Doutor Acerola Cranberry Yogurt Drink (product announcement)

Image from Doutor.

Starting today, Doutor coffee shop (maker of pretty nice sandwiches and less great coffee) will be offering a yogurt drink designed to appeal to those who go to coffee shops with the idea of improving digestion. the big selling point is that it includes Morinaga's plain bifidus yogurt. Acerola is supposed to be good at preventing certain types of cancer and is rich in Vitamin C. I'm guessing cranberry is there for the flavor mainly, but I have noticed that cranberry seems to be an up and coming flavor in Japanese snack and fast food.

Personally, I've never gone in for smoothie types of drinks. I'm sure they're packed with goodies, but they're also stripped of a lot of the beneficial things and have more sugar than eating fruit and yogurt by themselves. If you want breakfast on the go, this does appear to be a pretty interesting choice. 

Kanro Pure Mango Yogurt Gummy

Recently, I contacted a woman who used to do psychic readings. I've never been to one, but I know this one to be genuine as she did a reading twenty or so years ago and was correct about some fairly specific details. I know this for certain because I listened to a cassette of the predictions. There's no dancing around the accuracy of what she said because there's no memory distortion at play.

This woman no longer does readings. In fact, she said she hadn't been doing them for a very, very long time, but she'd "pull a card" for me. I'm not sure what that means, but the card she came up with was "expectations". As part of the "warning" she included, she pasted in what I'm sure is a common statement that this is something that I need to interpret personally and not meant in any way to be a bigger message than anything I make of it.

This experience got me thinking about expectations and why we have them and how they are formed. Mainly, they are based on history. We decide what to expect based on the patterns of behavior or experiences in our past. If your neighbor gets up every morning and walks into his kitchen naked by his open window, squats and does a few knee bends culminating in a blast of flatulence, and then pours his coffee and sits down for a nude read of the paper both gas- and clothing-free, you will be shocked to see him show up in a suit and then reading from an iPad. You'll be shocked, but you'll also be relieved.

Sure, you could choose to just not look at him through his morning horror show, but it's like a car crash. It's hard to look away. And, sure, you think you wouldn't look as you have been reading this, but you would. Trust me. You would.

Like all other things, we form expectations of products based on past experience with the brand. My expectation of the Pure line of Gummy candies is that they will possess a certain tartness and not be too sweet. I also expect that the fruity flavors will be relatively balanced and not too overbearing.

I was very excited when I saw this mango yogurt flavor on sale at Marukai market because I had been aware of it for awhile. I figured it would be pretty good, but my expectations, unfortunately, were not met.

The main problem is that the mango is overbearing and too sweet. The yogurt presents itself as a sort of sour dairy undertone, but it isn't really strong enough to ameliorate the intense mango puree flavor. Don't get me wrong, I love fresh mango, but this feels like it has been amped up by boiling it down into an intense mush of mango and stripped of the moisture that evens out the flavor of a fresh mango, not to mention the little acidic sense you get when eating one.

I'm not sure if this is actually all that bad or if my expectations were just too high. Pure has generally been greeting me with a three piece suit and an iPad every morning. This time, it feels more like the naked fart experience. Still, I'm sure that it'll be better next time. Experience creates such an expectation in me.

Pure Grapefruit Honey and Peach Mango Gummy (product announcement)

Image from Kanro.

One of my friends recently remarked on Facebook that part of the process of making gummi candy involves boiling animal bones. She's a vegetarian, so this was something of concern to her and she wanted to let other friends who may subscribe to her moral code know to avoid such candies. I'm rather torn at this point about whether or not to warn her about marshmallows as well, as they also often contain gelatin derived from animal products.

The rational side of me, which I try to keep firmly in check at all times, would also like to point out that this is actually not food that contributes to the death of animals. No one is killing animals to boil their bones for gelatin products. It's actually finding a use for the parts that are leftover after all of us savage omnivores have consumed the flesh. My guess is that, if we all stopped eating meat, then all gelatin-related products in America would cease to be made from bones and would be made the way they are in Japan, from seaweed. I don't think people would be raising cows to toss their meat in the trash and boil the bones.

The good news is that I can recommend Japanese marshmallows and gummy/gummi candies to her and she can enjoy them without violating her personal ethical code. Since Pure keeps offering up new and interesting flavors, there's no end to the fun you can have sampling their candies. And, they are good gummies. I've tried a lot of them and rarely disliked one. Okay, I really didn't care for the apple and ginger ale one, but the rest were quite nice.

There are actually three new flavors on offer, but I couldn't put them all in the headline. There are the grapefruit and honey and peach mango flavors pictured at the top of the post as well as a yogurt mango flavor shown above this paragraph. It's clear that mango blends are one of the more popular food fads right now. Mango has been in the spotlight for a few years now, and clearly it's popularity has not waned. The yogurt and mango flavor features a split color scheme, supposedly featuring one flavor on each side. It was released in June. The other flavors will be available at the end of the first week of July at convenience stores. 

Kanro Pure Yogurt Mango Gummi (product announcement)

I once sat down and tried to organize lists of seasonal flavors in Japan. In fact, one day, this list will make it into some sort of blog post since there are definitely patterns to the releases based on how hot or cold it is outside. Just as "Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride" tea is released by Celestial Seasonings each winter as Halloween comes our way, spring starts seeing sakura (cherry/cherry blossom) flavored snacks. 

Kanro is releasing a yogurt and mango gummi and saying that it has a "summer" feeling. I'm not sure that mango is a summer fruit for Japan, unless they are getting lots of imports from Mexico, but I do know that it was once a fad to eat dried mango and now it has become as much a part of regular Japanese living as tiramisu, which also began its days as a fad food and stayed on pretty much forever. 

The release date on this is given as "mid-June", so it may already be out or soon be in stores. Most Pure flavors make their way to Nijiya markets so I'm hoping to get a crack at this in the future. I've only met one or two Pure flavors that I didn't like, and I'm guessing this is probably pretty good. If you get your hands on it before I do, feel free to leave a comment and let me know what I might be in for. If it sucks, you might be saving me a couple of bucks and I'd certainly be grateful for the head's up.

Luna Midnight Sweets Mont Blanc

No, I didn't wait 3 months to try this. This is an older picture of the product.

Would you like to know what invention would make a person the wealthiest person in the world? Create a food that tastes like something almost universally loved and create an extremely low calorie or no calorie version. The person who could manage this would solve the biggest of first world problems, how to eat and eat and eat what you love without getting fat.

While no one has created this magical product, food companies keep trying to pander to this desire. This yogurt is one such product as it shows a richly piled chestnut paste sweet on the front as an empty promise of sweet, rich, fatty dessert for a handful of calories (and 100 yen/$1.30). I, at least, am dumb enough to keep hoping that some day I'll be able to enjoy things without paying the price is thigh expansion.

Anything which carries the "mont blanc" moniker has a very high bar to leap over in my opinion. I adore chestnut anything and this particular dessert is something I'm always tempted by when I pass by a patisserie. When I leave Japan, it is something I will absolutely miss. I can only hope that, during the 23 years I've been away, someone back home will have produced their version of this treat for the American market. No, I'm not holding my breath.

Peeling back to the foil reveals an encouraging sight. There are little bits of chestnut mixed into the yogurt. The flavor is definitely that of sweet yogurt, but there's also a good amount of chestnut flavor mixed in. It's not exactly like tucking into a pile of chestnut cream piped on top of a pastry, but it's still pretty satisfying. The yogurt is thin and I think the experience of eating it would be more impressive if it were thicker. Of course, the appeal of this line of sweets is that it's low calorie (65 calories for 110 grams, or a little over half a cup) so any thickness would likely be accomplished by adding artificial thickeners.

I enjoyed this, and I'm glad that it's spending a fair amount of time on the shelves of my local convenience stores. If you're a chestnut fan and aren't put off by very sweet yogurt (or artificial sweeteners), I'd definitely recommend this as a "dessert yogurt". You could do much, much worse, both nutritionally and in terms of the quality.

Danone Bio Honey Yogurt

When I was a kid, I hated honey. My mother used to love to slather it on bread or toast, but I was so fussy about texture that I hated the way it tended to sink into the bread and make it mushy inside and leave it kind of crusty on the top. Since I was a kid, I didn't realize this problem could be easily solved by slathering the delicious evil of butter on the bread first. I'm sure my mother didn't mind my staying out of the honey though. It meant all the more for her.

I'm also not a fan of the sometimes strong sweetness associated with honey when it is applied too liberally, so I tend to avoid it in general. In Japan, however, one can always assume anything which is expensive will be applied with a light touch, and I imagined this yogurt wasn't going to be cloying. Incidentally, in Japan there are two types of "honey" on offer. These is the real stuff which is outrageously expensive for tiny amounts and there is "honey syrup", which is big bottles of the stuff for a reasonable price but is actually honey mixed with other types of sugar syrup. If you're shopping and want it for health benefits, it's best to avoid the latter.

Danone is the name of a French company which sells healthy foods and operates in Japan in conjunction with Kirin (best known for its beer). The brand in Japan is focused pretty much on yogurt packaged in very small containers. Four 80-gram (2.8 oz.) cups cost 218 yen ($2.72) at Seiyu supermarket so it doesn't come cheap. The "Bio" line includes live yogurt cultures to improve digestion.

I picked this up partially out of curiosity about the taste, but also because I now pack a lunch twice a week for part-time work and this seemed like a good addition. The portion size allows for about 4 spoonfuls of something sweet and nutritious at the end of lunch and at only 71 calories per serving, it's no worse on the hips than a mini KitKat (and a whole lot better for me).

There is no visible indication that honey is mixed in, but the flavor is definitely there. It's just strong enough not to be lost in the slightly sour yogurt without being overbearing. The place where the yogurt really shines though is the silky, rich texture. This was incredibly smooth and creamy. I have a feeling that, when I go back to the U.S., nothing short of high quality Greek yogurt is going to live up to the incredible texture I sometimes experience in consumer-level Japanese yogurt. Yes, the portions are small, but they really make you want to savor every bite.

I really enjoyed this, and was sorry to consume the last one. That being said, my very positive experience with this makes me more inclined to sample the other flavor varieties that are out there. If you enjoy a bit of honey with your yogurt, this is a definite "don't miss".

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.


The contest winner will be announced this weekend. Thanks to all who took part!

Ohayo Tappuri Mango Yogurt

"Ohayo" means "good morning" in Japanese and "tappuri" means "plenty". At first, I thought this was talking about "plenty" of yogurt, which seemed odd considering that this is 4 tiny little portions melded together. Though you only get about 70 grams (about 1/3 cup) of yogurt, the "plenty" applies to the amount of fruit. So, yes, you get about three bites, but each one is packed with fruity bits! Somehow, it still seems like lying in advertising, but I'll grudgingly let them off the hook because this is so tasty.

The company that makes this, Ohayo, has one of those quaint and highly contrived company philosophies which sounds like it was designed by a 12-year-old. It has priorities that all begin with the letter "S" (yes, in English). They are "safety, specialty, service, speed, slim, and smile." On the bright side, the company president actually manages to adopt a grim little smile for his profile picture on the web site because he can't have such a philosophy and adopt the usual grim or stoney look of most businessmen in Japan, so that's one benefit of having a goofy philosophy.

Ohayo is a dairy products company and this is my first experience with their products because I rarely consume yogurt with fruit and sugar mixed in. I usually eat plain yogurt if I'm going to have it, but my change in employment circumstances drew me to this. I now have to pack a lunch a few days a week and these looked like they'd be a nice, sweet finish while still bringing just a tad more to the table nutritionally. Besides yogurt and yogurt drinks, they make pudding, ice cream, and fruit/dairy combo products like smoothies.

This contains both  mango and passionfruit bits in generous amounts for such a small portion. It's only 56 calories, but then it really isn't all that much volume. This is more like a few bites of dessert than yogurt, but it's a very nice mix of intense fruit flavors, moderately sour yogurt and sweetness. It's also cholesterol-free, if that is something important to you. These days, everything in Japan seems to be labeled with regard to cholesterol content. That's a bit odd considering that this is hardly a place where heart disease is the highest risk (cancer is the biggest killer). Frankly, I'm not one of those people who is convinced that dietary cholesterol plays a big role in the formation of bad cholesterol in the body, but that may be me justifying my love of eating eggs for which I'll keel over some day soon.

These are delicious little additions to a meal. If you're the kind of person who craves a bit of a sweet but doesn't want to eat candy, I'd definitely recommend giving this a try to fill your sweet tooth. It's not as good for you as plain yogurt, but it's a damn sight tastier and more convenient for eating on the go. You can find these at nearly any fair-sized supermarket in Japan, along with some other variations like blueberry, kiwi, strawberry, and peach.

Luna Banana Nata de Coco Yogurt

While the plain yogurt offerings continue to be decimated on store shelves due to supply chain problems and (likely) panic-buying, small cartons of flavored yogurt tend to be left behind, at least in small quantities. In my area, I've noticed that low or no calorie options are less popular than regular versions during the current atmosphere of crisis. I guess if you're going to hoard, it's important to make sure you have stuff that will fatten you up as much as possible.

I found this Luna yogurt at the local Lawson's 100 convenience store (100 yen/$1.21), but I've seen it pretty much everywhere. Since I've had very good experiences with the other offerings in this low-calorie line (a mere 65 calories) that Luna is creating, I thought I'd take the risk on banana yogurt. When I say "risk", I mean that I was risking the heartbreak of fake banana flavor, which is always a possibility.

After sampling this, the phrase, "it's better to quit while you're ahead" came to mind. Sigh. The banana flavor is too intense, and fake. The nata de coco pieces are firmer and tougher than some and the sweet and sour balance is not very pleasant. It's as if intense yogurt sourness is purposefully being off-set by equally intense artificial sweetness.

Though this is only 65 calories and makes for a light snack, I wouldn't buy it again because the flavors just don't work well and the textures are disappointing. I think if the nata de coco had been nicer, I'd be more forgiving even of the fake flavoring and unpleasant sweet and sour. Sorry, Luna, we have just had our first bad date, but I'll give you another chance in the future.

Nighttime Sweets Strawberry Parfait

Packaging is a way of manipulating people into buying stuff they might not otherwise buy. Without the allure of packaging, people are pretty much going to be basing their purchases on three factors - appearance (if the food is actually visible), type of food, and price. I have to wonder what shopping was like back in the "Little House On the Prairie" days when "inventive packaging" was showing an illustration of a guy with a huge handlebar mustache on a jar of "Uncle Earwax's Super Hardening Mustache Paraffin". I'm guessing people pretty much just bought what they needed back in those days.

The producers of boring food like yogurt rely on us being dumb enough to be fooled by misleading images of the flavor of the slightly sour, thin goo contained therein. Even someone who is fairly "savvy" (which is what we all think we are, which is part of our overall "stupid") can be suckered into seeing a lovely bit of strawberry ice cream with whipped cream, berries, and wafers and think that's what we're going to be tasting. Of course, they can't be really accused of misleading us because it says, "this is an image" under the parfait picture.

I didn't have high expectations of this when I saw it at Seiyu for 100 yen ($1.20), but I had a good experience with the previous entry in the "Nighttime Sweets" line, the apple pie yogurt. I figured that the line deserved my attention even if I'm not a fan of strawberry-flavored foods in general. To be clear, I love the fresh berries, but just dislike how they are incorporated into processed food.

Peeling back the foil, I was greeted with the scent of real pureed strawberries. Color me surprised. I was also shocked at the taste of this because it reminded me of strawberry shortcake. In fact, if you pureed a shortcake that is what it'd taste like. Seriously. Okay, if you took one of those small round yellow sponge cakes that are sold cheaply in local markets, piled on some berries, whipped cream, a little sugar, and then doused it in whole milk and then pureed it, that is what this tastes like.

I was truly blown away by this. The fine folks at Luna made yogurt that tastes very little like yogurt (again, their vanilla yogurt tastes like a tiny pot of heaven). There is definitely some cream flavoring in there and what looks, smells and tastes like real berries. There may also be essence of cake, for all I know. What is for certain is that this is only 69 calories and tastes great. I'll be sorry when this inevitably leaves the market, but I have some hopes now that this line is going to deliver again and again with each new offer.

Luna Winter Apple with lemon and ginger yogurt

The Japanese are big into seasonal anything, so I'm guessing there is some special significance to these being "winter apples". I doubt, however, that my taste buds will know the difference. They're not exactly the most refined papillae out there, after all, but I also doubt that a 100 yen ($1.20) carton of yogurt requires a greatly refined palate.

I found this yogurt at Lawson 100 shop, but I'm sure it can be found in supermarkets and other convenience stores. I'm not a huge fan of apple treats, or even relatively healthy things like yogurt, but the inclusion of ginger and lemon made the idea of this more attractive to me. I also liked the fact that it's only 69 calories for 120 grams (4.2 oz.). It also helps that it is made by Luna, maker of many delicious yogurt offerings in Japan.

The yogurt smells like apples, which is no surprise. There is a generous amount of small, nicely firm apple chunks and they are liberally seasoned with lemon and carry a nice hint of ginger as well. I liked the fact that the fruit was substantial enough that you could actually chew the little apple pieces, but not so big that you felt they hadn't cut them up enough. The yogurt is a little runny and also a bit sweeter than I'd like. I think that is because this uses Sucralose artificial sweetener and it can pack a harder punch. However, I'm sure it is what keeps the calories down.

I'm rather torn about this one because I thought it was fine, but I'm not sure that I'd buy it again. The main issues I have with it is that the lemon and ginger is a little too intense in a way which  makes it seem almost "perfumey" and it is a bit too sweet. That being said, as a run-of-the-mill fruit yogurt option, this is certainly fine. However, given a choice between this and the "Apple Pie" Night-time Sweets yogurt, I'd take the latter any day. It has a better sweetness balance, the cinnamon works well in it and has the same number of calories as this ginger and lemon apple yogurt.

Meiji Yogurt Tablets

Though I am old (all of 46), I'm not old enough to have first hand experience with those old cigarette ads in which they extol the health virtues of smoking. These ads came to mind when I was considering the history of advertising for products which say that they carry some health benefits when clearly those products are anything but healthy. It's amazing what a company will tell you in order to help you silence the cognitive dissonance that comes along with doing something you know isn't good for you.

Across the top of this candy, which is loaded with sugar (first ingredient on the list), it tells you that it has healthy yogurt cultures and calcium. If you consume the whole box, you'll get 300 mg. of Calcium, but you'll also need to make a dentist appointment after chewing 18 tablets of mostly sugar. For the record, this isn't an insubstantial amount of Calcium to get from a snack since most adults require about 1000 mg. per day. Each tablet is a mere 6 calories.

The tablets are kept from getting moist by being kept in two handy blister packs. They're slightly rough on the outside, but not as chalky or powdery as a SweetTarts (the closest American cousin to this). The flavor is sweet and mildly sour with a really nice, smooth mild yogurt flavor. You can suck on one, or bite into it. Both are pleasant experiences, but biting into it releases a larger sense of the flavor and floods your tongue with a rather sugary textural sense which I found gratifying.

I really, really like these and will definitely buy them again, but I'm not fooling myself into thinking I'm doing it to fill my stomach with healthy bacteria or to get Calcium. I just like the taste and texture. They're a great sweet to keep in your desk or whatever bag you carry around for when you want a nice sweet pick-me-up because they won't go damp or stale. If you enjoy yogurt, there's a very good chance you'll like these.

Luna Apple Pie Midnight Sweets Yogurt

A long time ago, someone once said that they believed with the release of new products in Japan, I'd never run out of things to review. At the time, I agreed, but now, I'm starting to think that that assertion is both a little right and a little wrong. Certainly if I want to try regular chocolate Pocky, chocolate Pocky for men, thin chocolate Pocky, and double chocolate Pocky types of releases, then I will never run out. However, if I'm not looking for minor variations on themes (or revisiting seasonal reissues of old products in new packaging), the market isn't quite the cornucopia of variety I once imagined it to be.

Fortunately, there are ways to branch out that don't include reviewing every minute variation on a theme, and that's to turn to other product types. This is why this yogurt is being reviewed. It's not because I'm focusing more on healthy snacks (perish the thought), but because this is a rich vein of largely untapped varieties for me. Of course, inevitably, I'll go through enough varieties that I'll have to find myself a new well to tap, but I'm not going to worry about that for now.

After perusing the wasteland of Seiyu's snack aisle, populated by Crunky "Nude" balls (sound more interesting than they look), imported Goldfish crackers, and rice crackers I've largely already reviewed, I wandered over to the dairy section to buy cream for my husband's coffee. Being a man and having a masculine metabolism, he can afford to dump pure molecules of fat into his morning brew without suffering dire fatty consequences. As I approached the check-out, I gave the yogurt section a quick scan and the wedge of apple pie on the cover of this small (110 gram/3.9 oz.) carton of yogurt caught my eye. Of course, I'm not stupid. I don't think it's going to contain actual chunks of apple pie crust since it's only 63 calories, but I am just dumb enough to be suckered in by the idea that it might taste like pie.

This is made by the company that makes the bestest vanilla yogurt in the universe, Luna. I like the fact that this is marketed as "Midnight Sweets" and has a design meant to elicit images of dark creepiness. The advertising blurb says that this is good for bed or bath time and has fiber to fill you up and no calories from fat. It also mentions that a portion of the money from sales goes toward a breast cancer awareness and screening charity. This is the first product in Japan I've seen with the ubiquitous (back home) pink ribbon. For the record, Japan has socialized medicine, but mammograms are not covered by it.

The carton size is a little deceptive because it's only about 2/3 full. The yogurt also is on the thinner side, but that doesn't have to be a bad thing. After peeling back the foil, I gave it a sniff and it smelled of apples and cinnamon. This yogurt is quite sweet, but it has a good mixture of cinnamon, apple and yogurt. The yogurt is mellow and smooth and the little chunks of apple are firm but easy to bite into.

I wouldn't say this tastes like "apple pie", but I would say it is a pretty tasty yogurt that makes a good snack. The prominent cinnamon and apple flavors were satisfying and well-balanced. The yogurt wasn't too sour. I'd definitely go for this again, though likely not as a late night sort of thing.

Tops Rare Cheese Yogurt

It's hard sometimes to convey the value of a product that isn't available to the majority of your readers and Tops brand cakes are something you have to have experienced to understand their (relative) value. Most of the cheesecake in Japan does not resemble New York cheesecake. It is either chiffon cake which is made with cream cheese, baked cheesecake, or some bizarre bastard off-spring of sour cream, whipped cream, and cream cheese which lacks the heft and luxurious feel of cheesecake.

 The real deal, in all of its fattening glory.

The steady exception to the unpredictable and strange "cheesecake" offerings is Tops. Their shops are in some stations and in department stores and they sell the only cheesecake that I will be sad to say goodbye to when I finally pack my bags and quit this land. It's dense, rich, covered with a light frosting, and has a nice base.

This yogurt had a lot to live up to, and I know that I had to adjust my expectations. This is yogurt, not expensive cheesecake from a select shop. That being said, if they're going to slap the Tops name on the label, they'd better give me something. You can't put out a lure like that and not let me reel in a big fish.

When I first peeled back the foil, I was presented with the smell of regular yogurt and a very thick, white offering. Digging your spoon into it shows that it has the same textural quality as warmed cream cheese. The first bite is very much that of yogurt, but by the third bite, it takes on more of a cream cheese dense cheesecake sense to it. By the end, it was definitely carrying the essence of a Tops brand cheesecake both in richness and general flavor.

It's important to keep in mind that this is yogurt, and it's not going to fill the space of a really rich slice of cheesecake. That being said, this is an interesting experience and will remind you of the real deal. At 109 calories for 90 grams (3.17 oz), and at a cost of only about 100 yen ($1.20) when a small real Tops cake is considerably more expensive and exponentially more calorific, this is a chance to experience the fringes of decadence for a fraction of the cost.

Hokunyu Fruity Tomato Yogurt

When I was a kid, I loved tomatoes so much that I'd eat one like an apple. I'm guessing that back then they were better tasting tomatoes than they are these days, but I still eat raw tomato several times a week, if not everyday depending on how the prices are looking. 

I mentioned in some previous posts that tomato seems to be a fad food in Japan at present and you'd think I'd be happy about that, but the Japanese can take something as pure and fabulous as a tomato and pervert it into something bizarre and disturbing. There are tomato gelatin desserts, candies, and caramels. The caramels are an especially scary concept as they are packaged and presented like these Kabaya caramels that I reviewed previously. 

I think that there was potential for this to be good depending on how things came together. Plain yogurt, especially Greek yogurt or yogurt cheese, could go decently with tomato. It's not out of the realm of possibility that this would be nice. Well, it isn't!

When I peeled off the foil and gave it a sniff, it smelled like regular yogurt. The texture is quite firm and betrays the presence of gelatin to thicken it. Among the other ingredients are tomato puree (12%), orange juice, and sugar. The taste is like a strange combination of sweetened yogurt with a tomato aftertaste. I ate the entire container which afforded me 78 calories of energy and little else besides this review.

The main problem is that this is just a freaky mix of flavors, especially with the strong tomato puree aftertaste. It's like mixing yogurt, sugar, and tomato paste together and this tastes as good as that sounds. The company that makes this sells other dairy products including a few of types of pudding which are supposed to be like a famous cheesecake and chocolate cake maker named Tops. I've had Tops cakes before and they are delicious. I hope that Hokunyu does them better justice than they did this unholy marriage of tomato paste, sugar, and sour dairy.

Luna Salt and Caramel Yogurt

Though I've never reviewed a Luna product before, I have mentioned their vanilla yogurt in a post of a Tirol candy based on their signature yogurt, a sublime and fabulously delicious vanilla yogurt. Living up to the awesomeness of their vanilla yogurt is a pretty tall order, and I didn't expect that this salt and caramel flavor would be up to the task. That being said, I still had hopes that it'd be quite enjoyable. My friend Shawn, however, remarked that yogurt, salt, and caramel would never be three flavors that he'd try to combine and was skeptical when I mentioned this find to him.

Note that this "salty caramel" fad seems to be growing wings in Japan. It has been around for awhile, but this is the second salt and caramel flavored product that I've reviewed in the recent past. The most recent was the KitKat salt and caramel big bar, but there have been scads of other products (primarily cookies and chocolates) that I've passed on. I decided to go for this particular offering because it is a Luna yogurt product and because it was so cheap. I found this at Lawson 100, a 100-yen ($1.17) shop. Each little pot is 100 grams (3.5 grams), so it's a small portion, but at only 50-yen per serving, it's a bargain.

This smells like, well, yogurt. The caramel flavor doesn't convey much of a scent. The flavors of the salt and caramel are quite subtle. The little bit of caramel hits you first followed by the salt. The caramel lingers more as the mildest of burnt caramel flavor. Like all Luna yogurts, this is super smooth, high in fat, and decadent. It's also not very sour, which is another hallmark of the Luna brand of what I'd call "dessert yogurt".

This would have been very easy to screw up because of the combination of potentially clashing flavors, but the subtlety of the caramel and salt coupled with a very low sourness level of the yogurt worked well. I can't say that this is for everyone, but it was nice and I'd give it another whirl if I was in the mood.

Calpis Soda Refresh Zero

I sought out this drink after one of my readers recommended it to me. You wouldn't think I'd need to have people telling me to try things, but the truth is that far more things are released than a single reviewer could ever manage on her own. If I had a stable of writers willing to try all of the things I don't want to try, then there's a slim chance most of the bases might be covered.

Of course, they'd have to be a stable of writing slaves since there's no money in blogging, but it would nonetheless be the only way to cover more food and drink. I can only eat and drink so much junk before the risk that my office chair will collapse becomes very real. There's a reason I mention calories in every post, and that's that I'm all too aware of what I'm eating and how much I can tolerate on a regular basis.

At any rate, I found this Calpis "Refresh Zero" soda at Seiyu supermarket for 98 yen ($1.12), but it is currently available in a wide variety of places including most (but not all) convenience stores. Seiyu was simplest the cheapest place to get it. This is a 500 ml. bottle with no sugar, though it says it has 1% real lemon juice. The first ingredient is lemon, followed by Erythritol. It includes powdered milk and lactobacillus cultures.

The combination is an uncommon one. It's the sort of thing you could never really have in real life because lemon and milk are not flavors that usually mix because lemon curdles milk. If you don't believe me, make yourself a cup of lemon tea and add milk. Watch the little curds float around.

At first, I thought this was just weird. Mainly, it seemed like lightly-sweetened, lemon mixed with club soda with a hint of milk. About halfway through the bottle, I started to actually like it and the mix of sour lemon and milk took on a yogurt-like feel which I found pleasant. I think this is one of those things that can be perceived as so new as to be hard to figure out how you feel about it at first, but then you either grow to like it, or decide it's really not your thing. It's an acquired taste, and, fortunately, I acquired it. That being said, it may not be everyone's cup of tea, or Calpis, as the case may be.

Meiji BizCharge Banana Yogurt with Konnyaku

Have you ever asked yourself whether or not there is a yogurt out there that is masculine enough for you? It seems that Meiji has pondered this question as well and has determined that existing products lack the Y-chromosome appeal they need.

The reason this is called "BizCharge" is that it is marketed as yogurt for businessmen. Yes, this isn't your typical sissy food for little girls trying to watch their weight. It's a man's yogurt. The top tells you exactly how to use this product (Open->Charge->Go), in case you don't know how to peel the foil off the top of a cup of yogurt and consume it. I guess those businessmen aren't as well educated as they used to be, or that they lack the energy to think before consuming this yogurt.

Part of the promotion for this mentions that you get 86 calories of the total 137 calories in this from banana, though only 5% is banana. The idea is that men can power themselves up on that banana fuel. The ingredients list includes coconut oil, banana sugar, Stevia, and banana juice. The portion size is rather bigger than usual, 170 grams (6 oz.). I'm guessing the bigger size is due to the fact that this is for men to energize themselves on, and the calories aren't higher than they are because konnyaku has no calories to speak of.

The yogurt smells nice and banana-like and has a lumpy texture. The lumps are both bits of banana and little chewy balls of tapioca-like konnyaku. The yogurt isn't as sour as most and not as sweet as some others. It's got a good, authentic banana flavor and has excellent fruit, yogurt, and sweetness balance.

I found this at Seiyu supermarket for about 120 yen ($1.37). I haven't seen it in other markets or convenience stores, but I'll be honest and say that I rarely pay exquisite attention to the yogurt sections as I always buy cheap, plain low-fat yogurt or Luna vanilla yogurt. This caught my eye because of the name. Banana yogurt also isn't very common, but this was really good. I'd definitely recommend any yogurt fans sample it, whether they are businessmen or not.

Calpis KitKat Mini

This is a party which I am arriving very late at for various reasons. The primary one is that this particular mini, which is a collaboration between drink maker Calpis and Nestlé Japan, was available in limited stores (Family Mart was the only place I saw it on offer), it was only available as part of a 13-unit bag, and it was too expensive. Usually, I can get bags of mini bars for 199-250 yen ($2.27-$2.85) and I only saw this for 278 yen ($3.17). And I try to avoid buying a lot of something which is an unknown and of dubious taste value. Let's face it. This is the sort of thing which one could easily find oneself disliking.

Essentially, I was waiting for just the right opportunity to buy this, and one did not come along for quite some time. I don't know if this was one of the very few "under-produced" KitKat flavors or if it just sold so incredibly well that no leftovers made their way to the bargain shops, but I didn't find a discounted one for a few months. Most Japanese KitKat specialty flavors hit the bargain bins in a month or so and seem to sit there for quite awhile.

A new discount snack shop opened on the other side of my neighborhood, and one hot evening I chanced upon it. Bags of these bars were sitting nonchalantly in a cardboard box outside the shop for 199 yen ($2.27) each. The shop owner was very keen to be of service and as I wandered around his empty shop, he tried to foist samples of very familiar bubbly sembei on me. I declined, twice. Though I do like that sembei, I wasn't hungry. The shop also had free cold green tea on offer. I'll have to revisit them soon and see if their solicitous behavior is ongoing or just an opening gesture from a new shop.

Getting back to these KitKats, which are actually less interesting than the service I got at the shop, I didn't quite know what to expect from them considering that I've only had Calpis in its non-original state a few times. Frankly, I was hoping it'd have more of a yogurt flavor than it did. There is definitely a bit of a "soda" flavor going on. I think the powder between the wafers must be made with ramune (Japanese lemon-lime soda) flavor. The filling reminded me of blue "soda" flavored fizzy candies I used to have as a child. I wondered if Nestlé Japan recycled part of the ingredients or formula for the ramune bar it released last summer.

The outside coating had a little bit of a yogurt flavor, but was so much sweeter than it was sour that it just seemed like a relatively generic white chocolate with the vaguest hint of something else. Frankly, the chocolate was quite similar to the Calpis I sampled awhile back; it was like greatly watered down yogurt mixed with slightly tart lemon-lime.

This is a decent candy bar, but nothing to write home about. I'll either slowly eat the rest of the bag when my sweet tooth beckons me or slowly give away the rest of it. I can't say "don't buy this", but I also wouldn't say "go out of your way to buy this." It's interesting, but ultimately not all that incredible. This was clearly a corporate match that was done for the marketing value rather than the potential for a winning combination of flavors.