This was a snack I picked up in Japan in May and am just getting around to review it. Ever since we came home life has been so hectic I just haven't had a chance to review the snacks bought especially for this purpose so most of them are still in the pantry.
Tonight we were looking around for something for dessert and I pulled these out. My 2 year old son was very interested in the box and kept asking me to open it.
Originally, when I bought it, I was in a hurry and grabbed it from the shelf because I thought it was plain white chocolate flavour. But after opening the box tonight I discovered it is actually "yaki-imo" (roasted sweet potato) flavour.
It's a nice surprise because I actually love sweet potato, and even more so when it's roasted!
This pack is a box containing one wrapped bag of snacks. When you open the box (like a lid) it has a bag inside decorated with mushrooms and trees, and you tear it open from the middle outwards. If you don't eat the whole box at once, you can simply close the lid and save them for next time, so it's very convenient.
Kinoko no Yama are very cute. They consist of a pretzel stick with the top part of the mushroom being the chocolate. In this version the chocolate is white chocolate but with the addition of sweet potato, so it is a golden colour. It smelled vaguely of caramel.
The pretzel stick is just a plain pretzel stick and although it's quite nice and crunchy there is no real flavour. The chocolate is nice and smooth and there is a subtle flavour of sweet potato. It's not a bold hit of sweet potato as I expected. It's quite sweet too so you don't need much. The smoothness of the chocolate and the crunch of the pretzel stick are a nice combination.
I really enjoyed this snack and I found it was the perfect size for my 2 year old's hand, he gobbled most of them down before my husband and I could get any! If you like sweet potato then I definitely recommend you try this one. It's a quirkier chocolate flavour but not too weird as to be inedible.
These are available online at napaJapan too (but I think only limited quantities are left) -- Kinoko no Yama Roasted Sweet Potato
