Reko Pizzelle (Vanilla, Anise, and Lemon)

The idea that a food is better in another country than its country of origin is not an alien one, though I do believe it's something which would be hotly debated. The idea that "Authentic" cuisine using the ingredients of the country in which the dish was developed is superior to any adaptations in other countries tends to be debated. In fact, at the moment, I'm hard-pressed to come up with any food in America that people (other than Americans) think is better here than in its home country. This could reflect the limits of my imagination, of course. Readers may feel free to share their thoughts.

Reko, the company in Cananda that makes today's focus of a review, asserts that their pizzelle are so good that they export them to the Abruzzo region of Italy. That's the area in which pizzelle were reportedly formulated. They boldly say Italians think their pizzelle are better than native offerings.

I can't speak for Italians, but I can speak for me. The truth is that I have consumed very few pizzelle in my life. For those who are even more unfamiliar with them than me, they are a thin, crispy, waffle-like cookie. They are less deeply browned and crispy than a waffle cone used for ice cream, but do have the same flavors in their mix.

These cookies were available at Cost Plus World Imports. The main reason I ended up buying them was that there was a basket of samples of the dulce de leche flavor on hand. I don't even like dulce de leche, but I liked the sample so I picked up the three other flavors that sounded even more appealing to me. I figured if the one I didn't like was good, the ones I liked would be even better.

I paid $3.50 per box of 30 cookies. There are three packs of 10 in each box (which greatly reduces the risk of them going stale) and the nutrition information says that a serving is five cookies. For me, I tend to try to keep it to three or four, tops, but I can see how easy it would be to get carried away given that they are crisp, light, and only 23 calories each. You can put away quite a few for the calorie price of less than two and a half Oreo cookies.

All of these cookies have the same basic mix and prominent flavor profile. They have a slightly carmelized flavor which says that flour, fat, and sugar have come together in a toasty orgy to create a more appealing offspring. All of the flavors are relatively subtle and come through as a secondary flavor after the overall "waffle/cookie" taste. Of the three flavors, lemon is my least favorite for not other reason than it seems to add a little too much of a citric sourness and not quite enough of a floral sense. That is not to say I dislike it. I do, but vanilla is my favorite with anise being in the middle of the pack.

The shining star of these cookies is the texture and subtlety. They are the perfect light accompaniment to tea or coffee as a light treat. The web site and packaging show them with fruit toppings, cream fillings, and chocolate between them like a waffle sandwich, but I love them plain. I think that appreciating them as a simple treat while attending to the delicate flavors is a treat and I'll definitely have them again.

Bourbon Puchi Cake Kurogoma Milk

One of my enduring disappointments since returning to the U.S. is that, though Asian markets often stock Bourbon products, but they never have the kinako wafers that were my favorite of their line in Japan. Most of the time, they sell pretty boring stuff like little langue du chat (cat's tongue) sugar cookies, tiny chocolate chip cookies, mini pretzels, or potato chips.

I never understand why they sell Japanese versions of the same type of things you can get in the American market rather than more unique and novel snacks. It's like they expect you to buy tinier chocolate chip cookies for a higher price just because they're Japanese. Yes, it is true that they aren't quite the same, but they're also not different enough to really light any fires.

Fortunately, occasionally, a more unique item will sneak through whatever trade barriers keep out more Japanese snacks and this cake sneaked through. I found this at Nijiya Japanese market for $1.49. It has 6 of the most "petit" bits of cake you could ever imagine. Each is about as big as the tip of your thumb. There are 6 tiny little pieces and each is 29 calories.

The part of this which holds the most potential is the "kurogoma" or "black sesame" component. The "milk" portion is just the cream center, which is pretty average stuff. It's fatty and adds a good textural component, but not much taste. Most of that comes from the sesame topping which mixes well with the mild flavor of the cake and cream. The cake is very moist, almost too moist and a little mushy. That could be because the cream leeches into the surrounding cake over time and this probably spent some time on a boat making its way to the New World.

I liked this. I can't say that I "loved" it. The sesame is a nice addition which adds some flavor depth and I like the cream, but ultimately, the cake itself, which makes up the lion's share of the snack, is below average. I have to say that they are superior to Lotte's "choco pie" snacks and similar knock-offs, as those are greasy and dry at the same time, but it's not great. I'm not unhappy that I bought it, but I wouldn't buy it again.

KitKat Vanilla Ice Cream

With little chunks of ice and a waffle cone with a few scoops of vanilla ice cream on the package, it will surprise no one to learn that this is a summer leftover KitKat. It was introduced on June 25, but according to Nestle Japan's web site, it's still on the roster. On the one hand, thanks to climate change, we appear to be finding that we're generally giving autumn a miss and living in a prolonged summer, so those who continue to sweat into the early autumn may find the illusion of a cooling treat appealing. On the other, seasonal flavors in Japan are something all the natives and non-natives alike look forward to. I'd be saying, "bring on the sweet potato and chestnut", but right now the newest mini variety is a white chocolate "adult sweetness KitKat". I guess Nestle Japan isn't in the fall spirit yet.

Since most of the new KitKat flavors are a crushing disappointment, I have been unwilling to invest in buying them despite having more reasonably priced access than most via Nijiya Japanese market. I'm particularly reluctant to pop for the $7 price tag on the standard large size bag of minis when I have a strong feeling that they'll taste like overly sweet disappointment. The only reason I went for this was that it is a smaller than usual bag of minis. With only 4 small bars and at a price tag of only $2.19 (175 yen), I figured that the chances that I'd be suffering buyer's remorse was relatively low.

I'm using my KFC Christmas plate for white food because they photograph better on a dark background, and this is all I have in my puny selection of dishes at present.

The bar does smell a bit like vanilla. Fake vanilla is, after all, a pretty potent scent. The bars have a very sugary, slightly gritty texture in addition to the trademark wafer crispness. The white chocolate coating is soft and yielding with no snap of its own. The first bite carries with it a potent, but not overbearing, vanilla flavor coupled with something which is reminiscent of frozen dairy confections. Subsequent bites, however, reveal an odd fake flavor which becomes increasingly reminiscent of powdered milk and the cheapest ice cream in the store. At the end of the second finger of the mini, it was potent enough to overwhelm the experience.

This is not a bad bar, but it's not an especially noteworthy one either. It is, like most of these white chocolate bars, extremely sweet. While I don't regret picking up this 4-pack for the price I did, I'm glad that I didn't buy a bigger bag as it'd feel like a huge waste of money. As it is, I sampled a bar, my husband will likely eat one, and a craving for super sweet candy will see us through the other two. However, I would not buy this again, and unless you truly enjoy artificial flavoring, powdered milk, and very sweet white chocolate, I would not recommend this to my readers.

Vanilla KitKat Big Bar

There's a song by Barenaked Ladies which my husband has listened to many times in which about a million lyrics are disgorged in about 3 seconds that has a line which says something about vanilla being the finest of the flavors. As a kid, I would have vehemently disagreed with this, but, as an adult, I'm definitely much closer to agreeing with. I realize that one of the reasons "vanilla" was not good when I was a kid was that most of what was marketed at that time as "vanilla" was simply "absence of chocolate". An ice cream cone from the local "Tastee Freeze" was pretty much milk flavored with some artificial flavoring tossed in. It wasn't even an approximation of vanilla, but rather some sort of flavor that was supposed to enhance the consumption of a cone of white soft serve.

I think that since the days of my ancient childhood (I am all of 47, after all), consumers have gotten more sophisticated about vanilla. The price of vanilla beans would indicate there is some reason to believe that is so. They wouldn't be so expensive if demand were not fairly high. Nestle Japan decided that they were going to go "for real" in this vanilla KitKat bar and the package boasts the inclusion of real vanilla beans and 13% "vanilla paste". I was not sure at all what "vanilla paste" was, but a little research said that it is vanilla beans mixed with a thick sweet syrup made with sugar and a thickener. It's supposed to be good for making ice cream and is used in gourmet cooking. I may be a tad cynical, but I'm guessing this KitKat isn't using the highest quality vanilla bean paste in every bar.

I should note that this purchase was something my husband desired more than me. He's a great fan of white chocolate and I'm decidedly "so-so" on it as I generally find it too sweet. For that reason, I'm going to go with his rating on this bar instead of mine. I will share my impressions, however, since I can't really speak for his taste buds. I can only say that he said, "I really liked it!" I can also say that he ate all but the bite I took for review purposes by himself.

Regarding my feelings, it was, as expected, too sweet. There were nice little black flecks of vanilla beans in the white chocolate and the inner filling was brown (not white) so there wasn't an overload of white chocolate. The wafers were, as always, crispy and satisfying and the extra number of them in a Big Bar were welcome. However, there was a funky flavor to the white chocolate which overpowered any sense of the vanilla beans authenticity. I thought it tasted like chemicals, but it may simply be something about white chocolate that rubbed me the wrong way.

So, for me, this would be an "unhappy sumo" rating as I wouldn't have finished the bar. For my husband, it'd definitely be happy as he ate most of it in one sitting. If you want one, they're at most convenience stores for about 120 yen ($1.44) for now. Fans of really sweet bars should love it. Those like me, perhaps not so much.

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.

Lotte Coolish Vanilla

If the astronauts could eat something akin to "real" ice cream, they'd be eating "Coolish". The concept is ice milk that you squeeze up and eat out of a tube, because we like our ice cream eating experiences to resemble things like dispensing toothpaste or hemorrhoid cream. The package is a plastic-coated foil packet which houses some ice milk. You can't eat it immediately out of the freezer, but rather have to let it sit for awhile or warm it with your hands. It won't come out through the tube at the top unless it has thawed a bit.

The ice milk itself has little bits of ice crystals in it and has a texture which is more akin to kakigori with cream or ice cream on it than pure ice milk or ice cream. Kakigori is Japanese shaved ice, which is quite popular in summer and is sold in various presentations. The ice crystals add a unique textural dimension, and I liked it, but some may find it distracting.

Yes, that's a very attractive delivery system. 

The taste is of strong vanilla and it's quite sweet. It's actually quite delicious, though I doubt that it is coming from real vanilla beans. It's also only 152 calories, which is on the lower side for ice milk. I'm guessing this has to do with the way it is cut with ice crystals. This is a low-end product and sells for 100 yen (about $1.24) for a 140-ml. portion (around a 3/4 cup serving). Real ice cream in Japan tends to cost 3 times as much.

The only problem that I had with this was that it gets softer and softer at the end and unless you're sure to have the tube right in your mouth every moment you're squeezing the packet, it'll surprise you and squirt out on your shirt or pants. Well, that's what it did to me. Also, frankly, suckling on the tube feels a bit weird. I think this is supposed to be similar to a lot of sports drinks in Japan in terms of the experience of consuming it. If you're walking around on a hot day (something that happens a lot right now), this is probably a convenient way to enjoy a very cold snack, but it still makes me feel like I'm still on the bottle. That being said, I'd buy this again as long as I could consume it at home.

Glico Cream Collon

Back when I was in junior high school, we had a classmate whose first name was "Colin", but it wasn't pronounced the way it is in the U.K. ("call-un") but like the punctuation ("coal-in"). Even though we were responding to any mention of the word "come" with a titter due to raging hormones wrecking havoc on our young bodies, we didn't find his name funny. At that point in time, words that resembled anatomy which wasn't linked to sex didn't really make us laugh, though I guess these days "colon" may indeed be linked to sexual activity.

At any rate, "collon" is one of the darlings of the "Engrish" community and packages of it are pictured all over various web sites featuring Japanese objects which have funny names in English. Despite this, I haven't reviewed it because I've usually seen it only in big packages and wasn't willing to buy a relatively large amount for sampling. Dame fortune smiled upon me when I saw a tiny packet available at a 100 yen ($1.24) shop available in a bin of snacks that were 3 for 100 yen. So, this cost me a mere 33.33 yen (41 cents).

Sorry for the crappy picture. Getting light-colored food to take a decent picture is always a challenge for my crappy camera and poor photography skills.

I expected these to be like a sweet version of a Combo, those pretzels that are stuffed with flavored pastes of various types. That is, I thought they might be hard on the outside with a fairly solid filling. It turns out that they are actually quite delicate. The outer shell is flakey and like thin layers of wafer cone. The filling is very soft and fluffy and not in the least bit dense. They are quite sweet with a potent vanilla flavoring. I can see how these are much more likely to be designed for kids rather than adults given the sweetness level.

These are delicious with a very satisfying textural combination, but the sweetness is really intense. This is actually not a bad thing since a mere 7 little pieces of them (15.5 g./.5 oz. bag) have 89 calories. For a one bite treat, 12 calories per isn't insubstantial, especially when they practically melt in your mouth. The fact that they are so sweet makes it easier to eat a small amount and feel it's enough. Frankly, by the second one, I was thinking I was closing in on cloying, and was good to stop.

Collon are what my husband calls "very wrong" which is to say they are a bit too right. They are super sweet, fatty, and a serious indulgence. I'd definitely recommend giving them a try as long as super, super sweet things don't turn you off.

Just a gentle reminder that there is a contest running for two weeks to win a few snack and snack-related goodies. If you'd like to enter, the details are in this post.

Nanao Vanilla Golusia Gaufrette

I've never been to Europe and my first experience with European food is largely through living in Japan. As someone who grew up poor in the deep boonies of western Pennsylvania, I really didn't find much in the way of sophisticated imports, or unsophisticated ones, for that matter. American-made Cadbury chocolate was about as close to "European" as I ever got.

Gaufrette, which is a thin, lightly sweet cookie which is similar to a crispy waffle, is a French creation that is very popular in Japan. While a dictionary of cuisine says they are usually "fan-shaped", they're usually round here and sold most often as souvenirs in stations and department store basements (where food is usually sold). I used to be given these on a semi-regular basis when I worked in a Japanese office and when I saw this box of them on sale at the local 100-yen shop, it was my sense of nostalgia that motivated me to toss them in my basket.

 There's nothing like a cookie to make your life comfortable.

The cool thing about these Japanese-style gaufrette cookies is that there is almost no difference between the more expensive ones that you get in department stores and these cheap versions. The main reason for this is that the cream is very thin in the middle and lends very little to the flavor. Most of the taste comes from the crispy waffle cookie exterior, and it's pretty hard to mess up.

The exterior has a deeply baked waffle flavor. It's like a waffle cone, but less intense in flavor due to the thinness. It is lightly sweet and makes a good accompaniment to tea or coffee. It would also go very well with ice cream. If you want to actually taste the cream, which is very subtle in flavor but richly fatty, you need to slide the cookie apart and place the inside against your tongue. This is what I do, and fortunately the cookies slide apart as if they were stuck together with butter.

These cookies are easy to like, but not so easy to "love". They are mainly appealing for their texture. They are crispy in a way which is very gratifying and also have a pleasant flavor. For 100 yen ($1.24) for a box of 8 cookies slightly smaller than the size of your palm, they're a nice thing to have around for a light tea time treat. They're also only about 45 calories per cookie and that makes them light on the hips. If you're a fan of subtle, crispy cookies that work well with a beverage, I'd say they're worth your shelf space.

Fujiya Peko Wafers

There's a new blog which I started following a few months ago called "Food in Real Life". It takes pictures of the box illustration of a dish and the way the food actually looks and then rates both how closely the real food resembles the illustration and how it tastes. I must say that Japanese processed food as it appears on the package generally resembles the food as presented inside.



That being said, these Peko wafers as pictured don't look anything like the way they are portrayed on the bag. In fact, they look further from the illustration than most things I've reviewed. They look thick, airy, and have a clearly defined filling on the bag and are rather compressed and dense in real life. The looks don't really matter though. It's going to be the taste and texture.


There are 16 individually wrapped bars in the bag. I picked these up at a local supermarket for 198 yen ($2.22). Each is about 7 cm (2.7 in) long and slightly wider than a KitKat finger and is 42 calories. So, the bottom line is going to be whether or not I enjoy these enough to pay 12 yen (13 cents) apiece and view the calories ingested as worthwhile.

Both types of bars are light and crispy. The wafers are what I'd call "softly crispy" like sugar wafers rather than crispy in a brittle way. They yield more easily when you bite them. This isn't a bad thing, just different. The vanilla bar smells very much like nougat to me. It also has some caramel notes. It mainly tastes like nougat with very, very weak chocolate flavor. It's more of a sense of a chocolate "wash" than serious chocolate flavor. The chocolate bar smells weakly of chocolate and has a mild chocolate flavor, but is quite pleasant. Neither is overly sweet.

These are actually quite pleasant for someone who likes wafers, but doesn't want something as sugary or as heavy as a KitKat or Sequoia bar. These are lighter and I liked them a lot, but I adore wafers without too much smothering sugary coating. I'd definitely consider buying them again since I like lighter treats and things that are not so sweet. I prefer the chocolate ones over the vanilla though. The caramel/nougat notes don't do as much for me. I think someone with similar tastes would really enjoy these, but they may not be bold enough for some people.

Echigoseika Fluffy Chocolate Sembei

I've known about this product since last spring when I reviewed the same company's cheese mochi sembei, but hadn't located it. The reason why I couldn't find it is that it is seasonal and is only produced between September and March. I guess they feel that it's too dangerous to put even sembei that includes chocolate out there if we're in the 5-6 months of summer weather in Japan. Since I found the cheese mochi last April, it means I just missed it.

I found these at Okashi no Machioka discount snack shop for 198 yen ($2.37). It includes 3 pouches of 20 grams (.7 oz.) each and there are about 115 calories is in about 10 balls (the contents of one pouch). You can probably find them in other markets or possibly even convenience stores since the company is a major snack maker. Note that these are not a "healthy" sembei option as the first ingredient is sugar followed by vegetable oil and then rice starch.

Some things really defy explanation because they are so unlike anything you have ever tried before. Let's start with the idea that this is sembei, but it's "fluffy" and chocolate. And the name actually describes the product accurately. These balls of rice-based puffy goodness pretty much melt in your mouth. They are soft and cool on the tongue. The exterior is very sweet with a sugary white chocolate coating. It may be hard to accept this, but they taste like vanilla ice cream. Given their texture and properties, eating them is like having sweet ice cream without the pesky need for refrigeration.

I really liked these, but I recognize them as a "sometimes" snack because of the high sugar content. They are absolutely worth a try if you can get your hands on them. The experience is both unique and enjoyable even for picky palates. Frankly, this is the kind of product that keeps me reviewing new snacks. It's rare to come across something which is so unlike anything I've had before, yet very approachable in its flavors, but when I do, it feels like hitting a home run. The only way you're not going to care for them is if strong vanilla flavor doesn't appeal to you or if you don't like fairly sweet things.

Cisco's Vanilla Cream Dacquoise Cookies

My husband spied these cookies while we perusing Family Mart convenience store ("konbini") before heading up to the counter to pay our utility bills. He picked up the last remaining bag and said they looked good, but then put them back. I had a look at the ingredients list, which started with sugar, then quickly went to eggs, shortening, almonds, and "sugar water" then flour and thought these looked like something of interest. Any time eggs or nuts are high on the list, I'm happy as that means they're generally a variation on some sort of European treat. I'm even happier if the eggs end up being part of a meringue base.

The package cost 105 yen ($1.25) for a mere three cookies. Each cookie is about 5 cm long and 4 cm wide (2" x 1.6"), so they're far from cheap despite being "konbini" fare. There was also a coffee variety and it had just one bag remaining. I don't know if this was a good sign or not, but we decided to go for the vanilla. They are made by Cisco's, a division of food producer Nissin. Previously, I had sampled and indifferently reviewed Cisco's sweet potato cookies. Each cookie is 49 calories.

I had never heard of dacquoise before buying these cookies so I didn't know what to expect aside from what we could see in the picture on the front of the bag which is misleading. The cookies are a sponge with a lightly crisp film on top filled with fatty whipped cream. They smell like vanilla and "sweetness". The cookies are tender inside and slightly spongey. The cream is soft, very, very sweet and has good vanilla flavor. It reminded me of the filling in some snack cake I may have eaten many, many years ago back home, but I can't remember which it might be.

This is a very nice little treat, but it is incredibly sweet. If you're sensitive to really sugary treats, you'll want to give this a miss, but it does make a lovely pairing with coffee and if you just eat one cookie at a time, it shouldn't be too overbearing. I truly enjoyed this and it has already been decided that we'll buy them again (likely sampling the coffee variety).

Daiichi Vanilla Bar

The Japanese seem to have a taste for sweetened condensed milk which I never developed. This is reflected in the fact that they'll squirt some from a tube onto their strawberries. In fact, there are some pervy videos out there of Japanese women provocatively squirting milky, semi-translucent fluid onto their mouths and faces. It's sweetened condensed milk, but we're supposed to think it's something else.

These are made by the same company that made the chocolate cream bar which I reviewed favorably. I bought this at Lawson's 100-yen shop where it was on display in the freezer case next to the chocolate version.

I had some hopes that this "vanilla bar" was actually vanilla. Unfortunately, I didn't taste any vanilla in it at all. The reason that I mentioned the love sweetened condensed milk at the start of this post is that this is the sort of frozen treat that is clearly designed for Japanese tastes. It doesn't smell like anything at all and the taste is like powdered milk. It's sweet but not overwhelmingly so.

The texture of the ice milk inside of this bar is much firmer than the chocolate cream bar in the interior and less brittle and hard on the outside. I even let it soften a bit to see if it would take on the same super creamy aspects as the chocolate bar, but no joy.

On the plus side, each bar is only 85 calories and you get three 75-ml. (2.5 oz.) bars for 99 yen ($1.06). On the minus side, the ingredients include palm oil and Sucralose and, though this is not bad at all, it just doesn't taste like much. Clearly, there is no vanilla flavoring in it, or so little as to not be detectable. If you like powdered or condensed milk enough to eat it in ice cream form, this might float your boat, but if you like something which is more flavorful, give this a pass. Note that this almost made "indifferent", but I can't in good conscience give that rating when I threw out the last bar rather than eat it.

bon o bon Chocolate and Vanilla Cream Bonbons

All 100-yen shops are not created equal in Japan. Some of them mainly carry food and are like tiny, cheap supermarkets selling food in small portions. Some carry novelties, housewares, and other things that you're not supposed to put in your mouth (let alone swallow). One chain which has a blue sign with the words "100 yen" written on it in white carries both snacks and a large number of housewares. That was the shop where I found these varieties of bonbons. It's a bit further afield than my usual haunts, but it had things I don't often see so it was work the trek.

These are distributed by snack manufacturer Yaokin, which I know well from it's salted snack foods designed for the Japanese kid market. At the time that I researched the company for other reviews, I downloaded a catalog in .pdf format which included a plethora of snacks that I had never seen before and these bonbons were amongst those previously undiscovered treats. These chocolates were produced in Argentina, and are sold under the brand name Arcor. They are sold in the South American market, and are a bigger deal there than they are in Japan. There is a cute animated commercial for them on YouTube.


So, it ended up being the case that these are not Japanese, but they are marketed in Japan so that makes them fair game for me. Each is about 4 cm (1.6 in.) in diameter, and there are 6 of them in each bag (for 99 yen or about $1.10). There is no nutritional information on the bag, but I'd guess they're 80-100 calories each. The ingredients include sugar, peanuts, cocoa powder, cocoa butter, and cocoa mass.

I first bought the chocolate cream variety and my husband and I gave them a taste. They're a little like a cheaper, bigger version of a Ferrero Rocher hazelnut chocolate. They smell like cocoa, with a hint of peanut. Each is a nice blob of soft, creamy filling with a thin wafer shell dipped in chocolate. The chocolate flavor is rather weak, and you can tell it's either designed for a market which is dissimilar from that in Japan (where chocolate is bittersweet) or it's just cheap chocolate. That doesn't make it bad at all. It just makes it a better choice for those who like milk chocolate than those who like dark or strong cocoa flavors. The chocolate is creamy, but has some grain to it.

The peanut element is much more present than I anticipated. In fact, it borders on a chocolate peanut butter candy which makes it fantastic in the eyes of us foreign folks who are missing our Reese's peanut butter cups. Mind you, this is no peanut butter cup, but at least the peanut and chocolate combination can be tasted. For the record, peanut butter and chocolate combinations are extremely rare in Japan. Most Japanese people respond to the idea with the equivalent of "ewww".


The vanilla cream flavor bonbon is very similar to the chocolate one, but the flavor is a little "cleaner". I wanted to try the vanilla variety mainly to see if the peanut butter shined through more intensely when the filling wasn't full of cocoa goodness. It turned out that it wasn't any stronger, but it still was good. It was sweet, creamy, and had mild but detectable hints of peanut. There wasn't much of a true "vanilla" flavor, but it was still good.

I really liked these, though they clearly are not a premium candy and lack the refined quality that Japan-made chocolates have. They have a lot going for them in terms of the textural elements and the peanut and chocolate flavor combination. The center is rich and fatty, but rather light. The wafer makes a nice contrast with the soft center.

I can not only say that I would buy these again, but that I went out and bought three more bags of them after the first one was gone. For 100 yen each, these are really great. The only down side is that you might want to eat the whole bag and regret it.

Bourbon Fuwa Maki Milk Cake

I believe that cows, if they were the size of dogs, would be pets, and we wouldn't be eating them. Sure, they go around dropping big cow pies, fart a lot, and they chew their cuds, but cows are cute. They have big, brown eyes and they're not particularly noisy. If one had a cow instead of a dog, neighbors would never complain. All you'd have to do to keep your pet cow in line is set it out for grass eating in the backyard. I'm guessing you could also get your miniature cow to give you enough milk on a daily basis for your coffee or tea. Frankly, I'm surprised no one has started to breed "toy cows" for such purposes.


At any rate, I'm not necessarily big into cuteness, but I like cow motifs. I couldn't resist buying this Bourbon "milk cake" because it not only has a cow motif on the outside, but cow spots on the cake itself. That's just too cool to pass up. These cakes have been around in convenience stores for awhile. They usually sell for 100 yen ($1.10), but I got mine for 89 yen (98 cents) at Okashi no Machioka.

The cake is a bit on the small size at 11 cm x 5 cm (4.3" x 2"). Note that these are designed to last for awhile as the expiration date on mine was 4 months after the purchase date. I ate mine within 3 days of purchase though because I didn't trust that it'd be the same quality after a few months. There are 179 calories in the entire 43.5 gram (1.5 oz.) cake. One might compare this to one of the best known snack cakes with cream in the center, the Twinkie, which weighs in at 150 calories for a similarly sized amount of cake.

The cake mainly smells like sweet vanilla and milk. When you touch the cake, it's texture is slightly sticky and tacky on the outside, and the cake is rather dry. The filling is super creamy, and fatty. I read recently that "fat" is actually detected by the tongue as a taste, and if you're big into fat "flavor", this would be a delight. Note that this isn't made with butter though. It's made with shortening and "creaming powder". It also includes Sorbitol, a sugar alcohol, and maltose.

There is an odd aftertaste associated with these types of cakes made by Bourbon that are supposed to last awhile. It's hard to pin down, but it seems like something that's hiding under all of the sugar. Mostly, this is just sweet and fatty. There isn't much of a "vanilla" flavor so much as a "milk" one, which is no surprise since this is a "milk" cake, but us foreign folks are accustomed to vanilla in white cakes so I figured it was worth mentioning. My husband wasn't fond of this because it didn't taste like much of anything to him. This is despite the fact that he likes sweets (and very sweet things) more than me.

This is good, and reminds me a lot of a slightly off-brand Hostess snack cake clone. If I was in the mood for this type of thing, I'd certainly choose this over any other options. That being said, I rarely eat snack cakes (which is why they don't get reviewed very often). I'm unlikely to buy this again because I imagine that it'll be off the market before my tastes turn toward sponge cake with cream filling again. I'd certainly recommend giving these a try as long as you're not very sensitive to preservatives.

Tirol Vanilla Yogurt Chocolate (Premium)

I rarely do those "you know you've been in Japan too long" deals, but this Tirol chocolate is providing me with an irresistible opportunity to offer one. I've been here long enough to have developed a long-term affinity for a product that didn't originate in my home culture, which I imagine means I've been here too long. There's a type of "fresh cream" vanilla yogurt that I have enjoyed for a very, very long time. The label of this Tirol chocolate is based on the package design of that yogurt and I was very excited when I saw it in Family Mart. It didn't take me long to part with my 30 yen (33 cents).


This particular brand of yogurt, sold under the brand name "Luna" (ルナ) is sold in convenience stores and markets. You can get it in two or three container packages. Each pot is quite small and the yogurt is like a dessert. Its smooth, creamy, sweet, and full of lovely vanilla flavor. Part of the reason that it is so good is that it is 4% fat. That means that a small quantity (about a half cup) is 111 calories. The slogan on the package says, "it's irresistible, I just can't help it." And it is truth in advertising. Since the yogurt is so incredibly good, the bar for this candy is really high. I wanted to judge it fairly, but I also felt that there's only value in this sort of cross-company venture if something special comes out of it.


When I opened the package, there was a scent of heavenly sweetness and vanilla. The smell was a good start. The texture is soft chocolate with a soft marshmallow with a little syrup mixed in. Because they're both soft, you can't separate the textures of the two. I wish the marshmallow had been a little more distinctive in terms of texture so it would have added depth to the feel in my mouth. The taste is quite sweet white chocolate with just a little bit of yogurt sourness. To be fair to the formula for this candy, I should say that the vanilla yogurt it is based on is not particularly sour. That being said, this is a pale imitation of the yogurt. There's too much sweet white chocolate and too little of the vanilla essence. You can also smell more vanilla than you can taste, but at least the taste is there.

Don't take the rating the wrong way. This was nice. I enjoyed it, and I think others who like white chocolates and yogurt (in moderation) will like it, too. I just think that if I'm going to spend the calories, I'd rather buy a pot of the real deal and eat the vanilla yogurt itself. This 1 inch/2.54 cm. square of Tirol candy has 47 calories. For about the caloric cost of two of these squares, I can have the real deal which has more substance, better vanilla flavor, less sugar, and a decadent smooth and creamy texture. I happily consumed this, but I wouldn't buy another.

Incidentally, I haven't reviewed the yogurt itself on this blog, and I'm unlikely to with so many other things lined up, but I recommend it without reservations. If I were to rate the Luna Vanilla Yogurt, it'd get a very happy rating without reservation. Just writing about it here is making me crave it rather strongly.

Glico 80-Calorie Monaka

I've often thought it would be interesting to create a blog devoted to low calorie, diet and health foods in Japan. Of course, I soon realized that such a blog could only update about once a week, if that, because there aren't many of such products. In America, people can create entire blogs devoted to low calorie, reduced fat, and healthy foods, but I'm hard-pressed to find anything in line with their review fodder except the odd zero calorie soft drink. I realize that eating "fake" foods in order to save calories isn't the best way to approach one's diet. However, I also think there is nothing wrong with the occasional indulgence that doesn't come with a hefty calorie price tag.

All of the ice cream in Japan is very rich and fatty. I rarely find a small cup of ice cream with less than 285 calories, and many are over 300. The only exception is Glico's line of 80-calorie ice milk treats. They sell small cups (110 ml.) of green tea, chocolate with chocolate pieces, rum raisin, and vanilla for 150 yen each ($1.69). These are difficult to find, but I can locate them at Natural Lawson's and one of the Family Mart convenience stores in range of my apartment. I have never seen them at local markets.

I was surprised to find that they also carry a low-calorie monaka ice milk sandwich. It is also about 150 yen, but has only 82 ml. of ice milk. According to their web site, they offer green tea and vanilla versions of these monaka, but I've never seen them. The vanilla version has red beans on it instead of the chocolate coating that this one has. All of these are part of what Glico calls their "calorie control" line.


One thing that one has to keep in mind when eating these types of foods is that the bar has to be lowered relative to other types of ice cream and ice milk. The question isn't how this stacks up to full-fat ice cream, but how good it is as a cold confection for 80 calories. Keep in mind that the first ingredient is polydextrose, a form of soluble fiber used to replace sugar. It also contains artificial sweeteners and tofu. Some of the ingredients aren't listed, however. The chocolate and monaka are simply listed as "chocolate coating" and "monaka".

When you give it a sniff, the first thing you smell is the monaka and that is like a cake cone. The monaka is rather soft and has absorbed a bit of moisture. I don't know if it might have been crisper if it hadn't sat in my freezer for a week, but my guess is that it wouldn't. Monaka aren't exceptionally crisp even when fresh.

The ice milk has a bit of a generic dairy flavor, reminiscent of powdered milk but not in a bad way. The chocolate coating is very sparse, but there is enough of it to add flavor. If you look at the picture above, you can see that the coating is fragmented rather than a solid sheet like I got in the Morinaga Jumbo Monaka bar. Mainly, it tastes cold and sweet with some bittersweet chocolate flavor. The flavors are not strong and I really wish there was a vanilla component to the ice milk.

This was fairly enjoyable. I can say that it was definitely worth 80 calories, but it won't do if you've got a hankering for some real ice cream. It will do if you have a craving for a cold treat. I would buy this again, but I can't say that it really "wowed" me so much as simply pleasantly satisfied me.