Kanro Framboise and Lychee Pate de Fruits Gummi (product information)

This gummi candy is the odd couple of candies. First of all, it uses "framboise" for raspberry which is like using "aubergine" instead of eggplant. Second, it invokes the feeling of a highly sophisticated candy when it uses "pate de fruits". This is like calling Welch's grape juice "wine". I'm afraid that I'm entirely skeptical at the notion that a mass-produced, shelf-stable candy designed to be chewy (a gummi) is going to bring to mind the soft, high-quality sensibilities of real pate de fruits. For those who don't know, pate de fruits is like what is marketed in the U.S. as aplets and cotlets. It's a fresh, soft, fruit distillation that is sweet, but generally not cloying. Each is made to be intense enough to fulfill, but not sweet enough to cloy. It's not the sort of thing which translates to "gummi".

At any rate, I am intrigued by this ambitious effort on Kanro's part. If I locate one of these, I'll buy one despite my dislike of lychee flavoring and fruit. Actually, I think that pairing lychee with raspberry is also a bit strange, but I won't knock it until I try it. This was released in mid-October, so chances are I may not see it around for awhile, though I do tend to eventually gain access to Kanro's gummies. If any of my readers have tried it, please leave a comment and let me know how it was. I'd love to know if this lives up to its confection aspirations. ;-)

Tirol Raspberry Cheese Pie and Peach Pie Premium

When I was growing up, I remember going to local supermarkets with  my mother and seeing these boxes of pies with a clear plastic cover over the top. They'd have elaborate crusts with patterns on the top, perfectly crimped edges, and look nothing like the slapdash pies my mother put together. Hers had crumbling edges that were pressed down with a fork. I remember wanting to buy and try those pies, but we were too poor to pay whatever they cost. If I was having pie, it'd be her craptacular crust with some store brand canned pie filling plopped in the middle.

You can imagine that my pie experiences back home were far from stellar. In fact, because I was never really exposed to good pie (not that the supermarket pie would have been good, but there may have been a chance), I didn't really miss it when I came to Japan. Japan is a country that, by and large, doesn't "do" pie. There are some shops carrying something resembling pie, but a lot of the time it's not wedges cut from something round but rather flaky dough with fruit or custard heaped on it and given a shellacking with sugary glaze. So, I'm definitely not approaching these with the enthusiasm of a true pie aficionado. I'm guessing that is all for the best.

I picked these up at a local 7-11 for 32 yen (42 cents) each. This is the standard price at convenience stores for premium Tirol chocolates in my area. However, the availability of any particular flavor is not certain and I've been to 7-11 and other convenience stores that didn't have one, the other, or both. You may have to scout for them. The raspberry cheese pie one is 58 calories and the peach pie is 53, quite reasonable calorie "costs" for candy which is about 1 inch/2.54 cm square. Think of it as having a similar volume to 2.5 Hershey's kisses.

Raspberry Cheese Pie was a flavor I approached with some trepidation as my experience with Tirol cheese chocolates has not been a happy one. As I've said before, with cheese sweets in Japan, you have to think "Gouda", not "cream cheese". The mix of pungency with sugar can be quite off-putting, if not an obnoxious assault on the tongue, but hope springs eternal. Peeling off the wrapper and giving it a sniff, I was thinking "oh no", not "yummy". It smells like cheddar, which did not really play well with visions of raspberry cheesecake flavors dancing in my head. Fortunately, the cheesy nature was not overbearing and paired very nicely with the ever so slightly floral raspberry flavoring and sweet white chocolate. While I wasn't blown away by this, I did eat the entire thing and enjoy it. I wish, however, that the textural elements had been a bit clearer. The biscuit in mine wasn't crispy, but rather like a soft cookie and I'd have preferred a crunchy contrast to the soft white chocolate.

The Peach Pie was the flavor I had higher expectations of because I loved the Apple Pie premium candy. I was delighted to see that it had the same crispy bits packed into it and happy that it smelled amiably of peaches. Cutting it in half for a picture, I noticed little bits of dried peach in there and they gave this the same chewy fruit and crispy pie bits texture as the Apple Pie candy. This is quite sweet, however, but I "blame" that on the white chocolate. The peach flavor is a bit intense, but I didn't mind.

I would definitely recommend either of these as a small tea time treat when you are in the mood for just a few bites. They are both very tasty and have complex flavors and in the case of the Peach Pie one, varied textures as well. I wouldn't recommend these if you are looking to indulge in more than a bite or two though as the sweetness can get pretty cloying. I ate both of these at the same time and it got to be a bit much for me by the end of the second one, but I think I actually would buy them again if I wanted a sweeter than usual bite of fruity chocolate.

KitKat Framboise

Note that the calorie counts on KitKat boxes are for half of the box (2 fingers). This one is 97 calories for 2 fingers (one serving). 

If you write food reviews, your experience with food is very different than the average person, and I had a little situation today which reminded me of that. I was buying this particular Japanese KitKat at NewDays convenience store (for 120 yen/$1.30), and they didn't want to give me a plastic bag for just one little item. In Japan, they insist on putting a piece of tape with the stores name on any product which goes out bag-less. This is proof that you paid for it should any cop decide to stop you for "walking while being foreign" and verify that you didn't steal all of your possessions.

At any rate, the clerk hurriedly tore off a piece of "NewDays" branded tape and slapped it on my KitKat box. I found myself annoyed because she put the tape smack in the middle of the box and I knew I'd have to carefully peel it off later to take a picture. Yes, such is the life of a Japanese snack reviewer that a small thing which causes no other person difficulties would cause consternation.

Getting to the KitKat itself, I knew when I purchased it that this was almost certainly a product of the great Nestlé Japan flavor recyclomatic (patent pending). I had already sampled raspberry (framboise) dark chocolate KitKats in two of their previous incarnations. I suspected that this was going to be more of the same, except this time with milk instead of dark chocolate.

And, you know what, that is exactly what it was. It smells strongly of fake raspberry as soon as you peel off the wrapper, and the filling is the same flavor as the previous ones. It's a nice enough, albeit slightly artificial raspberry flavor. Frankly, I like it, and I liked it a lot more with milk chocolate than with dark. There is less of a jarring contrast between the smoother milky notes and the raspberry filling. The bittersweet flavor of the previous bars was a nice counterpoint, but that bar was the pairing of two strong flavors and I like the weaker and stronger combination of this bar better.

This particular flavor is part of Nestlé Japan's "Sweets Concept" campaign. The idea is to emulate a more sophisticated sweet. In this case, it's supposed to be raspberry cake with cream cheese filling. The box says that the bar contains 1.7% real cheese and 4.2% raspberry powder. I didn't taste anything that reminded me of real cheese though it could simply be that the flavor was lost in the milk chocolate. There was a bit of a tang that could have been cream cheese and not the raspberry. At such a small percentage, it's rather hard to separate the flavors, particular of a relatively mild element like cream cheese.

I would certainly recommend anyone favorably inclined toward raspberry flavors to sample this. That being said, if you aren't forgiving toward somewhat artificial fruit flavoring, you may not enjoy it as I did. I, however, really loved this and would definitely buy it again.

Nescafe Happy Pack w/Raspberry & Passionfruit KitKat

Nestlé loves you. No, really, it does. If you don't believe me, buy this Nescafé "Happy Pack" because it's their valentine to you. You can tell by the fact that they have plastered hearts all over everything. In fact, I'm sure that they would have made a heart-shaped KitKat to put inside of it had it not defied the laws of nature and snacking.


Even the insert in the box is shaped like a heart that you unfold. Nestlé knows that you'll be more receptive to their promotional materials if they give them to you in a geographic shape which expresses the company's affection for you.


The "Happy Pack" showed up at a local discount snack store for 168 yen (about $1.70). It includes 3 packets of flavored instant coffee and 3 mini size passionfruit and raspberry KitKats. Each mini bar has about the same amount of candy as 1.5 fingers of a conventional KitKat. I'll admit that I mainly bought this for the KitKats, and, to do justice to them, I need to rate the box's contents separately.


The three types of flavored instant coffee are green tea, orange and caramel latte, and café latté. I drank the café latté only. I'll admit that up front. I sent the green tea one to Marvo at the Impulsive Buy (along with one of the KitKats) and the orange one is still sitting around. I was very careful to prepare the coffee precisely as the directions state. That is, I carefully measured out the 130 ml. of water that was required. It was thick and foamy, but so very bland. It tasted just like regular, blah, instant coffee, weak and inoffensive, with too little coffee and too much powdered milk. The thing that is keeping me away from the last packet is the fact that this stuff is just full of corn syrup, and it doesn't taste sweet.

Because I would definitely not buy the instant coffee portion of this again, I'm giving the coffee an appropriately low rating.




The mini raspberry passionfruit KitKats mainly smell like raspberry. The outside of them is noticeably darker than the usual KitKat bar and has a nice bittersweet chocolate flavor. It complements the berry flavor very nicely and is also a nice mix with the limited sweetness of the passionfruit. If there is anything about this to complain about, it'd be that the raspberry completely overwhelms the passionfruit for the most part.

Because I'm not a super great fan of bittersweet chocolate, I can't really give this a very happy rating, but if I could buy these bars without the lame instant coffee, I'd definitely get them again. I think people who are fans of darker chocolate might really go for these and it's certainly one of the nicest fruit KitKats I've ever had.

Chocolat Framboise Marble Pocky

For those who don't live in Japan, I'll give the shortest possible explanation of how Valentine's Day works in this country. Women buy men chocolates. Men don't buy women anything. I'm sure that every Western man who ever felt pressure to find the perfect Valentine's gift is dialing up an Asian dating service and putting in an order for a Japanese girl right now.

I should note that a lot of women are obliged to give chocolates to men they don't even like. They also give to men who they are friends and acquaintances with. It's not about romance. That means that there is a whopping great marketing opportunity for confectioners to sell a ton of low rent candy and chocolate-based items to women who have to give their bosses and coworkers token gifts on February 14. Most companies rise to the occasion and get out there with themed items which feature the color red and hearts, though they don't always overtly state "Valentine's candy" so that the items can be bought any time by anyone.

This leads us nicely to this Chocolat Framboise Pocky. It's clearly been released for the Valentine's Day crowd (note the hearts on the box). There are three sleeves with 4 sticks each inside the box and each package has hearts all over it as well. Red fruit like strawberry, cherry, and raspberry are particularly popular inclusions for these treats, and liquor-infused candy is also readily available. I guess that men are supposed to enjoy boozy chocolates. Framboise is a sort of raspberry beer, so these sticks are three great Valentine's Day concepts fused into one - chocolate, liquor, and red fruit. How can it lose as a marketing concept?


These sticks smell very good. They smell both of chocolate and raspberry. The coating is relatively generous and the flavor is quite strong. Note that the raspberry flavor is pretty intense so you have to really like raspberry to enjoy these.The first bite tastes of dark chocolate and the second brings the raspberry more heavily into play. The coating is pretty much the usual for Pocky, a little soft and easy to bite into, and the sticks are crunchy and fresh. The sweetness is just about right and the fruit flavor doesn't taste artificial or perfume-like. The quality level is really surprising for such a "common" snack. These have cocoa butter, butter, and raspberry powder. I really liked these and I'd definitely buy them again if they were to be available after the Valentine's season ends.

Though I haven't been a fan of Pocky throughout most of my time in Japan, I have not been disappointed in the flavors I have tried. Considering that the calorie count on these is so modest, 4 sticks at 93 calories, I think that these are a very good choice as a sweet treat for anyone.