Rincle Petit Cone Ice

If the the Keebler elves were to buy a box of ice cream cones to keep around in their freezers for those days when they had a hankering for ice cream (though really, with all of those Keebler cookies, they don't need more sweets), Rincle cones would certainly fit the bill. I wonder if Glico designed these for diet-conscious adults or small children whose parents grudgingly give them sweet summer treats. Since this is classified as a "family pack" on Glico's site, I'm guessing it is for kids. One thing is for sure, at about about 10 cm (4") in length and 3 cm (1.2") in diameter, they aren't for those with big appetites.

I found these mini cones at a local supermarket and was drawn to the fact that each flavor has 50 calories or less per cone. I knew even before I opened up the box that they were going to be small. The only question was going to be how small. Note that they have been explicitly designed to be fancy-looking and to mimic the sort of ornate cone you might get at some tony ice cream parlor. The appearance of the cones was definitely a priority when Glico designed them as it is mentioned in their PR for this product.

The flavors included are strawberry, mango and double chocolate and vanilla, and double chocolate and cookie. There are 16 cones, 4 of each flavor, in one box and they cost about 200 yen (about $2), depending on whether or not you can find them on sale. Each cone is wrapped in a paper wrapper which is a little hard to remove despite a handy tab. This is because the paper is lined with plastic which stretches. When you pull on the tab, the paper only pulls off around the center and you're stuck trying to open the top. I'm guessing they lined the paper with plastic to try and stop the cones from getting stale or soggy. Frankly, this did not work. When I first bought this box, the cones were moderately crispy, but by the time I got through with half of them, they were on the softer side.

The ice milk is creamy and has a very satisfying texture. The cones, likewise, are not bad, though they don't have much in the way of flavor. They're shaped like waffle cones, but are actually fairly good quality cake cones. Each cone probably has between 2 and 3 tablespoons of ice milk in it. There's so little ice milk at the top of the cone that you'd be hard-pressed to just lick it. If you're lucky, the small blob won't dislodge on the first lick, but really the best you can hope for is to not gobble the ice milk on top in one bite.

Here are my impressions of each flavor:

mango:


The mango portion of this is really just a few little decorative dabs at the top. The rest is good, creamy and satisfyingly sweet vanilla. If you want a strong mango experience, you'll want to give this a pass, but it's certainly quite good as a vanilla cone. This cone was 40 calories.

double chocolate with cookie:


The chocolate portion is pretty much confined to the dabs on top. I couldn't detect the cookie part much at all, though it does add a grainy textural component. You can taste the chocolate a bit, but it's pretty weak. The cone has a bit of chocolate in it as well, but it's so subdued that it barely registered. At 48 calories, this cone is the most fattening of the bunch. It's also the sweetest and my least favorite.

strawberry:


I have to be honest and say that I'm not a fan of strawberry ice cream, but this was good. The strawberry flavor wasn't too intense or fake. My husband, who does like strawberry ice cream, enjoyed this quite a lot. It's also the low calorie winner of the bunch at 38 calories.

vanilla & double chocolate:


This one had the same cone as the cookie one, and the highest amount of chocolate. The top is a nice bittersweet crispy bit and the chocolate ice cream is flavorful and nicely sweet. It was my favorite of the bunch, but there are really no losers. It is 43 calories. Incidentally, I have no idea why this is called "vanilla & double chocolate" since there is nothing vanilla in it. It was also labeled as the "cookie" cone. I think someone just made mistakes on the labels and swapped them in some cases.

Depending on what kind of eater you are and how fussy you are about ice cream rather than ice milk, this is either a wonderful package of portion-controlled ice cream cones, or too little on the portion front. For me, this was great because I tend to want something sweet after a meal, but hate the idea of having a full dessert to satisfy that craving. Since the quality of the ice milk is so good and the sweetness level just about perfect, I was really pleased with these despite the tiny amounts. I'd recommend these for people who occasionally want a few spoonfuls of ice cream, but not for those who aren't satisfied with anything less than a full scoop when they get an ice cream (or in this case, ice milk) craving.

I should also note that the last two cones sat in my freezer for over a month before I got to them and there was quality degradation. The ice cream seemed to have seen a little crystallization from the freezer door being opened and closed and the cones got quite soft. I'd recommend finishing them off quickly, or putting them near the back of the freezer in a freezer quality Ziploc bag to protect them from temperature fluctuations and going stale. Clearly, the paper wrappers aren't going to do enough to keep air out of them.

Kinako Ohagi KitKat

This is a shiny new KitKat that was released yesterday. My husband came home from the gym brandishing it. I normally regard all things kinako with happy anticipation, but I've got two KitKats (sports drink and vegetable - reviews to come in the near future, hopefully) in the fridge waiting for sampling, so I was a little less excited about another being added to the pile. Nonetheless, it looked interesting and I would have purchased it if I had come across it first.


The traditional Japanese sweet pictured on the box is a ball of what looks like rice-based cake (mochi) covered in kinako powder and filled with red beans. I wasn't familiar with "ohagi" and didn't come up with anything definitive when I did a search, but I believe that it is a sweet which has a different name depending on the time of year. In fall, it's called "hagi" and has other names including botamochi. "Hagi" comes from some fall flower, as best I can tell.


The bar smells vaguely of kinako, which isn't surprising considering that the kinako is infused with the chocolate on the outside as well as the cream between the wafers. The first bite is mostly milk chocolate, but the chaser is highly reminiscent of the dreaded Oshiruko KitKat. That taste is a bit of a woodsy, vaguely "mossy" flavor. It's hard to describe, but it is what you think forest dirt might taste like. I realize that this flavor is not the kinako, but the mochiko puffs that are embedded in the chocolate. Both the Oshiruko KitKat and this one have those puffs in common.

This wasn't bad, and I will probably eat the rest, but I definitely wouldn't repeat it because of the flavor of those puffs. The overall flavor is okay, and I'm betting I'd love this if they took out the mochi puffs, but they just ruin the finish for me.

This is also reviewed at Jen's KitKat blog here.

Meiji Marron Chocolate Bar

Chestnuts that are still in their protective cocoons are scary things. They have a hairy, barbed cover which is taxing to remove. When I was a kid, occasionally we'd come across them and fight to pry them free of their prickly casing. Of course, as a child, I really was not fond of eating them because we just tasted them raw. Chestnuts are best when roasted, mashed, or processed in some fashion. Raw ones are a bit on the soft side and not very flavorful. I guess the same can be said for many types of nuts, but those types didn't grow in the area behind my family's property.

Who knew that I'd grow up to love them as an adult who lived halfway around the planet. Fortunately, Japan loves chestnut flavored sweets more than America so every year, I can happily sample new things. I was delighted when I found this Meiji Marron (chestnut) bar at a local market for about a dollar (100 yen).


The bar smells like regular chocolate. It has a thin vein of chestnut running through the center which can't be detected by scent. The first taste is of pretty good quality milk chocolate that is creamy and fatty with a small hint of that distinctive Japanese chocolate bitterness (but less than plain chocolate bars) and what seems to be a coffee-like flavor. The chestnut filling is relatively weak at first, but offers mild chestnut flavor and a bit of salt. It's quite nice, but it takes several bites for the chestnut flavor to develop on your taste buds. While eating the first two squares, I couldn't detect the chestnut as much as in the following two pieces.

The bar has 12 squares and 280 calories. I ate 1/3 of it at a time because I am trying to keep my junk food calories down to 100 or less each day. I think the experience might have been more profoundly enjoyable if I'd have eaten more at once due to the way the flavor needs to build up to be detected. The saltiness really seemed to work in this bar, though those who aren't fond of salty chocolate may find it off-putting.

The ingredients for this are a bit curious. It includes a variety of "powder" ingredients including chestnut, cheese, whey, cream, and sweet potato. Getting the flavor profile seems to have required quite a mix. Personally, I'm gratified that the cheese powder didn't come through in the flavor.

I would definitely buy this again. The only thing that stops me from giving it a "very happy" rating is the fact that there isn't enough chestnut filling for my tastes, or at the very least not enough of a strong chestnut flavor relative to the tasty, but not overly exciting, milk chocolate.

This was also reviewed at Ebidebby's "Snack Love".

First Year Anniversary

This is just a quick post to note that today is the first anniversary of this blog. The first review was of Smile Oven Tamago Pan and there have been 249 posts in total over the past year. That means I've averaged about 5 posts a week since starting (which is no surprise since I post every weekday).

Thanks to everyone who so kindly reads and follows this blog as well as to the people who have linked to my posts and site. If it weren't for you, there wouldn't be a first anniversary at all as I'm sure I'd have given up without your support!

Country Ma'am Chocolate Banana Cookies

Raise your hand if you have never eaten banana bread. Okay, now keep in mind that you are sitting in front of your computer and no one can see if you've actually raised your hand and leave me a comment instead. Anyone who has ever eaten a real banana or a baked good made with them knows what they should taste like. I'm guessing that the makers of most banana-flavored mass-produced snack foods either don't know or don't care because they never taste right.


The fact that banana-flavored items almost always fail is one of the reasons I never buy them for sampling. My husband, on the other hand, is more open-minded and is willing to subject himself to such things. He purchased these Country Ma'am cookies at New Days convenience store for around 120 yen (about $1.20) for 5 half-dollar-coin-sized (100-yen-coin-sized) cookies. Each cookie is 51 calories.


They smell like fake banana oil or esters, but the ingredients list claims they're flavored with banana juice and banana puree. Of course, they're also flavored with "cheese", which is exceptionally weird. The package says they're "the American traditional homemade country cookie", but I'm pretty sure we're not putting cheese in our banana cookies back home.


Like all Country Ma'am cookies, they have a somewhat crispy cookie shell and tender, chewy interior. They're good on the texture front (as always), but the taste is so overwhelmingly strong in terms of the banana flavor that I find them pretty unbearable. My husband, who has a weaker sense of taste and smell than I and likes banana-flavored things, said he thought they were good, but did taste like they had fake flavoring. I have to give Fujiya credit for managing to make these taste like they have fake flavoring even when they have real flavoring. It's quite an achievement. My husband says he'd buy them again. Personally, I ate one half of one cookie and that was all I needed. I've certainly had worse than this, but I won't be fighting him for the rest of the bag.