Japan Snack Reviews #6

Here we are, just one last snack review. In order to fit everything in, I'll try to be brief, let's get started.

1)

Name: Hello Kitty Chocolate Marshmallow

Review:

It wouldn't be a Japanese snack review without Hello Kitty.

The name is accurate, this is a marshmallow with a perfect cylinder of strong chocolate in the center. In my Poland Snack Review, you'll recall I was not impressed by chocolate-covered marshmallow. But now, with this marshmallow-covered chocolate, it's time to completely flip-flop on the issue!

Here's the deal... The chocolate has a really strong chocolate punch and, combined with the marshmallow, I was reminded of all the Winter days where I'd add Marshmallow Fluff to my Hot Chocolate. It tastes amazingly similar and I loved every second of it.

2)

Translation: Kit Kat

Additional Text: "Adult Flavor"

Review: 

As we all know, "adult" is a euphemism for nudity so this should be interesting...

As you're may already be aware, Kit Kat is not technically a Japanese brand - they're made by Nestle, which is Swiss - but they're so popular there that the Japanese have created a wide spectrum of their own odd, native varieties. I've tried many of them and thought I had made a blog post about the whole phenomenon, but looking now, I never did. If you're looking for a cool food adventure, get a Japanese Kit Kat variety pack - it's an experience.

So what is this "adult" flavor? It is green tea. It's a green tea Kit Kat. I remember this from before. It accurately captures the flavor of green tea in a Kit Kat form but it's up to you to determine if that's a good thing. I say nay.

3)

Name: Umaibo Delicious Sticks - Chocolate 

Review:

You may recall that Umaibo are cylindrical, hollow corn puff things and have come up a number of times before with different varieties. This one is a complete change of pace, it's obviously chocolate. It looks like this:

You know you shouldn't be doing food reviews when your first reaction is "it is what it is." It's a flavorless air puff covered in chocolate. Not worth your time, in my opinion.

4)

Name: Crispy Chocolatey Rice Cereal

Review:

A chocolate bar with rice puffs embedded within. I think in this Chocolate phase I've been comparing things to Nestle Crunch quite a lot but now we come to something that basically IS a Nestle Crunch bar. I think the chocolate of the Crispy is sweeter and the rice is thicker. 

5)

Name: Rilakkuma

Review:

This is a surprise and I'm not sure how to describe it. It looks like a basic piece of chocolate but it isn't. It may be basically chocolate but it's sweeter and has some caramel notes, or it might be meant to taste like some kind off coffee.

I can't describe it completely, but it's definitely good and definitely too small a quantity. Buy lots.

6)

Name: Chocolate Shimi Corn Stick

Review:

This is described as a "mix of milk chocolate and crispy corn puff in a star shaped tube." It looks like this:

I think it would be lazy for me to say that it looks like poop. I'm above that. Candy bars often look like poop and we have no problem with it, I will extend the same courtesy to the Japanese.

And it's pretty good! Sure, I've too many of these "biscuity" chocolate things and yes, I'm not bowled over but it's much better than I thought it would be. It also packs a bigger chocolate punch than one would expect. The mixture of puffed corn and chocolate is not so different from Cocoa Krispies or Cocoa Pebbles, which seem to be fairly popular. Marginal thumbs up.

7)

Translation: "The Thing Forgotten by the King"

Additional Text: "Chocolate filling and cookie" and the King is saying, "Where is it, when did I have it?"

Review:

The outside shell is a cookie that's swirled chocolate and vanilla, as you can see in the photo. But I really only taste the vanilla. But then in the middle is a gooey, cakey chocolate substance that is very unusual and tastes great. The best equivalent I can find is when you get a Molten Chocolate Lava Cake. You know how the "molten lava" part is not quite solid and not quite liquid? Well, it's like that. Very, very tasty. 

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And that's all for the Korean and Japanese snack reviews. I hope you enjoyed it. Special thanks to my family for gifting them to me over a year ago. And a big thanks to my friend Nathan for doing all the translation. I was sure he was going to get tired of the homework and give up but instead he patiently went through everything, snack after snack, group after group. Thank you.