 525 yen (about $5.25). It will be available from March 24 for general purchasing at supermarkets. Let's hope that a spate of housefires are not the outcome of this experiment.

Glico Bisco Caramel Cocoa

One of the first things I learned about feeding babies, a task I was never destined to actually carry out, was that Cheerios were a "safe" solid food when you were trying to wean them off of an all-liquid diet. I learned that from one of my aunts, who had recently had a baby pass the point of needing to suckle a bottle all of the time (my mother's family weren't about to breast feed - to them, it was barbaric). She had Cheerios stocked up and I asked her why and I learned something new.

When I took home economics, the teacher felt that we needed to be indoctrinated into the ways of baby-rearing. Since I'm 49, I grew up in an age where birthin' dem babies was considered my lot in life at least to some extent. Considering my utter lack of maternal qualities, this education was just short of an utter waste of time for the likes of me. I did, however, score some brownie points for knowing that Cheerios was one of the first solid foods that were safe for infants to eat.

At no point in my limited education did anyone suggest that sandwich cookies were a part of a baby's diet. Glico puts a happy baby on the package of its "Bisco" cookies, but I'm not buying that these are for babies. In fact, they seem more suited to calorie-conscious mothers looking to lose those last few baby pounds while keeping a sweet nibble on hand, ostensibly for their young child. One of the nutritional benefits of these, supposedly, is that they put lactic acid bacteria (the good bugs in yogurt) in the cookies and it's supposed to help with digestion.

I've reviewed these tiny little packets of Bisco before and I really liked them. Note that the regular version (vanilla cookie with white cream) is in a bigger box. The limited edition flavors come in tiny little five-packs. They're definitely well-suited for carrying in ones purse. Each packet has five extremely dainty little cookies that come in at 20 calories apiece.

If you sniff these, the caramel flavor is pretty intense. There is just a small amount of cream in between two cookies which are a hybrid between a cracker and cookie and are therefore pretty crispy and a little airy. The caramel flavor is the stronger first wave flavor when you bite into the cookie. The second wave is a bit of a floury, grain-like quality followed by extremely weak, nearly anemic, cocoa flavor. It's only on the second bite that the cocoa builds up to fairly discernible levels.

These are actually pretty good. They wouldn't be my first choice for a Bisco cookie, but I still liked them and I'm not a fan of caramel. It should be said that the caramel is very artificial tasting. I think it's only decent because there is such a small amount of cream filling that it is relatively diluted. The bottom line is that I'm good with having bought these and will eat the rest without reservation, but I can't see buying them again because of the strongish artificial caramel flavor.

Random Picture #168

My mother was the type of person who thought a good souvenir was something which was trying hard to be clever, but actually was just really stupid. I'm not talking about things like an Eiffel Tower key chain, not that my very poor family ever went anywhere near France or anything. I'm talking more like a maternity T-shirt which says "Bahama Mama" in an attempt to make a lame wordplay on the idea of the drink and pregnancy. Yes, those are two great experiences that go great together, aren't they?

I think of things like wasabi caramels as the sort of thing people buy as a "bad souvenir" from Japan. I'm certain that they are not meant to be anything, but an interesting treat for Japanese people, but most Western folks are very preoccupied with anything that smacks as "weirdness" when it comes to Japanese food. Sugar? Wasabi? Sneak some to your coworkers when you get back from your foray into the land of the rising sun and watch the hilarity ensue! Guffaws, snorts of laughter, and a swift punch in the face for being such a supreme asshat could be yours for the price of some chewy globs mixed with wasabi powder.

Random Picture #146

Click to load a larger image.

One of the things which was never in short supply when I lived in Tokyo were caramels. I reviewed quite a few, but, after awhile, well, there was only so much I could tolerate in the way of sweet sticky wads of candy intent on lifting out a few fillings.

The picture above is from a shop that specializes in goods from Hokkaido. It appears that, in addition to producing lots of dairy products, they make a lot of caramels. From left on the top row, there are: soup curry, meat, octopus, ramen, cassis, roast corn, and strawberry flavors. From left on the bottom row are: melon, melon soda, salted butter, corn, butter, sweet potato and potato. Is it any wonder Nestle decided weird candy flavors would suit the Japanese market?

From left: cocoa, milk, red bean, condensed milk, potato, strawberry, corn, butter, melon, kinako (toasted soybean flour). Image from Donan's web site.

This picture was taken just before I left Japan, and Donan, a maker in Hakodate, Hokkaido, of a great many caramels including those pictured here, has hanged its packaging. It's really sad because the new style, while consistent, is not nearly as interesting as the older styles. That being said, I'd totally buy the kinako flavor in its boring box if I were to find it.

Taiko Milk Caramel Sticks

I've had the empty bag from this package of milk caramel sticks ("bo") in my desk drawer for about a month. The reason for that is that I consumed them happily and quickly and did not quite get around to reviewing them. I wasn't exactly waiting for any particular reason, but since this appears to be a (hopefully) permanent fixture at Daiso Japan, I favored reviewing things with limited availability over this uniquely Japanese cookie.

The reason I'm getting around to it today is not that I don't have other things to review. The truth is that I do, but I caught a cold and my sense of taste and smell have been obliterated. I can't give anything new a fair shake right now so I'm reliving the tasty memory of these cookies. After you've eaten a whole bag (not all at once, mind you), it's rather easier to recall their flavor.

I've mentioned in previous reviews that I'm not the biggest fan of caramel, so this was my last choice among the Taiko tube-shaped cookies at Daiso Japan. Previously, I reviewed their sweet potato and brown sugar varieties and enjoyed them both. There's something about their texture and balance of sweetness that really appeals to me. They're simple in terms of flavor, but not in a bad way. The sense I get from them is one of nostalgia, but not for Japan or Japanese things. It's nostalgia that relates to times when food was made in a much simpler way rather than formulated for maximum appeal from teams of focus groups and test markets. I just get the feeling someone made these and sold them without tweaking them to death to optimize sales. 

Though sometimes "simple" can mean poorly formulated, but I really do think these are made well with their pockets of airy crispness and sugary outside. The caramel flavor is very subtle, and while quite sweet, they are not cloying. The package says they are "gentle" milk caramel flavor and I say they are all the better for that. In fact, I'd rate them as second the sweet potato version (which were sweeter, but had a flavor I enjoyed more). If you add in the fact that each cookie is about 6 inches long and only 52 calories, you're looking at a sweet treat that gives a lot of satisfaction for a low calorie price.

This is one of those unassuming treats that looks rather dicey to those who can't read Japanese and are unfamiliar with this style of snacks, but these are delicious and I would invite anyone with access to them to pick up a pack and try them in one of the three available flavors. I can't guarantee you'll like them, but there's a very low chance you'll hate them. For only $1.50 (124 yen) a package, it's not much of a risk. 

Morinaga Coffee Caramels

My brother-in-law is not a coffee drinker. For some, that sounds suspiciously like a form of heresy. For others, that makes complete sense as not everyone goes for what the Tick referred to as "that bitter black urine." He, my brother-in-law, not the Tick (because, oddly, I don't have conversations with fictional characters about coffee... about other matters, perhaps, but that is between me and my psychotropic medication), says that he thinks coffee smells good, but he doesn't like the taste. Of course, Starbucks endeavors to fix that problem for most people by creating blended drinks full of milk and sugar that mask the flavor of the elixir of wakefulness and expand our waistlines. 

When I approach anything coffee-flavored, I think about the appeal from two sides. First, how will "real" coffee drinkers (the kind with hair on their chests and shaking hands) feel about it? Second, how will coffee wusses feel about it? With this caramel, I'm pretty sure hardcore coffee fiends will be left in the dust. It's coffee flavored, no doubt, but it's mellow, sweet, milky, and delectably buttery. One thing I can say about Morinaga's large line of caramels is they never skimp on the fat. That being said, it may distress some to know that the primary ingredient is corn syrup followed by sweetened condensed powdered milk, more powdered milk, and then vegetable oil. It's only late in the list that things like "coffee" and "butter" show up.

However, this isn't about food purity. It's about taste and texture and Morinaga generally does a very good job turning out a smooth and tasty blob of sticky goodness. Sometimes they fail on the flavor front, but this is not one of those times. If you like lattes, frappucinos, or other sweet coffee beverages and aren't going for a pure coffee experience, these should be in your pocket for a sweet fix. If you're the kind of person for whom black is the only acceptable color for your coffee, you'll probably be disappointed in the coffee flavor intensity, but still enjoy the fatty richness and sweetness on the whole. 

I got this candy courtesy of Sakura Box (that means "free") as part of their "monthly candy bag" which I reviewed the Friday before last. 

Genghis Khan Caramels

When my husband and I decided to leave Japan, my focus on food reviewing changed. Not only do I expect to cram in more reviews of fresh food before it completely drops off my radar, but there are certain "staples" which I thought I should review and would get around to one day whose time has come. The time had definitely come to sample these nearly infamous "meat" caramels.

Like many strange foods, these hail from Hokkaido in Northern Japan. I don't know if we're supposed to believe rampaging hordes of Mongolian warriors once trampled their way through leaving behind lumps of sweetened meat sweets or if this is a reference to a particular food in Japan. This is a country which calls an "all you can eat" buffet "Viking", after all. They do seem to have a thing about warrior groups and their food.

Since I am not a particularly big meat fan (these are supposed to be based on lamb curry), I faced this with some trepidation. Of course, even if I was the sort of person likely to tuck into a bit of sheep flesh, I'm not sure having it in caramel form would light my fire. This is a truly strange concept, but most cultures have their oddities in this regard. America has a garlic festival in which garlic ice cream is on offer. Garlic ice cream is eminently more practical than meat candy, however. If you're a woman who has suffered a back break from your vampire boyfriend and you don't want him to come around, you can console yourself and ward him away with said cool, creamy sweet.

I've written a lot of descriptions of many flavors and it's always somewhat challenging to convey in words what occurs on the tongue. This one is one of the harder ones to really describe since any mention of meat or meat flavors is likely to incite the concurrent smell and textural aspects in the sensory memories of the reader. One thing you do realize when you try a lot of faux items, like cheesecake yogurt, is that the texture plays a huge role in how you enjoy something. In the case of this caramel, it is less offensive for not being saddled with meat aspects aside from a certain savory note. Sugar on meat is disgusting, but a caramel flavored with meat flavorings doesn't have to be quite so gross. Honestly, this was pretty good. It mainly tasted like caramel with a bit of the flavor of the part of a piece of meat that is caramelized with cooking. You know, the little bits which get just a bit burnt near the edges and carry a certain chargrilled meat flavor? Dilute that by at least 70% and that's what this has going for it with just a hint of meatiness.

While this absolutely was not disgusting or bad, it's really not my cup of tea either. A snack doesn't have to be bad for me to be indifferent to it. It just has to not be to my tastes. As a novelty and particularly as a "weird" food souvenir that won't totally gross people out, this is a great little snack, but as a repeat eat, it's not going to make it into my rotation.

Cisco's Caramel Dacquoise Cookies

Every time I see a product by "Cisco's", I can't help but think of "Deep Space Nine's" Captain Sisko. The Cap'n (not Crunch) character who had a father with a restaurant called "Cisco's". Somehow, I doubt that this company is populated by Star Trek geeks paying an homage to the Trek universe's only African American (and my personal favorite) captain. This doubt is supported to some extent by the fact that the company was established in 1924. There is always a small chance that Cisco's founders were time traveler's who traveled ahead and watched DS9, but I think that's just a bit of a stretch.

It's interesting to me that Cisco Nissin Japan only has 364 employees. That's a pretty tiny company for their market penetration, especially when it comes to cereal. They're one of the biggest makers of sugar cereals in Japan and have one of the largest line-ups of any maker of said cereals. Sadly, that is less a testimonial to their vast range of products than the meager offerings in Japan of the types of cereals that concerned mothers don't permit their children and college kids subsist upon. Their best-known product, incidentally, is "Choco-Flakes", which are essentially chocolate-coated corn flakes that are eaten as a snack. The Japanese aren't trying to fool anyone when it comes to such things. They don't even try to convince you that such a sugary treat should have milk added to it. No, that stuff is made to be crammed into your face by the handful.

Of course, this review is not about "Choco-Flakes", though I have eaten them on several occasions and really should review them one day. This is about these cookies which are sold with a French pastry name to lend an air of sophistication to them. You can get these at a variety of convenience stores right now, and in some markets and snack shops. The price I paid is lost in the cobwebby memory of my 47-year-old brain, but I think it's somewhere in the vicinity of $2.20 (170 yen) for a packet of 6 cookies. The cookies are 5.5 cm x 4 cm (2.2 in. x 1.6 in.) and light as a feather. Each is 48 calories.

Like the vanilla version of these that I reviewed previously, the cookie is a super light sponge with a very lightly crispy top. The real proof in the pudding though was going to be the filling. Caramel is so easy to mess up with overbearing or overtly fake flavors. I'm pleased to say that the super light and fatty whipped cream center is sweet, but has a good balance of caramel. Frankly, these are addictively delightful. If I were so inclined, I could easily eat the whole bag up at once. It'd be expensive, but given how light the cookies are, it'd probably be worth the 300 calories.

These are lovely morsels that succeed on multiple levels. They have good textural variation, good flavor, and are unique as a treat in the manner in which they straddle being a cake and a cookie. I would certainly buy these again, and hope that Cisco Nissin keeps making this brand in other flavors.

Random Picture #70

This picture was taken during cherry blossom viewing season at Ueno Park. It illustrates something about eating in public in Tokyo and that's that the birds are bold and opportunistic when they encounter someone snacking in public. Pigeons are the usual moochers, but there are often signs telling people not to feed them. Fortunately for this big, black crow, no such prohibition is made on them. Shortly after this picture was taken, the little boy shared his caramel corn with the crow... or dropped some of it to distract that big beak while he made a getaway.

Kanmi Oribean Custard Purin Daifuku

One of my former classmates, in response to a comment I made on FaceBook, offered to send me some wicked sugary delights in the form of a Cadbury Creme egg. Yes, my fat cells are already expanding in anticipation and my pancreas is nervous. I haven't had one of those sugar bombs for at least 15 years and I wonder if my tastes may have changed such that its poisonous center will be an assault to my taste buds after all these years. Mind you, I'm not exactly dreading the challenge.

As a way of returning the favor, I offered to send him some Japanese snacks. His response was that he's worked with Japanese companies a lot and really prefer not to be subjected to more than he's already experienced. I had to smile at this response. That used to be me some 20-odd years ago, trolling the shops for things which looked like things back home rather than adventurously sampling the weirdness of all gustatory things Japanese.

Now, even the "weird" seems mundane and appealing to me. Take these small balls of mochi (pounded rice cake) encasing a bizarre-looking center of caramel whipped cream and goo. Finding these was a delight for me, not a moment to dread. I've come to really love daifuku and all the more when it's in a flavor my husband will also enjoy.

Each little blob of soft slightly chewy mochi is slightly bigger than the diameter of a 100-yen coin or quarter. The cutaway picture on the bag shows this attractive little bit of filling pooching out, but the real thing is far less pretty. Frankly, it looks like an infected wound, but don't let the way it appears inside color your judgment. This is delicious. The texture is a great combination of chewy with soft creaminess. This is well-coupled with the combination of the bland pounded rice flavor and sweet caramel center. I thought the center was rather potent, like the caramel sauce on top of flan, but my husband said he would have liked it even stronger.

This was very tasty. It wasn't as good as a fresh daifuku or even some of the larger ones I've bought as souvenirs, but it's definitely more accessible and cheaper. I found this at Seiyu supermarket for 168 yen ($2.07). There are about 8 or 10 individually wrapped pieces (at 43 calories each) in the bag so it's good value. Unless you're really sensitive about fake caramel flavor, I'd suggest giving these a try. I really enjoyed them.

Toy Story Kaputchyo Chocolate Caramel Corn Snack

Cereal isn't very popular in Japan as a breakfast food or snack. My husband and I once had a Japanese guest in America who we offered a plethora of cereal options to for breakfast, and he turned up his nose at all of them. He said that it wasn't enough food for him and that he needed eggs, soup, and rice for breakfast. Of course, this was a young, adult male, and he wasn't prepared to actually cook any of that for himself. He expected that it'd just magically appear in front of him, much as it did when he was at home and his mother just served up a fortifying meal for him.

However, cereal is popular in Japan as part of snacks, however. Mugi-choco, which resembles chocolate-covered puffed wheat cereal is available in a variety of sizes, price ranges, and quality variations. There is also the rice puff and corn puff snacks with a sugary coating that are especially popular during the doll's festival. Though they wouldn't recognize this fact, Japanese people would be very comfortable eating dry, sweet cereal out of the box like some Americans do if they realized that it is little different than what they're already doing.

This Toy Story chocolate-covered, caramel corn snack is little more than a corn puff cereal. In fact, with it's relatively light sweetness and somewhat strong caramel flavor, it'd probably be right at home in a bowl in front of a hyperactive child enjoying Saturday morning cartoons. That's not to say I'm encouraging anyone to buy it and douse it in milk. I'm guessing it hasn't been engineered not to go soggy in milk like real cereal is. The whole cup has 163 calories.

I got this as part of my New Year's fukubukuro, but this is part of Lotte's line of "kaputchyo" line which uses popular cartoon characters to market these types of sweets to children. They're all sold in 30-some gram (about 1 oz.) plastic cups with colorful designs and a "toy prize" (a sticker) inside. That brings the kid's cereal analogy closer to full circle. There are also chocolate and strawberry versions with Doraemon and Rilakkuma on their labels respectively.

If you're the type of person who likes to eat sugar cereal dry out of the box, this might float your boat, but I wasn't exactly doing cartwheels. I'm not a fan of cereal in particular anymore. This tasted decent enough, but it is a kid's snack and therefore lacking in depth of taste. It's sweet, rather strongly caramel with a hint of cheap chocolate, but that makes it inoffensive, not good.

Morinaga Chocolate Caramel

Morinaga offers a variety of caramels in an old-fashioned box design. They both attract and push you away because they seem uniquely Japanese, but they seem like the sort of thing that your grandfather kept in a drawer in his garage when the taste in his mouth from chewing tobacco felt a bit funky and he didn't feel like rinsing off his dentures.

The truth is that my experiences with this line has revealed a very finely-made caramel with a soft texture. The "black sugar" caramels remain one of my favorites. For those with other tastes, there are also adzuki, green tea and plain old caramels available as well. This chocolate version is new. The web site for the product says they were released in Tokyo in August of this year. It also promises that the sweet chocolate and caramel flavors will "satisfy the heart".

The ingredients for this include "syrup" (probably sugar syrup or fructose-based syrup), sweetened condensed milk, sugar, vegetable oil, cocoa powder, wheat protein, butter, black honey, salt, sorbitol, and "flavorings". One thing about most Japanese caramels is that they are rarely made with butter, so they are fine in texture and tasty, but lack deep, rich buttery flavor. That's generally not a problem, but it does make them a different experience from eating European-made caramel.

You can find these in most supermarkets and dedicated snack shops. For the time being, they are also available in convenience stores, but I'm guessing that will change once the product ages a little more. The price is usually 100 yen ($1.20). There are 12 caramels (4.9 grams/.17 oz.) in the box and each is 21 calories.

Candy like this often does not have a strong scent and this was no exception. It smelled faintly like caramel. The texture is nice and soft , offering a good chew without pulling out your fillings. The caramel is pleasantly sweet without being overbearing, but it doesn't really taste strongly of anything and the chocolate element is so weak as to be nearly undetectable. The fact that "cocoa" is so far down the list of ingredients is a clue as to why this may be the case.

These are fine enough as a generic caramel. They are well-crafted and pleasant to chew on, but ultimately don't leave much of an impression. Certainly, I'll slowly finish the box, but I wouldn't buy them again. I'd rather buy the more flavorful black sugar caramels.

KitKat Salted Caramel (Big Bar)

I'm no foodie, or gourmand, but I do check out the food porn sites for recipes on a regular basis and I've seen people offering up elegant pictures of blocks of caramel with big salt crystals lying on top of them. I don't know if salty caramel is one of those things people who think they're too good for a Sugar Daddy eat, or if it is now as mundane as a KitKat.

Salty sweets, of course, are old hat by now. In fact, I think I've tried some variations on this concept before (salty vanilla, for instance). I was actually looking forward to trying this particular player in the endless parade of Japanese KitKats. Even though I don't like caramel much, I do like salty sweet combinations when they work.

I found this at 7-11 for 120 yen ($1.40). It's 44 grams  (1.55 oz.) and the entire bar is 238 calories. I don't know when it was introduced, but I couldn't find it on Nestle Japan's webs site for KitKats at the time this review was written (August 6). I've found that the 7-11 shops in my area seem to get new KitKats before they show up on the manufacturer's site sometimes. This was also the case with the cola and lemon squash KitKat.

This bar smells like strong, fake caramel. That's not such a shock. One has to expect such things. The thing that I was most interested in was how prominent the salt as going to be and how strongly chemical the caramel came across as. As for the former, this is a very salty bar.  The salt definitely hits you pretty hard, especially on the first bite. On the second bite, it mellows a bit because it's usual for ones tongue to acclimate to salt quickly and taste it less strongly. The caramel is also definitely there and the fake nature of it was muted by the salt and the pleasant combination with the sweet milk chocolate coating.

I really enjoyed the salty sweet aspect of this and was pleased that the salt wasn't hiding in a dark corner where it could barely be detected. That being said, I could easily see where someone else might find the salty aspects to be overbearing. In fact, it was so salty that it sort of burned my mouth a bit, but I still liked this. It helps that it's a "big bar" and is full of fresh, crispy wafers. I enjoy the higher wafer to chocolate ratio so that gave this a leg-up right there. If you're open-minded about the salt and sweet combination, I'd recommend giving this a try, but be prepared for some potent saltiness.

Tirol Hokkaido Milk Caramel

During one of the "famine" periods of new product releases, I snapped up this Tirol Premium chocolate. Within days, there was another "feast" cycle and a flurry of new items to review and sample came around and this got put on the back burner for several weeks. Normally, I would not be jumping on board with caramel chocolates because I'm not a big caramel fan and it was only the temporary dearth of new offerings. It's not that I hate them, but rather that they're not the sort of things that get my mojo worked up. Given a variety of options, I'll choose chestnut, sweet potato, milk chocolate, or nut-flavored candies over caramel.

At any rate, I let this candy sit on my desk for a day before eating it because I think the flavor of chocolate is better at room temperature. I had been keeping it in the refrigerator to keep it from melting, and I think it was a little worse for wear in terms of its appearance. The texture was super, super soft. It practically melted in my mouth the moment I put it on my tongue. It was like eating a super soft truffle from the texture angle. I liked that.

In terms of scent and taste, this hit me mainly as sweet, burnt brown sugar caramel rather than as a buttery caramel. The fact that it doesn't have butter notes makes the flavor less well-rounded and lacking in richness. The strange thing is that butter is one of the ingredients, but it's rather low on the list. Items that are higher on the list are a plethora of "powders" including cocoa, cream, and caramel powders. 

This wasn't overly sweet, but it was sweeter than I might prefer in a "perfect" treat and the caramel flavor seemed a little fake. Like all Tirol Premium chocolates, this is a one-inch square (2.54 cm.), but unlike most, it's not around 50 calories. This has 64 calories. I'm guessing this is due to the extra fat used in the soft, creamy filling.

I liked this, but the way in which the caramel seemed fake (though I'm pretty sure it isn't) and the lack of profound buttery notes mean that I can't see buying another. That being said, this is a pretty nice chocolate. The texture is luxurious, and someone who is a greater fan of caramel than me may really love this. Don't take my indifferent rating too much to heart. I think this is a nice candy for people who love caramel. Unfortunately, I'm not sufficient enough a caramel fan to really appreciate this. These are available at most convenience stores in Tokyo for 32 yen (35 cents) per candy. This isn't the first time they have been on offer, and I'm guessing they'll disappear at some point and come back again as this seems to be part of the regular rotation of premium Tirol candies.

Kanro Almond Sweets

Most nuts in Japan cost a great deal. You can generally buy rather small packets of them for about 100 yen ($1.07) at convenience stores, but they tend to be of a less than favorable grade. Because of this, you find that nuts are used rather sparingly here, and blanched or heavily roasted (but unsalted) peanuts are the most common type of nut. Almonds, which are my favorite nut, in particular are hard to come by and pricey.

Given my love of almonds, I was happy to pick up these sweets at AM/PM convenience store for somewhere in the ballpark of 200 yen ($2.15). I forgot to get a receipt so I've lost track of the precise cost. The bag is 80 grams (2.8 oz.), which was about 22 candies. They are made by Kanro, which is better known for its Puré gummy candies and Calpis-based offerings than for it's vast selection of hard candies.

These candies smelled of roasted almonds, and even though they look very hard, they easily shatter when you bite down on one. The texture is wonderfully crunchy, though the size is so small that it doesn't take much to polish one off. Their small size is reflected in the calorie count of 14 calories per candy. You can't detect them in the flavor, but one of the ingredients is "corn puffs". I'm guessing that is to enhance texture without having to include more expensive almonds.

The candy tastes both of nicely roasted almonds and of carmelized sugar. The combination is very gratifying though rather fleeting. It's easy to find yourself wanting to eat one after another. Note that these are wrapped rather loosely in gold foil packets. If you keep them around long enough, there is every chance that they'll get moist. Most hard candies in Japan are sold in sealed packets to avoid this problem in their humid sub-tropical climate.

I really enjoyed these, and I'd definitely buy them again if I could trust myself not to lose control and eat half a bag at one sitting. Though I really liked the texture, part of me wished that they were something you could suck on first, but they disintegrate too rapidly.

Glico Almond Chew

The picture of the Glico man printed on the back of my small box of almond chews is very tiny. The normal details of an illustration of a man running with arms raised as he crosses the finish line now appear to be a naked man censored with three white blobs with the characters for gu-ri-ko written on them. It's nice to see that even the most innocent and wholesome of corporate mascots can be perverted if the mind viewing it is dirty enough.

Here's a bit of trivia for you about Glico. Though it is well-known abroad for making Pocky, it's first product was a caramel made from glycogen. The company's name comes from that ingredient. Ironically, caramels are nowhere to be seen on their web site's main attractions.

I'd been seeing this box of almond chews in Okashi no Machioka for a very long time. It's one of the things which is always on offer in the section with kid's candy and old-fashioned candy. The standard size box is 18 chews and similar to the plethora of caramel and chewy candies you find in Japan, but I didn't want to get such a big box considering it takes me about a month to consume all of it and once the plastic outer wrapping is removed, the chews (or caramels) get moist and icky before I can finish them. Recently, a smaller box was for sale for 49 yen (54 cents) so I snapped it up and took the plunge.


There are 10 chews in the small box that I bought. Each is individually wrapped in wax paper and they're 19 calories per chew. The size is about 2 cm x 1.6 cm x 1 cm (.8 in. x .6 in. x .4 in.), so they're not very big. You can see cross sections of almonds in every chew, though the density of nuts is not all that high.

The candy smells like nut candy. It's like a much fainter versions of what you smell when you open a box of nut brittle. The flavor is an interesting balance between sweetness, nuttiness, and subtle caramel flavor. It's not overly buttery, nor heavily sweetened. The nut flavor does not come through exceptionally strongly either, but it all comes together to create a unique flavor mixture and texture that doesn't overstate any of the components.

I didn't think much of these when I ate the first one, but then I wanted another, and another. I quickly found myself wanting not to stop so clearly these are rather addicting. One caveat I offer is the fact that these are much harder to eat when quite cold. It's important to get them at least to room temperature

Krispy Kreme White Day White Chocolate Caramel Donut

"White Day" is today, March 14. For those of you who don't remember what that is based on my brief mentions of it in past Valentine's Day posts, it's a made-up holiday in Japan in which men give women sweets. Since the Japanese custom is for women to give men chocolate on Valentine's Day, this allows the confectioners to double-dip into consumer pockets.

There is a plethora of White Day stuff on sale in shops as I write this. Much of it is actually white in color such as cookies, marshmallow snacks, meringue and white chocolate, but some of it is just plain old chocolate or other types of treats in new packaging. None of it is really anything special, and that's why I'm not reviewing any of those things specifically. Some of the offerings are little more than bags of marshmallows. I'm sure those will light some office lady's fire.

White Day donuts and drink plus an image of the box of donuts you can buy with these special items included. Image pinched from Krispy Kreme Japan's site.

Not one to be left out of a marketing opportunity, Krispy Kreme has issued two specialty donuts for this holiday. One is the white chocolate caramel heart that you see above, mangled by the wax paper it was wrapped in. The other is a ring donut with chocolate frosting, crunchy chocolate flakes, and one lone little almond stuck on it. There's also a special drink, but it's just a "Ghana milk chocolate" drink which I'm pretty sure is plain old hot chocolate.

My husband picked up the chocolate caramel heart donut on his way home from work (along with donuts he knew he'd like) because he was curious to see if it was any good. I was very skeptical based on my experience with their Valentine's Day donuts. The basic donut is just a plain raised donut with no filling. The coating is some sort of high fat white chocolate glaze which is dull and waxy. There's some cocoa powder on the right corner which is meant to artfully show a dusty pattern. There's also some caramel goo that they draw loopy hearts on the donut with. Of course, if you buy a single donut and it's wrapped up like ours, it looks like just plain scribbles rather than hearts.

The donut smells like your basic donut. It was fresh and decent in terms of it's basic qualities as a baked good. That being said, that was about all it had going for it because there was very little in the way of taste. The white chocolate coating, caramel sauce and cocoa powder had almost no taste at all. They weren't sweet and mainly served to leave a kind of waxy coating in your mouth from the fats used in them (and those fats definitely did not include butter since there was no buttery flavor).

This donut is 336 calories of disappointment and I wouldn't recommend it. My husband and I each took one bite and tossed the rest in the trash. I don't know what Krispy Kreme Japan's problem is, but they need to start making specialty donuts that taste like something. They don't have to be very sweet, but they could at least have some sort of actual flavor like, say, vanilla or caramel.