Pumpkin Pudding Crunky (Halloween) パンプキンプリン味

Halloween is not really a custom for us in Australia but I do enjoy seeing the different snacks that Japanese companies put out at this time of the year, all with a Halloween theme decoration on the packaging.

The most popular Halloween flavour in Japan seems to be Pumpkin, and it ties in so easily as this time of the year is Autumn in Japan anyway, and warm vegetables are 'in'. So it's no wonder that Crunky has put out their Halloween flavour as Pumpkin Pudding.

I've never heard of Pumpkin Pudding before, but I suppose in Japan, anything is possible, right? They could take virtually anything and if they put 'pudding' on the end of the word make it marketable to the Japanese people.

I love Pumpkin, so it's not a hard task to indulge in this one. Will it be pumpkin-y though, I wonder?

The box itself is unlike the usual long rectangle block that Crunky comes in. I suppose because it's made for Halloween, the keyword here is 'sharing', that it is in individually wrapped packages inside. 12 to be exact. They could have gone all scary on us and put 13 in there, but oh the party poopers.


There are 2 joined squares in each little packet, which surprised me because I only expected one.

The chocolate is white, but with a light orange hue, and smells quite like caramel and coconut. The pumpkin flavour is not exactly shouting out on this, given it's 11th on the ingredient list. It's only after sucking the chocolate off the rice puffs that I actually taste a slight pumpkin taste, that which is known as 'jap' pumpkins in Australia, or "kabocha", in Japan.


It's more pudding than pumpkin sadly. Lots of caramel, coconut, and creaminess in there, but not so much pumpkin to be seen. I'm disappointed because if you're going to market something for a scary occasion, couldn't they actually make it scary by bringing out the pumpkin more? I know Japanese flavours are not exactly famous for being bold, but being bold on one day of the year surely isn't bad?

Anyway, pumpkin aside, these are enjoyable. I did like them, and when I stopped thinking they were pumpkin, I enjoyed them more. They would make a very nifty Halloween gift, or a box all for yourself. I certainly won't be sharing these with any trick or treaters...they're all mine! (insert evil laugh here)

Crunky Roasted Chestnut クランキー和栗

As it's now coming into Autum in Japan the Japanese confectionary makers have been releasing snacks to cater to Autumn tastes. A snack that is popular in cool seasons is Waguri or roasted chestnuts, so it's no surprise that Crunky have rolled it out as their latest flavour.

The thing I find disconcerting about Crunky from the start is that the bar itself is so thin. There's literally only rice crispies with a chocolate coating, not the other way around.


The chocolate, when unwrapped, has a strong smell of sweet coffee. It's a coffee-coloured white chocolate that smells so sweet I was afraid to eat it.

See on the back of the bar, it has all the rice crispies, and then some darker dots? Those darker dots are bits of roasted chestnut.


Despite the coffee scent, it doesn't taste like coffee. It does taste like roasted chestnut, it has that roasted flavour, like it has been roasted over the pan for many hours. The rice crispies are quite good in this with the mix of chestnut as they also bring a kind of popcorn taste to the flavour, which ends up being like roasted chestnut, hot popcorn and peanuts.


I really love this! It's got such an interesting mix of flavours, and it really is quite unique. I can image myself eating this while nestled in front of a warm fire with a good book. It's very Autumn-y. But then, I'm eating it in an Australian Spring and it's still really good!

This one is a definitely a keeper.

Crunky Matcha Shake 抹茶のシェーキ

This was a gift from my sister-in-law upon our departure from Japan. She handed us a bag chock-full of Japanese snacks and goodies to eat on the train ride (15 hours) back to the airport. We dutifully munched our way through some of the snacks but couldn't finish them all. I was able to bring the rest back with me, and this is one of the treats that survived. The chocolate with the slightly engrish name - Crunky.

Its called Matcha Shake, and the image on the front must be meant to be a shake, but it looks more like a mousse or a very thick thick-shake.

The chocolate inside is in a long rectangular block and is matcha green. It also smells very much like matcha used at traditional tea ceremonies.

As you can see in the photo, the back of the block is full of rice crisps. The top of the block is molded into little rectangles that are meant to make it easy to break off; unfortunately mine did not break along the lines but along the corner.

The chocolate is quite thin, so the majority of chocolate is taken up by the bottom layer of rice crisps, with only a very little amount of chocolate by itself on the top.

Each bite is a satisfying crunch of crisps, exactly what it is named for. The chocolate, although it smells alot like matcha, tastes anything but. The most apparent flavour is the rice crispies, and then a vanilla flavour, which I think also comes from the crispies.

There is no real matcha flavour in this chocolate except right at the end, a slight bitterness, but only momentarily. There is no depth of flavour in this bar. I'm really disappointed because I expected much more. It's not really even sweet, but I might prefer it if it was, just for the flavour. It's like eating crispy cardboard really.

The box is pretty, the smell is nice, but that is as far as it goes, unfortunately.