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.

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.

Mobaccho! Strawberry

The Japanese snack world is going in new directions. Not only can you have a takeaway cup of tea or coffee but you now can have your chocolate snacks in a cup for on the go.

I thought the cup is quite unique so I picked it up while shopping at Feel supermarket. It was ¥128.

They seem to be little rounded biscuit pieces covered in strawberry chocolate. These have butter, shortening, strawberry paste, milk seasoning, and malt extract in them.

The best I can say about these are they taste exactly like strawberry Pocky, but in small pieces. One little piece doesn't have much taste but handfuls at a time recreate a Pocky moment for me.

It is a unique idea, but the flavour is somewhat unoriginal. I only saw a strawberry flavour in the supermarket, and a look on the Glico website reveals no information about this snack. If you can find it, please let me know.

These were a bit of a let-down for me, and unless you want chopped up pieces of pocky in a cup, then I wouldn't recommend them.

Yamazaki Hokkaido Cheesecake

This was another impulse buy from the supermarket bakery. The image of Hokkaido on the top of the cheesecake just caught my eye. I am not a big fan of cheese but I love cheesecake, how weird is that?

This is one of those cakes that is made by another company, and sealed in plastic for longer shelf life.

The packet says that refridgerating this prior to eating is the best way, so that is what I did.

Upon opening the packet and sniffing, it smells very much like a regular rare cheesecake. The texture is very soft like a light airy cake and can be easily broken off with fingers. There are little bubbles, very tiny, inside showing the 'air-in'.

The taste is very mild, the cheese flavour very underwhelming. I can taste milk, a vague cheese flavour, and a kind of madeira cake taste. This is very much like a madeira cake to me, more than a cheesecake. It is not really very sweet.

As it so happens there is only cheese cream, milk, eggs, and shortening in this cake. So no cream cheese, only cheese cream. Which is what? I couldn't find anything even on google.

As a cake that uses Hokkaido as it's selling point, I am very disappointed. This is a really unworthy representation of the beautiful, creamy baked goods that usually come from the island, especially as the back of the package said it was made in Tokyo.

A big disappointment, don't throw your money away on this, buy some madeira cake, it probably tastes better anyway.

Sapporo Melon Cream Soda メロンクリームソーダ

The first night I came to Japan, we went to KFC for dinner. Imagine my surprise when I ordered a set and was offered melon cream soda as a possible drink choice! I accepted, and it was really yum. Other options were Qoo, Pepsi, or Fanta.

I bought this bottle of Sapporo Melon Cream Soda at Jusco supermarket, it was the first time I had seen a bottle of melon soda in Japan not at a restaurant.

The colour of the soda is an amazing melon-green colour and the front of the bottle has a scoop of icecream on top of what is supposed to be melon soda. It's quite cute.

So this bottle has been in the fridge for the last week because I really haven't felt in the mood to drink it, with so many other drink options available. Cue today when I am packing to go to Hokkaido and remember that I have a soda in the fridge.

The first sip is a let-down and I know this is not going to be as good as the one I got in my meal set at KFC. The overall flavour is lime. It tastes like lime cordial or squash (those concentrates you mix with water), and kind of like the aftertaste of eating icecream. It is not overly sweet, but the aftertaste really makes me thirsty.

There is no melon taste at all to this drink, and a mild cream soda flavour. On closer inspection of the ingredients, melon is not listed at all, only grape extract, milk, flavouring and colouring.

I did the right thing in ignoring this drink, and should have kept on ignoring it! It is truly yuck and I wouldn't buy it again. I would love to know what brand of melon soda they sell at KFC, if anyone knows, please enlighten me.

Chocoball Cream Cheese チョコボールクリームチーズ

I found this box of Chocoball in Lawson, and I thought it was the salt flavour as the box looks almost the same, but on closer inspection I found it was Cream Cheese.

I have never been a big fan of cheese but I thought for my blog and because I have a history of reviewing Chocoball I would try it out.

Unfortunately as it was a really hot and humid day when I bought it, the little balls melted on the way home and stuck together. I don't think it affects the flavour though, just the shape.

This box also opens like a tunacan and can be resealed by tucking the tab back into the slit.

The chocolate on the outside is white chocolate and smells extremely sweet. It tastes like sweetened condensed milk, exactly like the Japanese version, with a little bit of saltiness.

The chocolate is actually softer than usual, and after sucking it off, I find that the biscuit in the middle is just a regular biscuit with no flavour. So where is the cream cheese flavour then?? Oh, am I mistaken, there is no cream cheese flavour, it is just made with cream cheese for the softer outside texture. Though the ingredients does list 'natural cheese' as 6th on the ingredient list, though does not say anything about cream cheese. So thoroughly confusing or misleading.

In any case, despite all that, it really is a very tasty treat and I am in love with the flavour. I will definitely be taking a few of these home to enjoy at a later date.

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.

Kobe Custard Melon Pan 神戸カスタードメロン

Supermarkets in Japan have a an aisle or two dedicated to pan (sweet buns). Usually half of them have been baked fresh, and the other half have been made by various companies and have a long shelf life, sealed in packaging to keep them fresh.

I am a melon pan girl, and I also love custard, so I thought a combination of the two would be great. It also comes from Kobe from a company called Kobeya, who I had never heard of before. A glance at their website tells me they specialise mainly in bread, cake, and pan.

This pan was shaped like a regular melon pan, round and with the criss-cross design on top, though it had some kind of clear glaze on top that made it sticky to touch.

Breaking the pan open revealed a dry bread bun with a yellow custard cream in the middle. The custard had little black dots in it which turned out to be vanilla beans. The custard was really nice, very flavourful, I liked the presence of the vanilla beans for presentation and for flavour.

The pan itself was quite dry, reminded me of bread which is a few days old. A look on the ingredient list reveals no butter, only eggs and shortening and wheat in regards to the batter. I think this is why it was so dry, no good quality butter to give it that soft texture.

I also couldn't find any mention of melon on the ingredients list, and I couldn't taste any either. Quite a letdown in regards to that, as I thought this would be both melon and custard in taste. I guess they think that it's melon pan to look at and custard pan to eat? I don't know. Strikes me as false advertising really.

Despite the fact that the pan was packaged in a really nice way, and the package itself says it is a "long seller", it comes from Kobe, and the custard was really yum, I wouldn't buy this again because I wanted melon pan, and I don't like dry pan. I think next time I will go fresh, and I wouldn't recommend this at all.

Poifull Soft Chewing Candy

I bought this pack of Poifull Soft at Lawson on a pit-stop, driving along the coast of Nagoya. I had heard alot about Poifull but never actually tried it myself, and as I needed a quick pick-me-up, I decided on these.

What really decided it for me was the flavours in the box - red grape, white grape, peach yoghurt and yoghurt. I love all of those flavours so I thought this candy couldn't let me down.

The box weighs 44 grams and was ¥115. There seemed to be more yoghurt and white grape than the other two flavours.

Each pellet is a small rectangular rounded piece of chewing candy, this is where they differ from the regular style of jelly bean.

Yoghurt - Creamy white in colour, very much like Yakult or some other yoghurty drink, though it is quite tart.

White Grape - The outside of the candy tasted sour, the first notes are tart and sour, and becomes sweet at the end, really tastes like muscat.

Red Grape - A washed out maroon colour, sour on the outside, really sour and tart on the inside, only a little sweetness, mostly sour.

Peach Yoghurt - Baby pink in colour, this reminds me of the texture and taste of the skin of a peach, very real peach flavour, some tartness, but very well balanced with sweet.

Overall, my favourite was the peach yoghurt, followed by yoghurt. I am a grape flavour fan but I thought these were way too tart for my liking. I gave them to two other friends and they also agreed.

Tirol Air-In Salty Vanilla チロル 塩バニラ

After coming to Japan I have been browing the aisles of supermarkets to find new and different Tirol flavours. I have not had much luck so far, only finding the regular coffee flavour.

At Jusco a few days ago, I finally found this flavour for ¥20. I originally grabbed two of them but lost one on the way home, only to find it in a friends car two days later, it had melted in the heat and lost its shape.

The image on the packet is of a sparkling blue ocean with a small island in the background and a soft serve cone in the foreground. I am not sure why the soft serve is in the image, but after googling "soft serve salty vanilla" I found a few links to icecream with a salty topping in Hakata, so maybe thats a kind of regional specialty.

This chocolate is air-in which basically means its like an Aero, it is aerated, very soft, and less dense.

From the outside, the chocolate smells of vanilla and a saltiness like the beach (cue blue water on image). The chocolate is quite soft to bite into and feels really grainy. Its really white chocolate, with a hint of vanilla, and after all the chocolate has melted, a few grains of salt.

The air-in makes the middle soft, and like mousse, and as I eat more, the salt flavour builds up, to a kind of sour vinegar like when you get a mouthful of water at the beach, that unpleasant taste in your mouth.

I never really got used to the grains in this chocolate, and I don't like the salt flavour because it's too strong. I have satisfied my curiousity and I definitely wont buy this again.