Kabaya Apple & Mango Gumi カバヤアップル&マンゴーグミ

This is the last bag of sweets from a carepack from a friend in Tokyo, M.


It's a bag of individually wrapped gumi candy. There were 13 in the pack, 7 apple and 6 mango.

The pack smelled wonderful inside, so fruity and fresh. The gumi are so soft and smooth and have a texture of being almost wet.

They are really like eating jelly, much softer than any other gumi I've had. The mango did not have a strong flavour, it was much weaker than I expected, though in the middle the familiar mango flavour was present. The apple tasted like a nice juicy red apple, it was sweet but also had a sourness at the end.

These gumi were really enjoyable, the flavours were nice but not profound. I enjoyed serving these up to guests and Yasu really like the mango even though he's never been a fan of the fruit itself.

Brand: Kabaya Calories per bag: 216 Buy it now at Daiso

Kabaya Apple Tart Stick Pretzel りんごタルトスティック

You can buy these now at napaJapan!

Sorry for the long time between posts...they don't call this time of year the "silly season" for no reason!

But here I am, back again, with another interesting Japanese snack.

A great snack for the season, this is a box of pretzel sticks made with Fuji Apples, in the theme of a French apple tart. The picture on the box is mouthwateringly yummy-looking.

At first I thought these were a reverse pocky but with apple in the middle, then I realised they are more like a Pretz, a pretzel stick with flavouring.

The box has two separately wrapped packets inside, each holding 17 sticks. Unwrapping the bag, a beautiful smell of apple and cinnamon escapes, and I'm thinking how delicious it's going to be.


The pretzels themselves are a light brown colour with cinnamon and spices on the outside. The pretzel is crunchy and because of the rich butter inside tastes exactly like a pie crust. The sticks are full of flavour. The apple, while not a filling in the middle, is added in puree form to the mixture of the stick, so you get a slight Fuji apple flavour when you crunch down on it. It's more pie crust than pie filling, you do get a sense of the apple, but it is ever-so-slight, not really the main attraction here.

I really like sucking on the outside, the spices taste lovely. Actually, I found by sucking on the outside of the pretzel you do get more of a sense of the apple flavour than crunching down on it, though I don't know why.

You know these go really great with some icecream or a big cold glass of milk! Scooping up some icrecream on the end of one of these sticks just tastes so divine, and makes it that much more authentic.

I'd get these again, they are something different, indulgent and good quality.

Full of Vegetables Kit Kat 充実野菜キットカット

This Kit Kat was released on the 24th of August and I only just saw it today in Ito Yokado for ¥105.

The Japanese characters 充実野菜 (or Juujitsu Yasai) means "full of vegetables", and has the same name of the same drink by Itoen.

The ingredient lists boasts apple, carrot, grape, lemon, celery, capsicum, asparagus, chinese cabbage, kale, parsley, cabbage, herbs, radish, and spinach. The back of the box states that the vegetable powder is in the cream between the wafers, and the apple and carrot flavour is in the chocolate coating.

The colour of the white chocolate is a bright orange colour that reminds me of McDonald's fake cheese. The smell of apple wafts up from the chocolate.

Biting into the Kit Kat finger, there is a sweet flavour of apple immediately, but it gives way to a weird chemical flavour that reminds me of something burnt. I can't really detect any carrot flavour in the chocolate, and there is no real sense of vegetables in the cream between the wafers.

I guess for some people this would be a relief, as the actual juice by Itoen is rather strong. For me however I am a little disappointed as I expected the taste the vegetable patch and all I can taste is the apple orchard. Apple is really the only flavour here besides a few chemical overtones.

I really think this would have been better with milk chocolate as the white chocolate is too sweet for a snack that is meant to showcase a health drink. Unless you liked previous versions of the apple kit kat then I wouldn't recommend buying this. It should be called 'full of apples' rather than vegetables.

Festival Hi-Chew Toffee Apple

I just received a parcel of yummy treats from Japan and this was in the box. I was disappointed to find that this Hi-Chew is smaller than the average packet, and has only 7 pieces.

As a kid, Toffee Apples were one of my favourite sweets. Whever we went to the local vegetable shop there was always a big tray of toffee apples, one for 50 cents, and my mum would buy me one.

So seeing this Toffee Apple flavour or what Japanese refer to as Ringo Ame (Apple sweets) made me feel abit nostalgic for the old days.

Each pieces is a light pink colour on the outside and white in the centre, and has pieces of chewy toffee inside. From the outside there is the very same smell of the toffee on the outside of the apple. Oh the memories!

Biting into the Hi-Chew is a strange experience because on one hand there is the soft chewy chew, followed by a big crunch as I bite down on a piece of toffee. The flavour of the Hi-Chew is quite tart, like a green apple, and the toffee brings the sweetness.

I really like the flavour combination, but I'm not so sure about the bits of toffee. It takes some getting used to, crunching down on those toffee bits. I think kids would definitely love this because of the change in texture, but as a long-time Hi-chew lover, I just can't get my head around the crunch part and I would prefer it if there was two flavours but without the crunchiness.

Still, I am glad I tried this, so I could see what it was like. It gave me a nice trip down memory lane, if nothing else.

Apple Vinegar Kit Kat

I got this at the same time as the Lemon Vinegar Kit Kat, in a box of goodies from Japan.

Apple Vinegar has well known healing properties, probably mostly from Chinese medicine. It can shrink gall stones, it is a digestive enzyme (aids digestion), it can be put on burns - when applied reduces the burn and scarring, helps reduce cellulite appearance, helps allergies, and stomach flu, and probably many more!

Is it any wonder then why the Japanese followed China's lead and now regularly consume this on a daily basis? Yasu has this every day as a general health tonic, and as a consequence, he is always healthy, and hasn't had a cold for 6 months, ever since he started taking it.

Some people find the taste of Apple Vinegar to be too sour, but I love it. I think the Apple flavour is much more pronounced when mixed with vinegar.

So imagine my delight when I found that Nestle Japan had released Apple Vinegar Kit Kat!

It comes in a box of 2 packets containing 2 fingers. The chocolate is white but with a yellow tint. The yummy smell of red apple wafted up to my nose as I opened the packet.

The chocolate itself is a bit salty, then sweet, followed by the apple cream in the wafers. The outside of the wafers is where the vinegar is. It is not overly sour, it's more like a Granny Smith Apple, than vinegar. The vinegar is present only at the very end, followed by a creamy milky taste, which is really refreshing.

I wish I had got more of these. Yasu really loved it too. I love the white chocolate with the apple and vinegar, the sweet and sour are really great flavours combined.

I've heard alot of reviewers on the net giving this the thumbs down, but I am giving it a huge thumbs up. The problem is that they are not familiar with the original taste of apple vinegar, so they are reviewing something that is totally alien to their tastebuds. If you can't imagine the real thing, it's going to be hard to compare.