Asahi Balanceup Salty Vanilla アサヒ クリーム玄米ブラン 塩バニラ

Don't ask me why but Balanceup is a favourite snack of mine. I think it's because it is not only filling but it is made with real bran and always comes in interesting flavours. It is meant to be more of a convenience food, for example, to replace cereal in the morning or a snack at morning tea time if you're busy and don't have time to grab a proper meal.

The snack consists of two layers of bran crackers sandwiching a thick layer of flavoured cream, in this case salty vanilla cream is in the centre. The bran crackers are quite thick too (about 2mm) so they give a decent crunch when bitten into.

These crackers have a pleasant smell when the packet is opened and the outside of the bran has a sweetness to it, and lots of bits of bran inside the cracker make for a very crunchy experience.
The vanilla cream in the middle is sweet and has a slight hint of maple flavour followed by another hit of vanilla and finally some saltiness at the end so it seems like having sweet then savoury.
I'm not sure why the vanilla cream tastes like maple but I have noticed it before in other flavours so maybe it's coming from the crackers when it gets mixed with the cream.

The flavours are not strong but they are not weak either. This was quite enjoyable and I ate the whole bag in one sitting (4 crackers!). The bag is made up of 2 individually wrapped bags of 2 crackers each so it's great for portion control and also the crackers won't go stale if you don't eat them all at once.

Asahi Mitsuya Cider Lemon Burst Zero 三ツ矢サイダー レモンはじける・カロリーゼロ

I'm not usually a fan of diet sodas, mainly because I don't like the taste of artificial sweeteners. But that all changed once I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes, and majorly limited what beverages I can drink. These days it's a choice of water, milk, diet soda, or juice which is severely watered down.

So when browsing in Nippon Food Supplies I came across this bottle of Mitsuya Cider Zero. The label states that it has zero calories, but it has 175.5kj and 11 grams of carbohydrate. It seems moderately ok, even for me having to watch my carbs, it's still under one serve. Surprisingly this drink has the same amount of calories and carbohydrates as the original Mitsuya Cider which doesn't claim to be low in calories. Strange?

 

Lemon Burst (known as Lemon Hajikeru on the label) is quite fizzy when first poured out into a glass. It smells quite lemony too, but more like a dish washing liquid than a soda! The first sip is really tart, the lemon is just so strong and overpowering and kind of burns the back of my throat. I can really taste the artificial sweetener in here, but maybe that's because I'm not used to it, however I just can't get over that taste and it's somewhat chemical.

I found this to be really harsh on the tastebuds. It's quite fizzy and the lemon is just so strong and sour, even though it's only 1% juice. I can't say that I would buy this again, even though it's meant to be reduced calories. I think I'd rather stick with juice and water! I seriously wouldn't recommend it unless you love sour, fizzy, burn-your-throat-out beverages. I don't think it's worth it.

Brand: Asahi Calories per bottle: 175.5 Website: http://www.asahiinryo.co.jp/products/carbonated/mitsuya_hajikeru_lemon/

Asahi Mitsuya Cider Melon Candy 三ツ矢サイダーキャンディー・メロン味

Whenever I go to Japan, one of the first drink brands I check out is Mitsuya Cider. They always seem to have really interesting and great tasting soda's. The most memorable one I have tried was condensed milk soda which was really nice!

Yubari Melon is a fruit and flavour that is dear to my heart. Hokkaido is my husband's home and is also home to the wonderful Yubari Melon which is used in cakes and desserts, candies, soda's, snacks and so much more in Japan.

So it's no wonder I was excited when napaJapan gave me this bag of Yubari Melon Mitsuya Cider candies.

The bag is small, and (71g) and holds about 20 individually wrapped candies. The candy is small, round and green, a colour that reminds me more of green apple.

From the minute the candy hit my tongue I started to get the fizz sensation that is reminscent of a soda. The Yubari melon flavour is prominent and sweet, but not too sweet. This really tastes like melon soda and there are no harsh chemical flavours that some candies have when trying to recreate a fruit flavour.

I really loved these and handed them out a party to Japanese and Aussie friends who all gave them the thumbs up too!

These are one of the best candies I have tried and I recommend them! You can buy these now at napaJapan as well as other flavours in the range - Grape soda and Regular Cider.

Brand: Asahi Calories per bag: 264 Website: http://www.asahi-fh.com Buy it now at napaJapan

Balanceup Maple Cream

Unlike Australia, Japan doesn't seem to sell a broad range of muesli bars, that is, healthy-style bars made from muesli or bran that are good as meal replacements, breakfast, or snacks on the go. Most supermarkets are big on these Balanceup bars that come in regular flavours and cream filled flavours.

This was released for Autumn in Japan and features maple cream sandwiched between two bran biscuits. It is a 2 pack, and both cream filled biscuits are wrapped in their own packets inside the main bag.

I was surprised to find this is made by Asahi rather than Kelloggs or some other well known breakfast cereal company. After looking around I did find some bran cookies in a bag that looked very similar to this one made by Kelloggs. The only difference is they did not have cream, but the flavour was also maple infused.

In Japan, a bag of these would set you back around 158 yen.

Opening up the small bag the scent of Maple hits my nose immediately. The bran biscuits themselves seem to be somewhat fragile, and crack easily, meaning that one corner of mine has broken off.

The cream to biscuit ratio is such that there are 2 parts biscuit and one part cream, but this is good because you get a good amount of crunchy bran biscuit and enough cream for a taste. The cream is quite sweet, so I am glad that the amount of cream in the biscuit is what it is.

I like the bran biscuit, but only for the texture, the definite crunch when biting into it and chewing. It has quite a few grains and seeds mixed in which give it such a great texture. However there is something about the texture which I also don't like is that it is quite powdery, and leaves a funny feeling on my tongue and the roof of my mouth.

The flavour is quite good, an authentic maple flavour, not too sweet, and definitely something I would want to eat at breakfast time or as a snack on the go. The crunchiness is a definite winner for this bar. If it wasn't for the powdery feeling in my mouth after eating this would be something I could see myself eating on a regular basis.

Asahi Mitsuya Cider

It wasn't a concious decision to review more Japanese beverages, it's that it's the only thing I've bought recently from the Japanese supermarket! I promise though there are some more Japanese Kit Kat reviews on the way from tomorrow.

I bought this bottle of Asahi Mitsuya Cider at the same time as the Kirin Lemon Tea. Mitsuya Cider is popular enough that it stays around the Japanese supermarkets here constantly. It's not one of those drinks that comes and goes and never returns. Because of that I have bought this drink several times but this is the first time I have reviewed it.

The bottle is 500ml. The nutritional information states that there is 175.5 kg of energy, 0 g of fat, 11 g of carbohydrate, and 8 mg of sodium.

When I opened the bottle there is a loud sound of the gas, but not much fizz. The smell reminds me of bubblegum or a gobstopper bubble gum ball. Ultimately I think this is Japan's version of lemonade. My thoughts are that usually cider is made with apple, and there are no apples or fruit in this drink. The ingredients list water, fructose, flavour, and caffeine. Just what flavour it is I don't know.

Although the drink doesn't look fizzy, when I take a sip the cider fizzes in my mouth. The taste is firstly like a soda water with a dash of lemon, or a weak lemonade, but the end is like the taste of having chewed bubblegum until it had no more flavour. It's not really a nice flavour to end on, and really just makes me thirsty. I really want to have a tall glass of water after drinking this.

I wouldn't even recommend this for curiosity's sake though my husband loves Mitsuya Cider, and that is why I keep buying it. I guess it holds something that I can't fathom to others who have grown up with it.

A little bit of info, the red symbol on the front of the bottle is actually 3 arrows joined together. In Japanese "mitsu"is 3 of something, and "ya" is arrow. So you get 3 arrows.