Lotte Drink Mix Candy いろいろたのしいドリンクミックス

This bag of candy was another gift from my generous sister in law in Japan. The packet is meant to look like a vending machine.

All the drinks in this bag you can actually buy from vending machines, but also supermarkets and convenience stores. They are what one would refer to as "for your health", or what I think Japanese people think are for their health but are not actual health drinks bar one.

They are all citrus in flavour, but apart from that they probably have loads of sugar, so not actually a 'real' health drink if you know what I mean!

There are 5 drinks and 5 individually wrapped candies for each flavour, making 25 candies in the bag.



Dakara

This has the refreshing taste of white grapefruit, just like the drink that I love so much! I really enjoyed this candy, it only had a hint of sweetness, more sourness, which I liked because it didn't make me thirsty.

C.C. Lemon

An oldie but a goodie, a big hitter in the popularity stakes, kind of a staple like Vegemite to Australia. This has a fizzy texture and a tart lemon flavour. The texture of the candy is quite hard and has a lot of lines in the candy itself, abit hard on my tongue, but the flavour is consistent with the real life drink. I liked this but my tongue didn't.



Natchan! Orange

My husband loves this drink, it's his absolute favourite. I'm not sure if it's because of the cute image on the packaging or the taste itself, but I have to admit, I like it too. Natchan! kind of reminds me of the from concentrate orange juice drinks we get here that are diluted with water. It's not 'real' freshly squeezed juice, but it has that smooth flavour that kids love. The candy was exactly the same in flavour and texture as the drink, the candy is quite smooth in texture, the taste is very orangey.

Bikkle

A stalwart of the yoghurt type drinks in Japan, this is along the same lines as Yakult pro-biotic drink. You can taste the custard like notes in this first off, and the the tang of the yoghurt. Very true to the real life drink, I really enjoyed this candy because it offered something different. It was smooth and tangy but with a real dairy feel.

Dekavita

This comes in a brown bottle in Japan - this is how Japanese manufacturers know they are not messing around, this is the real deal mate. Or something like that. Well, it looks more professional for a 'health drink' than coming in a pet bottle! I've never actually had the real drink and judging from the candy, I'm not sure if I want to! It's quite fizzy, sour, and with no real sweetness at all. It's like sucking on a sour lemon candy. The texture of the candy is quite rough too so it ripped up my tongue when I sucked on it too hard. No smiles here.

These are all real winners for me except Dekavita. Though if you like your candy sour, then I'm sure you would like it.

Koikeya Scorn Cheese Flavour スコーンチーズ味

I discoved these in Japan when I was looking for a cheesy snack. The image on the packaging looks pretty similar to a snack we have in Australia called Twisties. The pack contains 96 grams for 108 yen (about $1.10).

Scorn are primarily made from corn, vegetable oil, cheese powder, buttermilk powder, table salt, whey powder, amino acid, paprika, stevia, wheat, and soy bean flour. I'm surprised that stevia (a sweetener) is so low on the list because these are so sweet!

When you open the package you immediately get a whiff of sweetness with a kind of cheddar cheese smell. The cheese is quite a strong smell but there is alot of sweetness which overpowers the first scent.



Unlike Western "cheese flavour" snacks, these are more sweet than savoury. They are the same light yellow in colour and twisted corn in appearance, except that somehow these taste more like candy than a snack to go with beer.

There is some saltiness in there if you lick the twisted corn. Underneath the first taste of sweetness is the salt, then a light almost cheddar cheese flavour. Even the sweetness is kind of a let-down because it is through sweeteners not through real sugar, so the depth of the sugar flavour is vague and feels like something is missing.

Also unlike Western-style cheese snacks, there is no orange powder that comes off these onto your fingers. That to me, is one of the best parts of eating Cheetos or Twisties because you then have to go back and lick all that delicious powder off your fingers, so it's kind of like having double the amount! Here there is nary a spec of powder on your fingers, only a few crumbs from the actual twists themselves, but much less satisfying.

These don't leave me wanting more, they leave me wanting a drink! There is an aftertaste, the stevia no doubt, that makes me so thirsty I could drink the well dry. It's kind of the same as having an icecream or a milkshake on a really hot day.

By the way, I'm not sure why these are called Scorn. I can only imagine it's the feelings of Westerners like me who think they are getting a savoury snack only to find themselves drinking down bucketloads of water afterwards.

I won't be buying these again. Try at your own risk - make sure you have a drink handy.

Country Ma'am Mango Pudding Chocochip Cookies カントリーマアムマンゴープリン

I bought these on a last minute shopping trip to Seria in Hokkaido. I bought them primarily as souvenirs; in my family food seems to go down much better as a gift than a scroll.

105 yen seemed like a good price for a pack of 5 individually wrapped cookies. I bought too many though, and have now ended up with a few left over, hence this review.



I'm not a diehard mango fan, but I do like the flavour. I love white chocolate though, so the two combined, in my mind, seemed like a good match.

The flavour is actually mango pudding, and the bag states that apple mangoes were used. The cross-section of the cookie on the image shows 2 rather large white choco chips.

The cookies themselves are small and round, about 3cm diameter. There is a sweet smell of mango, and the colour is a light orange. I found one small white choco chip in my cookie, but maybe I got the runt of the litter.


The cookie is soft in the middle with what tastes and feels like mango puree. The flavour is light, not too sweet, and the texture of the cookie is a little bit hard on the outside but soft and smooth in the middle.

The chocolate chips really don't add much to the flavour, the mango is the star here. I don't mind that though. I thought this cookie was really well done. It's a nice little treat to serve with afternoon tea, or as a small snack after dinner. It's got a hint of sweetness that is just right. I really like the lightness of the mango flavour, and I'm sure this is very close to the real mango pudding.

Luckily I have two more packets of these to chow down on, but I would definitely buy them again, if I'm not sick of them in 14 cookies time.

Kabaya Saku Saku Panda Caramel Milk さくさくぱんだキャラメルミルク

I didn't know this snack existed until I saw it on Japanese Snack Reviews. I then came across it myself at napaJapan and bought a pack along with the Halloween Crunky.

I'm pretty sure this is a Halloween version as the box is orange, the generic colour of Halloween. Something interesting I noticed now that I didn't notice is that there is a kinchaku (small drawstring bag) included in the box.

The inner packaging is a foil bag with only 50% of the space taken up by the contents. There are various cartoons and character images on the bag, another way to entertain the kiddliwinks eating them.

I was pretty surprised to find only 6 panda biscuits in the bag. They all had different faces, smiley through sad. Actually the front of the biscuit is a chocolate panda, and the back is more biscuit. The chocolate side is definitely cuter. I thought the biscuit side looks quite ghoulish. Or is that their purpose?

The chocolate coating is white chocolate, and brown tinted white chocolate for the eyes and ears. The scent is overwhelmingly caramel. It's very strong.

The biscuit itself tastes like a plain sweet biscuit with coconut oil. The chocolate is caramel flavour, with a hint of vanilla. The chocolate is quite soft and melts easily. I preferred them straight out of the fridge, they are harder, and seem to have more substance.

I'm sure these are a great way for portion control, the sweet taste of the chocolate, tooth-achingly so, would make sure I ate even less than 6 of these.

The kinchaku bag included is, I suppose, for all those treats you will receive on your treating mission. It is a rather cute bag with sakusakupanda on it, and it's actually quite big, and the material, although plastic, is very sturdy.

A great gift for Halloween either in Japan or elsewhere, and a great little snack for the kids, not so much for me as its way too sweet, but I would buy this again as a gift.

napaJapan Candy & Bento Store

I just thought I would take this opportunity to blog about a new online store that is selling Japanese snacks and bento, including the 25+ Japanese Kit Kat flavours to the world!
Jay, the creator of the store has been selling me Japanese snacks on ebay for a long time, and now he's opened his store from Sapporo, Japan.



It's great because for years Japanese snack lovers have been relying on J-list to satisfy their J-snack cravings. And while J-list do have a very comprehensive list of Japanese products, they never have the new Kit Kat in store, they only stock limited snacks - that often run out which I find annoying.

I've never had that problem in all these years of buying from Jay. He ships them out within 36 hours, the packaging is perfect, and he offers 3 shipping options.

You will find Shiso Pepsi, the new Azuki Pepsi, and other Japanese beverages on his website. Pringles, Koala no march, Crunky, Pocky, Fran, Hi-Chew, Mentos, Flavoured Coffee, Morinaga, Meiji and some unique Japanese chocolate.


There is also a big variety of bento supplies, toys, and health products. Plus, requests are taken into account.

As a long-time fan of napaJapan, I just wanted everyone to know how great this store is, and I wanted you to know there is a place you can go to try out all the wacky Kit Kat flavours, like the one's I blog about on here.

No, he didn't put me up to this. I wanted to let everyone know simply because I'm a loyal customer who appreciates the great customer service I've received over the years. :)

So what are you waiting for?? Go buy some Kit Kat! ...or something!