Lotte Banana Caramel Cookies

I'd say that Japan has been having a banana-fest, but it carries connotations of a thong-less night at Chippendales. However, Japan is still in the grips of some sort of banana fever. I'm still working through all of the banana sweets my husband has procured for himself, and this box of Lotte's cookies is the oldest one so I figured I'd better get to it.


Before I get too far, I should say that my husband didn't like these very much. I figured that meant there was something seriously wrong with them, but the truth is that it's actually an indication of our difference in tastes. He likes things that are sweeter and have a stronger banana flavor than I do. That actually bodes well for my sampling of these cookies.


We picked this box of cookies up at a discount snack shop for around 150 yen. There are 12 cookies that are about 4 cm. (1.5 in.) in size. Each is individually wrapped in a green and silver foil packet. This is why they were probably nice and fresh even though I didn't get to them for about a month. There are 48 calories in each cookie.


The cookies smell like sugar, margarine and banana. The banana scent is not over the top and the taste is more subtle than most banana-flavored treats. It's a good, real banana taste, and is not overly sweet. The caramel flavor is very subdued and manifests mainly as a brown sugar aftertaste. One thing that you can tell is that these are made with margarine rather than butter.

The texture of the cookie is not optimal because it is somewhat crumbly, though it is somewhat crispy. The banana puree though is ever so marginally rubbery. I don't think this is because of the banana because it is listed after "caramel sauce" on the ingredients list so I don't think is much banana in it.

I actually liked these because they didn't carry a really strong or fake banana flavor. I think they could have been better if the banana filling didn't have a slightly strange texture. The strange thing is that I don't think I'd buy these again, but I did have to resist the urge to keep eating them. I really did like these, but not being a great fan of banana means I wouldn't prioritize these with so many other possibilities at hand. However, if I had few flavor options, I'd buy these without regret.

Pokka Purin Shake

You don't see much in the way of "shakes" in markets in Japan. I guess that they don't go for thick, fatty, sweet drinks the way imprudent Americans do. Being an imprudent American who hasn't seen a "shake" beverage in a shop for a very long time, I pounced on this drink when I saw it at Peacock supermarket. It was a little expensive, about 170 yen ($1.90) for 100 grams (3.5 oz.), but visions of thick, creamy shake goodness loosened up my change purse.

This beverage is made by Pokka, which apparently has been making very popular purin-based beverages since 1991. I don't know where they are sold, but I'm guessing they are mainly dispensed in vending machines since I rarely come across them. This purin is different from their usual variety in that a master chef who has a patisserie supposedly designed it. It's marketed under the label "Furano Delice."


When I poured this into a glass, I noticed that it looked a bit clumpy and was not thick in a uniform way. A sniff revealed a sour dairy smell which is reminiscent of powdered milk and non-dairy creamer plus a slight caramel smell. Taking a sip, I was reminded of tapioca to some extent. The texture is slimy and strange, as if someone pureed days old purin and mixed it with milk but it didn't mix evenly or completely. The basic flavor is like old milk though it has a good sweetness level. There's a bit of an aftertaste which is a good approximation of the caramelized flavor of the sauce in purin.

This was 86 calories that was totally wasted because this was really gross. I can't believe that anyone would enjoy this unless they liked milk that had sat in the refrigerator for quite some time and had clumped up a bit with age. If I were a master pastry chef, I'd be embarrassed to have my name attached to this.

Ume (Plum) Soda KitKat

In summer in Japan, it's common for people to make plum wine (ume-shu) by themselves. I'm guessing that part of the motivation in choosing this as a summer flavor is related to the fondness people feel for their refreshing tipple of ume-shu. Another part of it though is that Nestle Japan did a survey and this flavor came out as the third most popular. There's nothing like a little market research to help churn out yet another KitKat flavor.

My husband picked this bar up at New Days convenience store in Shinjuku. It was released on July 13, and I was at a Family Mart at exactly that date scoping out new limited edition KitKats and came up empty. This seems to be slow in hitting the shelves, or it may possibly be only available at New Days. I can't be sure.


The back of the box says that the white chocolate outer coating is mixed with plum flavoring. The cream between the wafers comes with plum and what is essentially a kind of quasi-sour "soda" powder. The flavor is like a fizzy soda candy that you may have bought as a kid. It's tart, and has an Alka Seltzer quality on your tongue. Two fingers have 99 calories.


This bar smells and looks a lot like the KitKat Muscat of Alexandria. It's a generic fruity smell. It does taste like green plum soda though. The problem is that it's too sweet and the slightly sour plum flavor with chlorophyll overtones followed by a small soda-like bite just doesn't work as a combination. I think this would be a lot better with more of the soda powder in the filling to add more tartness to it. In fact, I only detected the soda powder on the first bite. It faded fast and vanished on the second bite.

I didn't find this offensive, but I can easily see other people disliking it rather intensely. This is definitely one for the more tolerant types out there. I don't think I'll be finishing the rest of it because I would prefer not to waste the calories on something I don't really enjoy.

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

Garlic Pepper Beer Beano

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. That's the message I need to keep in mind when I buy snacks made with healthy vegetables. Just because these salted snack tube things are made with peas, it doesn't mean that they carry any of the nutritional value or low calorie aspects of peas. I should know better by now. I'm not fooling anyone, least of all my thighs and ass.

I found these snacks (made by Tohato) at the local 100 yen shop (for 100 yen, about a buck) and was drawn to the promise of two great tastes that taste great together - garlic and pepper. I also though, hmmm, peas, much better than potato-based snacks. Stupid brain should have looked more carefully at the calorie content which is 63 grams (2.2 oz.) at 393 calories. That's worse than some deep-fried chips. This is pretty impressive considering the first ingredient is peas. I think they just make them with a lot of fat to help people who are drinking get a bit less drunk.


These smell fabulous. There's a heavy garlic scent when you open the bag. You can't really detect the pepper by scent. The flavor of garlic is first and foremost, followed by a slight vegetable flavor, and a pepper finishing flavor. They taste great if you love garlic.

The sticking point is the texture, which is hard to categorize. I'm not sure how these are made, and though they look like a Chee-to, they are more like a Styrofoam packing peanut in terms of texture. They're soft and spongy even though they're not stale. The texture is pretty much the point that spoiled these for me. If they had been crispy, I'd have loved them, but biting into them is singularly unsatisfying. You get the feeling they were air-popped or something, but there's too much fat in them for that to be the case.

These would have been a definite repeat purchase, despite the high caloric content, if it weren't for the texture. As it is, I can only recommend them if you aren't hung up on texture and adore garlic.

Matsuri (Festival) Hi-Chew

There are a lot of things that make a festival a festival in Japan. There are games for kids where they can win balloons and goldfish. There are colorful streamers. Of course, there is food. Cucumbers and wienies on sticks are some of the simpler fare. There's also a lot of disgusting seafood crap, ramune (Japanese soda drinks), rice balls, corn on the cob, dango, Japanese sno-cones (kakigori) and grilled chicken on sticks (yakitori). And, there is usually one vendor carrying cotton candy. (And, for the record, it was a hassle locating and linking in all of those pictures, so I hope you appreciate my efforts!)

Honestly though, cotton candy isn't nearly as a big a deal at festivals in Japan as it is in carnivals in the U.S. That being said, I'm guessing a lot of the other foods you find at festivals wouldn't make for a very good Hi-Chew candy. Incidentally, "cotton candy" in Japanese is "watagashi".


Though the cotton candy on the package is blue, the candy itself is white with little golden brown flecks. The flecks are a hard sugar toffee-style bits. I'm not sure what they have to do with cotton candy, but they make for a strange textural experience. Usual Hi-Chew is like gum that quickly melts away in your mouth. This is like gum with tiny shards of hard candy embedded in it. I sort of liked it, but it spoiled it for my husband. He didn't like the textural incongruity.

The taste is a little like some sort of sugar candy, but cotton candy is really just heated, spun sugar and doesn't carry much of a flavor anyway. The taste is good, but I can't really pin down a particular flavor except for the brown sugary finish of the toffee bits. I think this is also a bit sweeter than the usual Hi-Chew.

I liked this a lot and would definitely buy it again, but it probably won't be around for long. Note that this is a "New Days" only product, so you have to pick it up at one of those convenience stores. I'm not sure that it is going to be everyone's cup of tea. Even Hi-Chew fans might find the departure from the regular texture and fruit flavors to be a problem, but I'd recommend at least giving it a try.