Pocky Orange Peel

I was watching a video on "shows that should never have been made" and one of the abominations that was featured was a show that I had the faintest recollection of from my youth. That show was "Pink Lady (and Jeff)" and I personally never watched it, but saw it advertised. I've watched a little bit of it on YouTube. This is the sacrifice I make for my readers. I fall on the grenade so you don't have to.

It stuns me that any network attempted to sell Japanese pop stars to the American audience in 1980. If you watch the clips that I linked to, and keep in mind that it is #35 on the list of the 50 worst television shows of all time as chosen by "TV Guide" so consider yourself warned, you'll be treated to some incredibly culturally inappropriate material. If you've taught English, you'll also recognize immediately that the singers in Pink Lady can't actually speak English and learned their lines phonetically.

Though this was a disaster in all respects, it is important for people to have foreign cultures stuck in front of their noses on occasion. Small bits and pieces of information prime people to be more open to that culture in the future. In 1980, sushi was just raw fish to Americans. In the present day and age, it's something they're willing to fork over a lot of money for a bastardized version of in places as pedestrian as their local supermarket. That's some cultural infiltration.

When I returned to the U.S., I was stunned at how ubiquitous Pocky had become. I think the versions I see are from Korea for the most part and not the same as what I had in Japan, but the brand is recognized and consumed as a Japanese product. It started to be sold in Japan in 1966, and a U.S. division of Glico was established in 2003. November 11 is "Pocky" day and this year will be the 4th one that is celebrated in the United States. It took awhile, but it gained some traction. Pink Lady, apparently, was too early for the times.

I've not had as much Pocky as most in my career as a person who consumes food, but I can say that this is unique amount the few handfuls that I've tried. The main point about this is that the little bits of peel are chewy. They are clearly candied bits and they bring a nice, bright, authentic citrus flavor to each bite. The chocolate is milk bordering on semi-sweet. It has enough strength to be present, but not so much as to be bitter. The flavor combination is very well-balanced. I believe part of what helps this is that the organe peel bits appear to be coated in dark chocolate so they carry some of that flavor through as well. If you look at the sticks, you'll see they look more like Oreo cookie parts than orange peel, but orange peel they are indeed.

This snack came with advice to refrigerate it before consuming and I ignored that advice when I ate all but the last packet. So, it was only with my last experience that I had the most optimal one. The lesson here: Do what you are told blindly without question, at least when it comes to Pocky.

When not refrigerated, the coating is a bit too soft and the chewy peels feel as if they are in a slighly greasy chocolate in terms of the textural experience. It's still good, but it is a lot better when the coating is chilled and much firmer. The standard, bland, Pocky pretzel stick seems more orange in color to me on these than what I recall, but my memory could be going. I am getting on in years, after all.

I like the combination of orange and chocolate, but these seemed a tad rich for my tastes as well as having a cumulative sweetness that I found cloying by the 5th and final stick in a packet. I don't regret having these, but I wouldn't go out of my way to have them again. If you're interested, and I would act fast if you are because these are seasonal and likely to vanish at some point, the Asian Food Grocer is currently offering these for $3.58. Yummy Bazaar has them for $3.05 and Economy Candy has them for $2.99. I got mine from Bokksu as part of a premium box, but they are currently sold out. It wouldn't matter anyway since Bokksu was selling them for $4/box and would have pricier than the alternatives anyway.

Source: Part of the Bokksu premium summer citrus box

Meiji Gummy Choco Candy

Nuts, corn flakes, bananas, wafers, rice puffs and crisps, potato chips, coffee beans, and grasshoppers. No, this is not a game of "one of these things is not like the other". These things are actually all alike in a particular way. All of them, including the grasshoppers, can be purchased in chocolate-covered fashion. I thought about all of the things which you can buy covered in chocolate which may or may not naturally seem a pairing with it when I pondered the idea of chocolate-covered gummy candy.

Today's reviewable comes to you (and me) courtesy of CandyWarehouse at which you can not only buy the chocolate-covered gummy candy, but also a variety pack of insects enrobed in thick chocolatey goodness. The notion does bring to mind the "crunchy frog" sketch in Monty Python, but it may seem far less alien in the future than it does now as I hear that we may have to utilize insects for protein when civilization falls in the next 50 years or so. When that time comes, you'll think that chocolate-covered gummy will be a gourmet memory and in no way inferior to any of the other more common suspects.

This isn't chocolate in the conventional sense as it's not the brown stuff, but rather fruit-flavored white chocolate. The three flavors are strawberry, muscat, and orange. The first and last seemed rather promising as those flavors pair well with conventional chocolate, but I was dubious of the muscat flavor.

After opening the tube, I was hit with an intense fruity smell. It was surprisingly strong. After sampling each flavor, I discovered why. Each of them tastes like a child's bubblegum flavor infused into white chocolate. It is too intense and fake-tasting. The weird thing is that fruit juice concentrates as well as various fruit liquors are used to flavor these. The flavors come from real sources, but it's all a bit too intense for my tastes.

Of the three, the one that was the least palatable was the muscat. I know muscat isn't the same as grapes, but they are similar. Chocolate-covered raisins work, but have you ever seen or tried a fresh grape as part of a chocolate fondue? I'm guessing not and for good reason. The two flavors just did not mesh.

The strawberry was intense at first and ended with a strong white chocolate sweetness. It worked okay, but it was like two flavor blasts and neither was particularly tasty. On the bright side, the textural contrast of the soft, creamy chocolate and the chewy gummy was pleasant.

Orange is the flavor that I would expect the most from, but it also was far too strong. It reminded me of flavor-blasted baby aspirin. I guess that all of that fruit flavor really is packed in there.

I admire the effort put into these, and the truth is that my husband liked them. He said that the flavor really got more intense once all of the chocolate melted away, but he still liked it. I wouldn't say he loved it, and I don't think he'd go out of his way to get them again, but he will finish the tube. As for me though, I'm not going to eat more of them so that's an "unhappy" rating is for me and a "happy" one for him. He said he likes the taste and the overall experience are good for him, which is weird because he generally dislikes gummy candy of any sort. I actually like gummy candy and even have experience with chocolate-covered gummy (via Tirol's "mochi" chocolates which are actually gummy).

So, the bottom line is that how you'll feel about this is going to vary based on your tastes. I'm going to give it the two ratings it deserves.

For me:

For my husband:

 

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.

Biscuit Chocolate Orange Marmalade Lobes

So, the way I've  named the product in the title sucks, but I can't read much of anything on this box and am flying blind here, so, give me a break, okay? You try to translate Cyrillic without having any experience whatsoever with the language and see how far you get in figuring out company names. Harrumph.

My husband and I picked these up because we love jelly slices and these looked very appealing indeed with their large sugar crystal coating. One might think "sugar-coated" = cloyingly sweet, but the sugar on these has more of the effect that powdered sugar has on donuts or waffles. It adds a light exterior sweetness rather than an enormous wallop of sugary overload.

Though the center is not super sweet, they are still very tasty. The orange flavoring is strongly reminiscent of orange juice, though that is not one of the ingredients. The ingredients list includes "flavour" (orange) and citric acid. I'm also pleased to note that this does not contain artificial colors and is dyed with curcumin. If you are keeping up on dietary supplment fads, that's a hot one right now.

The slices are a little hard on the outside, like a slightly crispy sugar shell and quite soft on the inside. They are not like a gummy, but rather like a pate de fruits inside. This is a splendid combination. You also get good crunch from the sugar granules. There could be a touch more of a citric acid bite for my tastes, but I'm not complaining.

The company that makes this, Biscuit Chocolate, makes a fair number of confections with a much heavier focus on chocolates than this type of fruit candy. They do make jujube, which is a lot like these slices except in a different shape. They offer a lemon slice version in addition to this orange one. I'd try the lemon one in a heartbeat if I can find it. Note that this uses pectin and agar to jell the candy, so I'm guessing it may be safe for vegetarians. It uses egg white though so it's a no-go for vegans.

I found these for $3.49 at a market in Palo Alto that specializes in Eastern European and European food (a lot of it is Ukranian). I found them on Amazon without a price in different packaging, but they are definitely the same thing though the Amazon one is a mix of lemon and orange. If you like pate de fruits and are looking for something more low rent than what is generally available at the types of stores that sell it (which tends to be the expensive kind), then I recommend giving these a try. They'll satisfy your desire without hitting your wallet too hard.

Garoto Orange and Guarana Candy

I grew up in a what would have once been called a "two-horse town". That is, a place so small that it only had two horses. That's a bit of an exaggeration though. I think my town was small enough to get by with one horse, provided that it was a little less broken down and ancient than the people it was expected to convey.

The thing about living in such a small place is that you have very limited options. There were two stores, literally. There as a "general store" which had a gas station in front (2 pumps, no waiting) and a garage to the right as well as a "supermarket" which had more food at more reasonable prices. People only went to the general store for food when the other store was closed or they were too lazy to go to a "real" store. Other than these places, there was a bank, a post office, and a couple of broken down private businesses including a funeral home. There was not much to explore and you knew every single available option.

Now that I live in the suburbs and have access to bigger shopping spaces, I'm finding that my options are very wide as long as I'm willing to get in a car and take a few minutes to do some research on the internet to find what is out there in that big, bad, wide world. My husband's family had been going to San Jose for decades to buy Spanish sausages at a Portuguese market and I'd poked around it a few times when they went for chorizo. The selection of cured meat is vast, but grocery options are tiny. However, I discovered that there is a second Portuguese market not too far from there which carries more groceries and a far broader array of imported snacks.

Despite the vast selection, I was pretty timid with my first choice. In fact, after picking up a $7 loaf of cinnamon sweet bread (which was fantastic), I grabbed today's review fodder at the register for a quarter as we were on our way out. It was an afterthought and the price, a quarter (25 yen), reflected that. I didn't really even pay attention to what I was buying except I knew that "naranja" means orange and I'll take anything orange.

It turned out that this is essentially Portuguese Pez. They are slightly bigger, but they have the same combination of shiny exterior and chalky exterior. I don't know if they have dispensers in Brazil, which is the location of the company that makes this, Garoto. The company seems to make chocolate for the most part and I could not find any reference to this candy on their web site. Actually, I couldn't find much of anything to do with their products on the site. It's mostly dedicated to various types of PR related to world cup soccer. The truth was that I learned more about the company via Wikipedia than from their own site. For instance, Nestle bought them in 2012, but they operate independently.

The truth is that, aside from the addition of guarana, this is very standard kid's candy. It's sweet, has a nice crumbly, crunchy texture and a strong orange component which comes on a bit overbearing at first then mellows out. The guarana comes across as an almost minty and rather strange aftertaste. It's supposed to taste like apples or berries, but it just seemed odd in this.

I can't complain about a tiny package of candy bought for a quarter on the spur of the moment. I can say that I was uninspired and won't buy it again. That said, their chocolates look interesting and, one day, when I make it back to that shop, I'll try something a little more adventurous by Garoto.

McCafe Orange Latte and Babychino (product information)

Image from McDonald's Japan. 

In the past 6 months or so, I bought 6 bottles of Torani syrup because doing so reduced the price by a fair margin. I was excited at the prospect of sampling a bunch of flavors at once, but the problem was that some of them were not worthy of my emotional energies. In particular, the coconut, which I had hoped to mix with the mango flavor and add to water for a refreshing tropical beverage, was less than inspiring. In fact, it really sucked.

At $4.00 a bottle, I was reluctant to simply dump it down the drain, so I tried to figure out other ways to consume it. The thing that worked was adding it to coffee. This didn't exactly make the coffee better, but it didn't really make it any worse. The coffee was strong enough that there was just a hint of coconut riding on the edge of the bitter waves. I'm down to about 1/6 of the bottle and wouldn't buy it again, but can't say that I hated using it as I have.

I think that coffee is a pretty forgiving beverage, but I would never really think about adding orange to it. In fact, citrus and coffee of any sort would seem to be a bad combination considering that one seems to alter the taste buds in a way that make the other taste funky in my experience. To each their own, but I wouldn't be trying to off-load my orange Torani in coffee (especially because the orange tasted fine mixed with water or my husband's drinks).

In addition to the orange latte, McCafe (which is the coffee arm of McDonald's) is offering something called a "babychino". As a way of introducing infants into coffee culture, they are selling steamed milk with sweet cocoa powder. The "babychino" is a mere 50 yen (about 50 cents), which is probably their way of pricing it as a "gateway drug". Later, they'll be able to hit the grown baby up for various coffee beverages in the $2.50-$3.50 (230-350 yen) range. 

Sina Orange Ginger Chews

Despite their attempts to undo my dental work, I was very pleased with the Sina Ginger Chews that I reviewed last December. They were cheap, had a good strong ginger flavor, and were easy to find at several Asian markets. When I saw this orange variety at a tiny little Asian market on Castro Street in Mountain View, I jumped at the chance. Well, I didn't literally "jump" because the shopkeeper was already eyeballing me as I went around looking for Japanese stuff, but I did give her my dollar and happily exit the store with the 2-oz (56 g.) box in hand. 

Saying "damn the fillings" and risking death by choking by sampling one of these in the car without water to wash it down, I disengaged one from its foil prison and put it in my mouth. These things are so sticky that I think even Teflon packaging wouldn't stop the chews from adhering to them. The orange ones were not different than the ginger ones in terms of their potential to lodge in a cranny of your teeth and suck out the amalgam or stick to the back of your esophagus, and they also look like a severed cats tongue on a plate when removed from their attractive individual wrappers.

The orange hits at the beginning in a flavor that, sadly, reminds me of stale juice. The ginger comes up the rear and overtakes the citrus fruit until it totally overwhelms and produces a pleasant gingery heat throughout your mouth. Ahhhh, that's better. I still love that ginger kick, but I'm not sure that the orange is bringing much of value to the mix. It may add a little sweetness, or a little citrus balance, but it just didn't add to the overall appeal of the candy for me. 

One of my favorite indulgent drinks is to take orange juice and mix it with ginger ale. I was hoping for the favorable aspects of that combination to come through in this, but it just didn't do much for me. This is absolutely not bad and I'd surely buy another box if it was this or nothing. However, I'd prefer the unadulterated original ginger chew to the orange one. If the orange isn't doing much, then I see no point in bothering to have it there. 

Ramune candy and kid's gum (round stuff)

This post is a review of three items that are unified in two ways. All of them are round and I got them all as part of the Sakura Box monthly candy box. Note for my readers, November is KitKat month and they're offering 5 unique KitKat flavors. I mention that not because they sent me free candy (though they did), but because I know many people are especially interested in Japanese KitKats.

This is part of the selection I received in the October candy box and these are the types of small things that are very common in the kid's snacks section in Japanese markets. I am familiar with all of these things, and I once had the little boxes of gum with fruit illustrations on them, but it was so long ago that my aging brain lost the memory. Well, it's either my age or the fact that one isn't exactly stowing away such memories as if they were precious and not to be forgotten. It is, after all, only bubble gum.

Marukawa Fusen gum (upper right in the picture) is one that I saw around for pretty much the duration of my 23 years in Japan. It was often sold in multi-packs that included all available flavors, but also as individual packs of one flavor. I also often saw enormous tubs of it as prizes in UFO Catcher machines. I'm not sure who would want such a huge amount of these little pellet-shaped bits of gum, but I guess someone out there really loves it, especially little kids.

 See? It is all round stuff!

The orange tastes a lot like Bayer's orange baby aspirin in the U.S., except with a bit more tartness and sweetness. The grape is your typical grape gum flavor. The melon is probably the weirdest one because it tastes strongly of quite sweet cantaloupe in the initial burst of flavor. In fact, it's rather too strong and my taste buds rebelled at first.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, all flavors of this gum have a very short half life on the flavor front. Within 5 minutes, pretty much all of the flavor is gone and you're left with some pleasantly soft and pliable bubble gum and a generic sweetness. Incidentally, I chewed all 4 little gum balls (each is about the size of a large pea) at once. I can't imagine that anyone would chew one at a time. As bubble gum goes, this is fine. It's nothing spectacular, but if you were a kid and wanted to stuff your maw full of a big wet blob of it and blow a bubble that would explode all over your face, this would do the trick.

The "tsuppai (sour) lemon" gum, which contains three larger gum balls but the wrapper said it was only 2 servings, is made by a company called "Meiji Gum". I should note that both Marukawa and Mei specialize in gum, which seems like an odd choice, but I guess it's what a lot of companies do in America as well. You just never think about someone saying to himself (it's usually a "him"), I think I'll start a chewing gum company. In the case of Marukawa, that was said in 1888, apparently. That's some forward thinking.

As promised, this is sour lemon gum. In fact, it was a bit too intense for me and I had to spit it out after a short chew. That doesn't mean it's bad. It just means I'm a sourness wuss, or that it didn't go over too great after chewing the sweet tiny little gum balls.

I give both types of gum an indifferent rating because they are pretty much just kid's gum in approachable flavors. The main benefit of them is that they have a good texture and carry an intense candy-like burst of flavor at the start. The main drawback is that the flavor doesn't last long and that once it drains away, you're left with sweetness (or sourness) and not much more.

 Finally, I tried the ramune candy which comes in the plastic blue-green soda bottle in the upper left of the picture at the top of this review. It is made by confectionery powerhouse, Morinaga. If you don't realize it, they're the folks that are delivering HiChew to the world. These are pressed powder candies like SweeTarts, but they are looser and softer than those American sweets. If you bite down on them, they quickly dissolve into a soft blobby bit in your mouth. If you let them dissolve on your tongue, they yield slowly and release the flavor of bubble gum. They're sweet, but not overbearingly so and have a fresh flavor which is hard to pin down.

I actually like powdered candies like this more than the average adult. I'm not sure that I'd keep a stash around the house, but when I happen to buy one or are given one, I enjoy them more than I might expect and that was certainly so with this ramune candy. 

Kanro Iyokan Gummy Candy

When I was growing up, there were basically two types of oranges in my life, navels and tangerines. Of course, there were more types of oranges around, but I was a kid and I didn't care. In fact, I didn't even like oranges until I went to Japan and found that their citrus was sweeter and tastier than what I had grown up with. In the winter in Tokyo, there were the working class little gems that we all know and love, mikan. Buying a big bag of those and getting them eaten before they started to dry out was a challenge my husband and I were happy to meet. My students never had any problems. Some people told me they'd sit down and eat 6 or so at one sitting. One middle-aged lady grabbed the spare tire at her mid-riff one day and told me that she had eaten an entire bag of them in one day.

Japanese citrus may begin with mikan, as they are cheap when in season and very accessible, but I discovered it didn't end there. Dekopon was the Cadillac of oranges for me and I hope one day to find the American equivalent here ("Sumo Citrus"). Nijiya supermarket is supposed to stock them, but I haven't found them yet and I'm not sure what their season is since their web site says that their 2012 season is over (whereas dekopon season is winter in Japan). I'm guessing that they will carry a luxury-car-size price when I finally do encounter them, especially since it seems fairly expensive markets stock them.

This candy is flavored like yet another type of Japanese citrus, iyokan. I had a few of these when I was still in Japan. Their main appeal is that they are fairly economical compared to other options. I think I used to get fairly decent sized ones for about 60 yen (76 cents) each at Seiyu supermarket, and found that, while serviceable, they did not fall within the range of fantastic citrus that dekopon did. Iyokan was the Volkswagon Beatle of the citrus world. I got what I paid for. It wasn't as sweet or flavorful, but I didn't pay about 150 yen ($1.89) for each one.

Hearts and stars. Next, it'll be moons and clovers.

Fortunately, what may not wow as fruit has greater potential as candy which can be augmented with sugar for sweetness and intensified by processing it. That is precisely what was done with these tangy, intense, and utterly delicious gummy candies. One bite tastes like a super juicy, sweet, but not too sweet orange. They have an excellent real citrus flavor which I imagine can be attributed to "iyokan concentrate" in the ingredient list as well as the wonderful tangy bite that comes from the coating of citric acid powder on the outside.

I loved these and would absolutely have them again. It helps that I enjoy the Pure line of gummies anyway (well, except the gross apple ginger ale one), which is odd since I don't really like other types of gummy candy. Note that the texture of these is a little tougher than some gummy candies, though it depends a lot on how warm they are. If you want to soften them up, put them in your pocket and sit on them for a little while. I wouldn't recommending microwaving them or anything. They'd probably catch on fire and I'm not going to be responsible for any stupidity induced accidents, so don't come crying to me if you burn your house down while attempting to impatiently warm these up. Getting back to the point though, this is absolutely one of the best of Kanro's Pure gummy flavors that I have ever had. I can't imagine that anyone who likes orange-flavored sweets would be disappointed in this, but, again, don't sue me if you don't like them. It's not like I'm issuing any guarantees here.

I got this candy courtesy of Sakura Box (that means "free") as part of their "monthly candy bag" which I reviewed last Friday. This is part of a new flavor line that Kanro is offering (along with cassis), so those in Japan ought to be able to pick it up for the time being at local shops. I imagine it won't be around as a staple flavor (like lemon or grape) though as it's a seasonal type of flavor. Get it while you can.

Botan Rice Candy

One of my favorite candies in Japan was Bontan Ame. This candy, which resembles fruit jelly candies, is widely available in Japan and considered rather old-fashioned. One of the main features is that it comes with an edible wrapper to protect your fingers from getting too sticky off of the gummy/jelly-like candy. They are covered in a type of material which is frequently used on capsules used for medicine.

The first thing I noticed was that the edible wrapper on this is a much more pleasant experience than the one you get with bontan ame. Where bontan ame turns a bit glue-like and melts a little slowly, this dissolves fast and is hardly noticeable. I always was anxious for the wrapper to get out of my way with the Japanese candies, but I hardly noticed it here. The second point I noticed was that the flavor is much more orange-like than bontan ame. The outside is also slightly crispy, though not really hard. As it warms up, it gets softer and chewier. It's sweet, but not overwhelmingly so and has a pleasant flavor in general tinged with a bit of a floury aftertaste. I imagine this comes from the cornstarch. The flavorings include both lemon and orange.

I loved this and could see eating an entire box in one sitting without hesitation. One box is only 80 calories, but it is also only 6 small pieces. With the price being about $2 (240 yen) per box in American markets (I've seen it in several), this is a financial indulgence. Since a box with 14 pieces of a similar size can be bought in Japan for a mere 100 yen ($1.20), I can't help but feel that this is exorbitantly priced. Of course, you do get a children's sticker which says "printed in Japan" on it, but I hardly think that is worth the extra cost.

The interesting thing for me about experiencing this candy is that it is an import to America from Japan. That explains, at least in part, why it's so expensive since labor costs in Japan are hardly cheap. That being said, I don't understand why Japanese bontan ame has orderly little cubes stacked in the box such that you can get 14 in it and this has a helter skelter sampling of 6 bits with plastic wrapping. Do Americans demand the extra wrapping at the expense of volume? It seems hardly likely.

The company that imports these is called JFC International, and they are responsible for a wide variety of Asian food distribution world-wide. Their web site indicates that they handle over 15,000 products and some of the most popular ones are Japanese. This is no surprise since Japanese cuisine is positively regarded worldwide, and a lot of what might be seen as "exotic" flavors 20 years ago are available even in some remote areas. I was surprised to find tonkatsu sauce in the small rural area I lived on in the San Juan islands, for example. Personally, I'm hoping to get a line on the oil-less sesame dressing that is featured on their front page at present. I used to buy that in Japan all of the time and loved it.

I would definitely buy these again, but not at Safeway supermarket where I paid too much. I would, however, order a 12-pack for $9.51 at Amazon. It's still more expensive than Bontan Ame in Japan because it is a smaller portion, but at least it drops below a dollar a box. I would caution those who know the Japanese domestic product that this is a little sweeter and lacking in the hint of sourness. It's not overpoweringly sweet, but clearly these are not the same formula as Bontan Ame. They're still good though, and I recommend giving them a try.

Tokyo Sky Tree Orange KitKat

First things first, I did not go to the Tokyo Sky Tree. I'm not especially interested in large quasi-phallic structures or radio towers. However, one can get Sky Tree souvenirs in a lot of adjacent locations including Ryogoku, home of sumo and the Japanese National Stadium (kokugikan) and Asakusa, home of a million tacky souvenirs for tourists. I picked this up in neither of those places. There's a particular branch of New Days convenience stores in Shinjuku which carries a lot of regional sweets for some reason and this was perched on a top shelf, towering above all others.

The truth is that I didn't choose to buy this. It was 525 yen ($6.76) and I knew that was going to be a premium price. It's very often the case in Japan that you purchase something in a large box and find that the contents in no way reflect the box size. I'm not talking about "contents may have settled", but simply packaging inside of packaging which is smaller. In the case of this box, one might expect a neat row of a  multitude of minis, but it's just three boxes of regular KitKats. Since the average price of a regular KitKat is 100-120 yen, that means I'd pay about 360 yen for the same quantity if it didn't come in a Sky Tree box. 

The odd thing about this is that the box says across the top that this is the "#1 flavor" and is very popular. While I can see how orange chocolate would be quite popular, I have to wonder why there are constant iterations of strawberry KitKats if orange is the "#1". You'd think they'd spin out more orange versions. I question your authenticity, Nestle Japan, and the veracity of your claims. And while I'm at it, I may also question your parentage, pedigree, and the stuff you've written on your résumé. I'm also dubious of your claims of virginity, but that's not something I'm prepared to investigate more closely.

This smells like fake orange flavoring, though not in a bad way. It's not like baby aspirin orange, but more like orange Tootsie Roll Orange. The bars are milk chocolate based and the orange flavoring tends to hit second after the chocolate. It comes across at first as a burst of an orange juice flavor, but quickly tapers away into the aforementioned fake orange flavor. Since this is a KitKat, it's got all of the same fresh, crispy wafer goodness you can expect from any reasonably good KitKat.

This was nice enough, but it isn't what I'd call incredibly "more-ish". I wouldn't have purchased three of these for sure, but I also not have regretted having one on hand for sampling. As a novelty, or for someone who really loves orange chocolates even when they're not the most realistic in flavoring, this is pretty good. I enjoyed it enough to eat what I've got (slowly), but I wouldn't buy it again.

Morinaga Tanita Restaurant Vanilla Purin dessert

The "Tanita Restaurant" brand of 100-calorie desserts has been on the shelves for awhile in Japan and I'd been hoping to get around to sampling one of them for quite some time. The main thing stopping me was the boring nature of the standard offering. It was pretty much flan or plain pudding with caramel sauce. I like flan as much as the next person, but this is a country that is drowning in plastic tubs of thick pudding with various types of burnt caramel sauce on the bottom. It's a real yawner as a taste option. It's on par with the never-ending stream of strawberry KitKats in terms of the lack of excitement it creates in me. Though vanilla pudding with orange sauce is hardly an exotic flavor combination, it is more interesting than what I can buy at nearly any kiosk, convenience store, and market in Japan, so I took the plunge. Since buying this, some more interesting flavors have come around (e.g., Japanese pumpkin), and I may get to one of those later.

The main selling point of the Tanita Restaurant recipes is that they are low calorie and supposedly delicious. This is a collaborative effort between food-making giant Morinaga and a maker of health-related products called Tanita. Tanita provides a cookbook with meal recipes that are under 500 calories and Morinaga gives you a chance to chase that healthy home-made meal with a processed dessert. The web site for this dessert promises that it gives you a 50-80% reduction in calories.

You can buy these desserts pretty much anywhere, but I picked this one up for 100 yen ($1.30) at a Lawson 100 convenience store. It contains 85 grams (about 3 oz.) of thick, custard-style pudding with an orange sauce on the bottom. You can see a lot of little black specs in it which I imagine are real vanilla beans. This is surprising given that this is a pretty cheap dessert, but the flavor bears out the real vanilla flavoring. The sauce has very mild orange flavor. The pudding is quite sweet and has a slight bit of powdered milk flavor. The texture is creamy but quite solid. You can tell that this was thickened with gelatin to give it some heft. Surprisingly though, it does not have any artificial sweeteners in it, though it does contain high fructose corn syrup.

This is a surprisingly tasty little dessert and well-worth the calories and cost. While it is made with a filler (seaweed-based gelatin, agar agar), it is creamy enough to have a nice texture and the vanilla really shines through. If I had to come up with a complaint, I'd say it is that the orange sauce should have a stronger flavor profile, but I wasn't particularly bothered by its subdued nature. If you're calorie conscious and seeking a pretty nice little dessert, I'd definitely recommend giving this a try.

Mister Donut Orange Madeleine Donut

As of this post, I realize I've been talking a lot about donuts as of late. I assure you that I have not turned into a Homer-Simpsonesque donut-eating fiend. It is mere coincidence... or at least I think it is. Perhaps spring is a time when an older woman's fancy turns to donuts, or there have just been a lot of opportunities to sample new and interesting things. This post was motivated by the fact that Mister Donut has come out with a line of donuts which tout, among other things, the inclusion of vegetables and fruit.

Click to see a larger size. Image captured from Mister Donut's web site.  

This particular type of donut does not have any vegetables in it as I was too chicken to try those ones. In the U.S., I'd have some confidence that the veggies would be well-hidden under thick layers of sugar, flour, fat, and more palatable flavors. In Japan, where the cheese danishes are made with sweetened Gouda and cheddar, I fear that a donut made with chocolate and gobo (burdock) will actually taste like burdock. The same goes for the sweet potato and spinach one, which is incredibly green and probably appeals only to someone with Popeyesque levels of enthusiasm for spinach.

This donut is not actually a donut. Even on the Mister Donut web site, they liken it to a madeleine. It's really close to pound cake. It's sweet, heavy, and moist with subtle orange flavors except where there are little bits of sweetened orange embedded in it. It's a truly delicious bit of cake and well worth the 157 yen ($1.95) and 241 calories. Frankly, it does inspire me to try some of the "riskier" flavors, though I'm much more likely to go for the pumpkin one if I'm to try a vegetable-based one.

These were released at the end of May and I'm not sure how long they'll be on offer. These types tend to peter out in 2-3 months so strike while the iron is hot if they interest you. This particular variety is definitely worth your attention.

Tea's Tea Bergamot and Orange

The cherry blossom season is in full swing as I write this, and possibly swinging toward its end by the time this gets published. My husband and I paid a visit to Shinjuku Gyoen (Park) early in the season to see what was up with the blossoms there. During that trip, we both got incredibly hungry and I opted to buy their "sakura sembei" and to wash it down with an expensive bottle of Tea's Tea from a vending machine.

The sakura sembei was pretty interesting in that it had some intensive soy sauce flavoring coated with a sweet frosted shell. It wasn't bad, but I wouldn't pay 150 yen ($1.76) for a single cracker of it again. I've had better sembei and had it cheaper. Still, it looked pretty, and it fit the season.

As for the tea, Tea's Tea seems to be what I buy when I'm out sightseeing in Japan. Readers with a good memory may recall that I picked up a bottle of their milk tea when I climbed Mt. Takao, and I loved it. I was hoping that history would repeat itself, but even the beauty of a well-manicured park and cherry blossoms couldn't influence my opinion of this drink such that I'd see it favorably. This was vile.

The main problem with this was that it tasted like orange Kool-aid with fake bergamot essence. Bergamot is what gives Earl Grey tea its luster, and this in no way reminded me of that particular tea. I'm sure part of the problem was that it was too sweet, but really it was bad because the orange part was just nasty and the "tea" part was almost absent. I drank about 1/3 of the bottle and poured out the rest. That's how bad it was.

Little Big KitKat Mikan

I'm going to ask my readers to return to those less than thrilling days of yesteryear when they were young and naive and their mommies carted them off to the doctor for rounds of various inoculations. I realize that's something that may become a thing of the past with all of the controversy about vaccinations causing all sorts of problems such that people would rather their kids had polio or whatever. As a childless person, I'm really not too fussed about how other people deal with their off-spring unless they're kicking the back of my seat in a movie or on a plane.

Getting back to the point though, we all remember how dreadful the experience could be when young and helpless and forced to be skewered on our scrawny, tender arms with what I'm sure was a two-foot needle. The only "good" thing about it was that you'd often get a lollipop at the end of the ordeal. Well, it was best if you got orange or grape. Cherry would suffice in a pinch, and getting lemon or lime just was adding insult to the injured appendage that took the shot.

The reason I want you to remember those cheap lollipops that you got after being stabbed by a well-meaning health professional is that you'll need to draw on the sense memory of what those cheap, clear orange lollies smelled and tasted like to understand the essence of this KitKat. It's as if someone either stirred the milk chocolate with one of those suckers or crushed them up to sandwich between the wafers. Either way, it's the essence of a cheap, chemical orange flavor which is a bit too intense. With the milk chocolate, it comes across as an orange tootsie roll on steroids. On the bright side, these are crispier than usual KitKats.

This wasn't appalling or anything, but I wouldn't buy it again and had I known what it was going to taste like, I wouldn't have bought it in the first place. Adding orange to chocolate is something that needs some care and finesse. Real citrus flavors in the right balance make for something immensely delicious, but fake flavors in too high a quantity spoil the effect.

If you'd like to have one of these despite my low opinion of it, you can find them at convenience stores now. I got mine at NewDays for 120 yen. The only bright side is that there are 10 little morsels in the bag and each is only 22 calories so you can spread the "love" amongst your friends, family or coworkers should you live to regret your purchasing decision.

Asahi 9 pm

It seems that "night" and "adult" are themes for marketing products for late in 2010. I think this is because early in the year tends to be a focal point for selling things to young folks as they study and gear up for taking entrance tests. This is the reason why so many KitKats are released in the first part of the year and so few at this point in time. KitKats are mainly seen as something for kids or as special souvenirs.

This is my second "evening" themed food to review. Asahi recommends that you enjoy an "adult themed soda". That doesn't mean that you tipple from a beverage composed of gladiator sweat with a rich pheromone-based blend that only someone who has made it beyond puberty can appreciate the nuances of. It means you should kick back and enjoy this calorie-free drink after dinner or a bath. Yeah, I like the gladiator sweat idea better.

I first saw this beverage at AM/PM for 147 yen ($1.76), but being an incredibly cheap person, I waited for it to show up in my local Lawson's 100 for 100 yen ($1.20) for a 500 ml. bottle. It was sitting next to the Asahi Ultra Fiber Vitamin C that I tried before.

The advertising for this says that it includes orange and curacao. Curacao is a liqueur flavored with a citrus peel. It's also supposed to smell like vanilla and oak. To me, it smelled very faintly of orange and tasted like weakly carbonated club soda with a twist of orange. There is a little hint of bitterness, but not enough to put off someone who isn't incredibly sensitive to bitter flavors.

This is marketed as a soft drink, but there's really not much to it. If you like club soda with a bit of ever so slightly bitter orange, then this will fill the bill. The flavor is light and there is almost no sweetness to it (despite having artificial sweeteners). I think this would be best used as a mixer for alcoholic drinks or to mix with juice. It's not bad, and I'd buy it if I needed a bottle of water and this was the same price and I wasn't in the mood for plain water. The chances that I'll buy it again though, are exceptionally low.

Tirol Mikan Chocolate

Growing up in the U.S., my taste buds grew accustomed to what a particular flavor "meant" to me.  If I bought some grape candy, it all pretty much tasted like other grape candy. The basic essence of those flavors was similar and I recognized them for what they were based on my experiences.

It wasn't until I came to Japan that I found out that the essence of a particular flavor when it is translated into sweets or snacks isn't necessarily the same to everyone. "Grape" candy in Japan may or may not taste like grape in the U.S. I've certainly found that "cheese" sweets in Japan aren't the same as cheese sweets back home since savory cheeses are used here and only cream cheese tends to be used back home.

I was thinking about the basic essence of flavors because orange candy at home often is a bit different from that here, and this Tirol mikan chocolate actually brought back a greater sense of what I used to have back home than most orange candy in Japan. The main reason for this is that it smelled so intensely orange, like a whiff of a newly opened carton of orange juice concentrate. For the record, fruit juice concentrates aren't sold here so I hadn't smelled anything as strong as that for over two decades.

The soft chocolate outer shell of this candy is rather sweet and lightly orange flavored. It's the the firm gummy candy interior that carries a very intense citrus flavor. It's quite zesty and satisfying compared to many white chocolates because of the citrus bite.

For a mere 20 yen (24 cents) and a one inch square of candy which provides only 54 calories, this is a good investment both in money and potential body fat. I really liked this and would definitely buy it again. I bought mine at Family Mart convenience store, but Tirol chocolates are sold in a wide variety of places in Japan. If you find this one and like orange chocolates, I recommend giving it a try.

Tirol Petit Autumn Dessert Assortment

I've been thinking about the product positioning of Tirol (non-premium) candy in Japan and it occurred to me that they represent the same place in the market as Hershey's kisses do in the U.S. They're small candies that are individually wrapped and can be manipulated into a variety of flavors while still maintaining their essential nature. The main difference is that the Tirol candies are more sophisticated based on their more versatile shape, and have about 10 calories more per candy because they are slightly bigger. Being a Japanese product, they also are more elaborately packaged, of course.

I was drawn to this variety pack of autumn dessert candies at 7-11 (for 105 yen/$1.25) because of the inclusion of Mont Blanc roll as a flavor. All of the flavors have appeal for me, but it's hard for me to resist a sweet based on this chestnut-paste-based pastry. As readers of my other Japan-related blog know, it is my favorite item when I have access to a patisserie. Frankly, I was also drawn to the sophisticated package design and autumn colors as I trudged around in 95 degree F/35 degree C. lingering summer weather.

There are three types of candy and nine squares in total. The entire bag is 314 calories and each is about 35 calories. There is a huge list of ingredients since each one has its own separate listing but nice things like real orange peel, apple puree, and mikan (Japanese tangerine) pulp are included as are a lot of not so impressive things like oblaat (the stuff used for medicinal capsule casings), gelatin, and cornstarch. 

Mont Blanc Roll:

This one smells a bit like coffee, but I think it's a misleading olfactory cue. It really does taste just like the pile of creamy chestnut paste that is heaped onto Mont Blanc cakes. In fact, if it weren't for the difference in textures, you'd probably be hard-pressed to tell the difference between this candy and the real deal. If this weren't so small, the flavor may actually be too intense. The pastry has some other aspects with it to dilute the flavor but this is purely the taste of the cream. Still, as a small morsel (about 1 inch/2.54 cm. square), it's very tasty as is. The texture is soft and yielding, but not particularly creamy.

Orange:

When I cut this in half for a picture of the interior, it was a little tough because of the thick gummi-like interior. It smells very strongly of orange and the dark chocolate coating combined well with the sweet interior. Still, this seemed to have a bit of an orange Tootsie roll thing going on which I didn't simply love. I think this would have been a bit better had it been milk chocolate or even more intense dark chocolate. The orange flavor is the real deal though, and this was fine. I wouldn't buy it alone, but I'm good with eating the three pieces in this assortment and they won't go to waste.

Apple Pie:

This is exactly the same as the premium apple pie that I loved so much and praised in an earlier review. It's every bit as good as the original with nice chewy bits of apple, a strong hint of cinnamon, crunchy bits of "pie crust" and a white chocolate base.

This is a very nice assortment. In fact, it's one of the better ones that I've come across from Tirol in a long, long time and I would recommend it to anyone who finds the flavors appealing. In order of preference, I'd say that I still loved the apple pie best, then the mont blanc roll, and finally the orange. My husband liked the orange one best, so tastes do vary.