Meiji Meltyblend Fruity Strawberry

When I recently reviewed the chocolate version of "Meltyblend", I remarked that these are usually called "Melty Kiss" in Japan. What's in a name? In this case, I was thinking it might be the potential for a lawsuit between Hershey's and Meiji if they tried to called their small bits of individually wrapped chocolate treats "kisses". The truth is that I have no idea why this is called "Meltyblend", but a little research revealed the unlikelihood that the product has been renamed because of what I'm sure are Hershey's armies of industrial grade trademark protection lawyers. 

Research into how Hershey's came to call their little drops of chocolate "kisses" in the first place provided an explanation, but not a very credible one. Hershey claims that the sounds that the chocolate makes when it's plopped out of the machine resembles the sucking wet of a kiss. They neglected to mention that, back in old timey days, "kiss" was a common name for any small sweet and that there were products of all sorts referred to as a "kiss". My guess is that that origin is lost, but that the concept comes from the idea that it is a small touch of a confection on the lips - sweet and often short - and you want more.

This "Meltyblend", not "Melty Kiss", but they actually are the same product is the last of my "winter limited edition" Japanese sweets in stock. It's only limited to winter because of the low melting point aspects. It's not because it's strawberry. Trust me on this. If you're around for the random picture I'm planning to use on Wednesday, you'll know that strawberry is anything but "limited" right now. In fact, spring seems to have sprung in an absolute explosion of this particular fruit.

As for the candy, I'm sorry to say that this is the biggest "miss" I've experienced in the Melty Kiss line. It's not bad at all, but compared to the almost sublime varieties that I've sampled before, it comes across as humdrum and lacking in flavor power. They smell faintly of strawberries, and have a pretty decent strawberry taste at the start, but as the taste develops on your tongue, it becomes too strong and isn't balanced out by the chocolate portion. If it has had a ratio of 1/3 chocolate to 2/3 strawberry, I think the bitterness of the chocolate may have provided for an interested contrast. As it is, it just came across to me as 90% berry and with an almost inconsequential bit of chocolate. 

If you're a bigger fan of strawberry than me, this might be the bee's knees. It still has the soft, almost truffle-like, qualities of Melty Miss and melts nicely on the tongue. I just really need more chocolate in my chocolates. If this were a real kiss, it'd be the sort which didn't end up igniting much passion, at least in me. Perhaps it's more someone else's type.

Meiji Meltyblend Creamy Chocola

Everything in life carries a price, and I'm not talking about just money. When you are young, and you don't have an income, you tend to see things mainly in terms of whether or not you have cash in pocket. In fact, yesterday, I overheard a conversation between two boys which illustrated this very well.

I was in "Dollar Tree" investigating the cheapest of the cheap when it comes to Valentine's options. Please note that I wasn't doing this to make an actual gift purchase. This was sociological "research" of a sort which I am prone to doing. A handful of college-age women were standing in the aisle goofing on the Valentine's items and that itself was worth the trip. It's more than ironic to hear them make fun of things which they will more than likely purchase. It's also exactly the sort of thing I did at that age when I was too cool for the things I actually liked and could afford.

There were also a couple of boys, around the age of 10 or so, who came in and headed for the candy aisle where I was contemplating a bag of "Red Vines" (for my husband, who loves all sorts of licorice). They were talking at length and explicitly about exactly what they could buy. One of them was saying that one could buy two items and the other could buy one because of the taxes. The other was saying tax was included so they could each get two things. The first kid seemed dubious of this assertion and nervous about going to check-out without the extra scratch to cover tax. Their exchange made it clear that they had $4 only between them, and one of them said they needed to get things that would last. In other words, they wanted to buy the biggest snack for their buck. Value for their limited dollars was the only price they considered.

Now that I'm older, and I have a few more dollars at my disposal than the average 10-year-old, I know about other expenses like nutrition and calories. There is the value that comes from how pleasurable something is. My husband has called this the "calorie to enjoyment" ratio. It's when you learn as an adult that your body is not a garbage disposal and you care about how good something is rather than how much of it you can get for your cash. When you're a kid, and money is scarce and the body is nearly invincible, such concerns aren't even on the radar.

In America, the concept of overall quality rather than only quantity is a little out of place. Most people are looking for how much they can get, not how good what they get is. I grew up very poor, so I more than understand this as a fact of life for many folks. Nonetheless, even people who have more money view "value" as something they get only if there is an enormous amount of something (hence the outsize portions in restaurants). In Japan, well, they see value based on a variety of factors including how it is packaged (for both convenience and style) and what the experience of eating it is like.

Meltyblend, which I swear is called Melty Kiss in Japan, is a product which goes for quality over quantity. The reason the "Melty" line is popular in Japan is that it is perfectly formulated for the market's interests - individually wrapped bits of
not-too-sweet chocolate with unique textural properties. They are truffle-like confections served up in tiny sizes. They are rich, chocolatey, and melt in your mouth. The best way to eat one is to place a firm little square in your mouth and allow it to dissipate into fudge-like goo. It's a textural and taste delight which is wasted otherwise.

The flavor of this "creamy chocola" version is a little lacking in complexity, but is still well worth it. The chocolate part hits you up front because of the dusting of cocoa powder. As it melts, the sweetness reveals itself in increasing layers. This works in part because it off-sets the somewhat bittersweet nature of consumer-level Japanese chocolate and it even goes some distance toward mitigating the sometimes unpleasant (coffee-like) aftertaste of Japanese chocolate. Incidentally, this type of Meltyblend/Melty Kiss (creamy chocola) is ranked the most highly on Meiji's site.

Without a doubt, Meltyblend is the best consumer level chocolate I have ever had. I found this for $1.98 (about 200 yen) at Marukai market. I was very lucky that it was on sale because usually these are $3.98. For 15 small pieces (each is 25 calories and about the volume of a Hershey's Kiss), it's quite expensive, but definitely worth it if you savor the experience. This is the sort of thing which makes an excellent gift for someone who you want to offer a unique, mid-range chocolate gift to. In fact, it would be a great Valentine's day treat, even at full price - especially if you can pair it with a Japanese Valentine's day card of some sort. ;-)