Pocky Strawberry Heartful ポッキーつぶつぶいちご ハートフル

Thanks to Jen who sent me this delightful snack to try.

It's called "Heartful" because the pretzel stick is pink and actually supposed to be shaped like a heart. If you see my photo you will find they didn't quite accomplish this but it was a nice marketing idea!

The chocolate on the stick is quite thin but it is full of flavour. The "tsubutsubu" which is small bits of strawberry is very tart and exactly the taste of a real strawberry so it feels very realistic. The pink pretzel stick is also very sweet and has a slight strawberry flavour so this is actually quite a nice little snack.

It comes in two packets inside the box which is great as you don't have to eat the whole contents at once and you can share with someone else!

Overall I really like this Pocky, it is just a shame that the stick wasn't heart shaped, but I do love the name of it and all the pink!

Glico Pocky Midi Butter Custard ポッキーバター華やぐぽってりカスタード

The name of this Pocky basically translates to "Brilliantly fat butter custard". The fat is probably referring to the thick layer of chocolate over the pretzel stick.

This packet of Pocky contains 3 bags of 4 short and stubby sticks each. Unfortunately mine melted in transit because here in Australia they arrived at the tail end of summer which is still quite hot.

The chocolate on the Pocky stick is a light yellow colour and it smells sweet and salty. 

The taste is quite light, there is a tiny hint of custard. There is some sweetness and again, the salt. But for me, these were disappointing as I thought the custard should have been stronger. The flavour was too vague here, and not what I expected.

Not recommended if you want a hit of custard flavour, but if you like sweet and salty chocolate on a stick then you'll probably like this. 

PS - at the top of the box it states that these would taste good while drinking Royal Milk Tea, so if you try it let me know. Maybe the pairing of tea brings out the custard flavour?!

You can buy these at napaJapan 

Glico Bisco Matcha Milk グリコ ビスコ 抹茶ミルク

Bisco is a brand that has been around since 1933, they're made by Glico, maker of Pocky and other much loved snack brands.

The packaging of Bisco always contains a child, because these biscuits are primarly for children. This is the latest flavour of Bisco - Matcha Milk or green tea and milk.

 

 

From the Bisco website, listing the new flavours, strawberry and match milk

Each biscuit is 3.5 cm long and 2 cm wide. It has a layer of green matcha milk cream sandwiched in the middle. The smell of the cream is very strong and very much like matcha. The biscuit is very soft and crunchy and the cream is soft and sweet. The biscuit and cream are a match(a) made in heaven because the matcha is very pronounced and you really get a strong flavour coming through in each chew.

The size of these biscuits means they are great for little hands, but also great for diet control. Each pack contains 5 of these biscuits, and the pack itself is small enough to fit in a lunch box or a zippered part of a backpack or handbag.

I recommend these if you want a small snack or your kiddlywinks like green tea, they're very enjoyable.

Pocky Dessert Chocolate Banana Cake ポッキー・デザートチョコラのバナナケーキ風

I'm on a bit of a roll here. I just reviewed the Strawberry Custard Cake Dessert Pocky and now I'm going to review the Chocolate Banana Cake version!

I've heard mixed things about banana flavour in snacks, it would appear that it doesn't translate very well. That being said, I've always liked fake banana flavour so it's never been a problem for me.

I like the idea of making a dessert into a snack that can be eaten as a dessert. It's so much easier than carrying around a whole cake, and it's convenient to store! :)

This Chocolate Banana Cake Pocky is the same format as the Strawberry Custard one. It has a thick coating of banana chocolate around the pretzel stick and then it has a piped chocolate effect all over the top.

I love the style, it looks elegant and fun.

Smelling the stick, I am quite surprised to find that it smells more like rich cocoa than banana. There is a very vague banana undertone but it's not the prevalent scent.

Biting in, the chocolate on the top is soft and smooth and once again reminds me of icing on a cake. The chocolate is the first flavour that hits my tongue and it has a dark edge to it, and then boom! pow! the banana flavour takes over. The banana flavour is not close to the real thing, it's more of a "fake" banana, but it is sweet and light and I really like it. The chocolate and banana flavours combine near the end and go very well together. Overall, the chocolate is very strong and overpowers the banana.

The pretzel stick is nicely crunchy and goes really well with the chocolate coating.
To me this didn't really resemble a "cake" like the Strawberry Custard Pocky. These flavours were more akin to a mousse or whip. It's still in the range of dessert though and I do like it, but I have to say that out of the two, the Strawberry is the one I like more.

I think the Strawberry Pocky was done better because it fits more with the cake theme, so it's something I can imagine more than this one.

Brand: Glico Calories per box: 97 Website:  http://pocky.jp/products/dessert/index.html Buy it now at napaJapan

Pocky Dessert Strawberry Custard Cake ポッキー・デザート 苺のカスタードケーキ風

Introducing the latest flavours in the Pocky Dessert range courtesy of Jason @ napaJapan, a plumper and more elegant version of the original Pocky. I reviewed the Mont Blanc version back in March when these were also released.

Like the Mont Blanc version, these have a double coating - a layer of yellowish white chocolate coating the pretzel stick and a weave-like design of strawberry chocolate over the top.

The smell is very sweet and all I can smell is strawberry! Biting in, the strawberry chocolate on the top is very soft and the texture reminds me of icing on a cake. The flavour is like that of a strawberry sponge cake. The custard chocolate underneath has a flavour of vanilla, it's buttery and rich like a good sponge cake.

The pretzel stick underneath is crunchy without being overly so. The blend of custard and strawberry is absolutely gorgeous and I can't stop eating this Pocky! It really is like a nice dessert, in fact I could eat this for dessert any day! It's decadent without being too rich. The strawberry is mildly sweet and has a few tart notes bursting out without making the chocolate sour.

Yum! is all I can say on this one! I definitely recommend these! 

You can find another review of this Pocky at 8tokyo.com 

Brand: Glico Calories per box: 97 Website:  http://pocky.jp/products/dessert/index.html Buy it now at napaJapan

Glico Cheeza 52% Cheddar チーザ５２％ チェダーチーズ

I like cheese. Most people like cheese. But do they like strong cheese? Really really strong cheese?

I'm willing to say no. When the Tirol Hokkaido Cheese chocolate came out most people were shaking their heads in a very definite NO.

This is why I think that this flavour of Cheeza 52% won't suit everyone. This has the same cheese flavour as said Tirol. It is strong, pungent, and rich.

The biscuits themselves are triangular shaped with holes, and very crunchy. Eaten by themselves the flavour quickly builds up to breaking point - after about 5 pieces Yasu couldn't take any more - but with a beer in hand and a Cheeza in the other, this is when an epiphany is reached.

Cheeza 52% is good as a snack with a beverage, but not good on it's own unless...well unless you're like me, and like the flavour of cheese so it burns your throat.

I enjoyed this, and Yasu did but only with a beer. I'm not sure this is suitable for everyone, if you like your cheese mellow and mild I wouldn't recommend it to you. If you like your cheese loud and obnoxious then this is for you! :)

Brand: Glico Calories per 38g bag: 199 Website:  http://www.glico.co.jp/cheeza/ Buy it now at napaJapan

Pocky Dessert Mont Blanc Chocolate ポッキーデザートモンブランショコラ

It's been a long time since I've had Pocky, the celebrated snack of the Anime Otaku. In fact, I've never reviewed it on this blog. Funny that, how such well known snacks are overlooked in favour of weird and wacky or more interesting variety snacks. I really should go back and do the tried and true flavours shouldn't I.

This is the last part of a parcel from a very nice friend in Sapporo (Thanks D!), and I have been holding onto it for a while now. I squirrelled it away for a rainy day. The rainy day came and went and I forgot about it, and then when I was cleaning up the front room I found it again. Timely.

This is not an average Pocky, it's part of the Dessert range which is abit more premium than the average Pocky. It's more in line with it's competitor - Fran by Meiji - which is still a pretzel stick snack though it has a thicker coating and more luxurious flavours. It's the Louis Vuitton of the pretzel world.

This box has 4 clear wrapped packs of 3 sticks each. So you basically get 12 sticks in a pack that is big enough to probably house 24. But with Pocky desserts its all about quality not quantity Dahlings.


The pretzel stick looks like it is double the size of a regular stick, about half of a centimetre thick. It is then covered in a thick layer of regular milk chocolate, and then layered with a light brown coloured white chocolate in a kind of spiral fashion.

This flavour is Mont Blanc, inspired by the French dessert of the same name that is a cake or tart made of pureed chestnuts and whipped cream, sometimes on a meringue base. So basically we have a chestnut dessert on a stick. The light brown coating on the outside is very similar to the coating on a real Mont Blanc dessert and represents the chestnut flavour.

To me, the chocolate on the outside smells like coffee more than anything else. The light brown chocolate has a slight chestnut flavour by itself but when it is sucked off the stick together with the milk chocolate is when the roasted nut taste starts to emerge.

The pretzel is nice and crunchy, and the two flavours of chocolate merge well together, but I still get that sense of coffee underneath the chestnut flavour. The texture of the chocolate is smooth and is mousse-like.

This Pocky is special because of it's appearance. The flavour is not as luxurious as I thought it would be but nevetherless it is rich and creamy and a really great chocolate snack. I like the individual packs inside the box because I can put one in Yasu's bento and have one myself without the rest of the pack going stale.

If you want to try these you can buy them now at napaJapan.

Glico Almond Caramel グリコアーモンドキャラメル

Last November I reviewed Glico Caramel Hearts and now I'm back with another version - Almond Caramel Hearts.

This is an 82 gram pack of 22 individually wrapped caramel hearts with small bits of almond embedded in them.


As I didn't really like the original Glico caramels I didn't hold up much hope for these.

I'm happy to say I was pleasantly surprised.

The caramel is the same shape and size as the original flavour. The difference with these is that they are very soft on the outside and start to melt immediately after I put it in my mouth. The original version was chewy but the almond caramel is less sticky and more pliable. It also has more of a caramel flavour and texture. While chewing the caramel I noticed quite a fudge-like texture too.

The almond is not overpowering, the bits are small enough so they give a hint of roasted almond without overshadowing the caramel experience. If you suck on the caramel rather than chewing it, you tend to get more of the almond flavour.

I'm pleased to note there is nothing that tastes like coconut or lemon peel in these!

I really enjoyed these and if I would definitely recommend them! :)

Glico Heart Caramels グリコ心形のキャラメル

"The running man" is an icon well known to Glico. Their catch-cry is that one caramel will allow you to run 300 metres. Though everyone knows that it doesn't really work, it's just a sales pitch. Which begs the question, if everyone knows, why do they continue to have it written on the box?

Anyway, I've seen these around but never tried them. What really coaxed me into buying them was the free toy that was attached. At 31 I'm still a sucker for a free toy, however lame it may seem!


There was a choice between the bread maker toy, dinosaur robots, or insects. Being a girl, I chose the bread-maker, you know, to tie in with that long-held belief of men that women belong in the kitchen. Hmm.

I was right to say "lame" toy, because it is. I must have drawn the shortest straw possible because what I got was a plastic jar with a spoon. I opened the lid of the jar in expectation that I was getting something inside, but alas, only air in there. A look at the box shows me I could have got a set of scales, a bread bin, or a serving tray with tongs. Damn. Thought I was getting the cute scales. Oh well. Who wants a free jar and spoon toy?

The box of caramels only have 5 caramels in them. Supposing that you could run 300 metres with every bite, you could expect to run 1500 metres with the whole box. But you would need another box to get back. Would the 154 calories consumed by eating these be burned off in the process I wonder? Anybody tried this?


Moving along to the caramels, they are shaped like a heart. Not sure if this has anything to do with health - aka healthy hearts through running, or Glico is expressing their love for us buying their products.

The caramel really tastes like coconut and is chewy. Looking at it I thought it would be hard. In the centre there is a taste like lemon peel, powdered milk and caramel. To me, it tastes weird. The ingredients list claims alot of B vitamins, Calcium, and Sweeteners. The sweeteners I can agree on because it's so throat burningly sweet while I'm chewing it my throat feels like it's on fire.

I bet the sweetener alone could power you 300 metres. And guess what, I got a headache right after eating this too.

I guess, because it's been around for so long, Glico's heart caramels are a hit. But not with me. Certainly, Yasu's eye's started sparkling when I showed him the box. Not sure if that's out of childhood sentimentality or he just loves snacks.

I bought these for $1.38 and even with the lame toy included it wasn't worth it. I won't be buying these again. (The yucky coconut and lemon peel taste is still in my mouth!)

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.

Collon Strawberry & Blueberry

When I picked up this box I thought it was Blueberry Collon. When I got it home I realised it's strawberry with blueberry mixed in. There is 9.2% strawberry juice, and 2.6% blueberry juice. Why the .2 and .6? Why not round it up to 10 and 3?

There are 6 packets in total in this box. That said, they are really small packets with only 6 collon pieces per pack. Just like the Cheesecake Collon, these are a waste of packaging, and a waste of money for only 24 pieces of Collon.

So why did I buy them? Curiousity about the flavour I guess. I like blueberry and I don't see it used in much confectionery.

The pieces smell very much like the regular strawberry collon. At the beginning there is the taste of strawberry which kind of blends into a light blueberry flavour, that ends with a tart strawberry tang. I quite like this in that the flavours of both berries are light, and blend together well. Each collon is finished off with that tangy burst at the end, which is nice. The outer shell is crunchy but easy to eat.

This snack is really easy to eat because It's not overly sweet and it has that satisfying crunch of the cookie on the outside. I wish there were more than 6 in each small pack though.

I guess these are really good for children's bento boxes in Japan or a small treat to carry in your handbag or such. The box can definitely made smaller and still fit all 6 bags in. I guess this is Glico's way of justifying charging more. I paid $4.95 for this box, compared to the regular size collon at $3.95.

Pocky Almond Crush (Thai)

I didn't realise when I bought this Pocky that it is actually a product of Thailand. This is made by Thai Glico.

I didn't know if that would make a difference, hopefully in Thailand they use the same ingredients, but whether or not the ingredients are the same quality, well that is the question.


The box weighs 38 grams and has 10 sticks inside. It's really overpackaged, there is so much space inside for 10 sticks. Sadly they are on par with the way Japan packages products.


The sticks themselves have a faint coffee smell, and when I bite into it I find a coffee flavour. I take another look at the box. No, it definitely says Almond Crush. The coffee flavour stays around.

The pretzel is the same as normal. I can't get that yucky coffee flavour out of my mouth. It's a really bad aftertaste.

Notice on the box it says "biscuit stick coated with chocolate flavour", no actual chocolate here. There are plenty of almonds (17.5%), so that is quite good, but that coffee flavour is too strong, even though the ingredient list does not mention coffee.

Ingredients: Wheat flour, Palm Oil, Sugar, Almonds, Milk Powder, Cocoa Mass, Cocoa Powder.

If you can shed some light on why these ingredients would taste like coffee, please do so.

I gave a stick to Yasu and he hated it. He couldn't be convinced into eating another. There is definitely something wrong with these Pocky. Hopefully along the way I can pick up some made in Japan Almond Crush for a comparison. The Japanese made Pocky couldn't be this bad.

I don't this would even suffice as a poor man's Pocky.

Watering Kissmint Cassis Gum

I've been meaning to review some Japanese gum for a while, because they have such interesting flavours that we don't. In Australia we are stuck with apple, berry, strawberry, and mint. I really don't like any of those flavours, I'm after something more interesting, especially as gum is something we tend to chew for a while.

I picked up this pack of Watering Kissmint at a Japanese Supermarket in the city. It was a choice between Cassis or Mascat. I really love Mascat flavours but I thought I would go out of my comfort zone and choose Cassis.

Australians I have to admit, are not very familiar with Cassis. I did some research on Wikipedia and it turns out Cassis is a species of Blackcurrant native to Europe and Asia. Well I've learnt something new!

The pack of gum has 8 flat sticks about 1.8 x 4.8cm, wrapped in silver foil with the logo on it. There is just enough wrapping to cover the stick, so it's not overly wrapped which is good.

As soon as I opened the box I could smell the Cassis. And yes, it does smell like blackcurrant. The pack says there is 3% Cassis juice.

At first bite the stick is like a piece of cardboard, kind of flat and hard, but it softens up on the fourth or fifth chew and releases a light tangy blackcurrant flavour. The flavour is a bit weak, sort of like a watered down cordial. The flavour doesn't really last long and gives over to a minty tang, which also doesn't last very long. After that the flavour is reminiscent of blackcurrant and mint but not much of either. It's like chewing a second-hand piece of gum really.

I can't say I really liked this. The flavour doesn't last very long at all, maybe 10 seconds if that. And the flavour did not impress me because it was too weak.

I wouldn't buy this again. I'm pretty disappointed. Maybe next time I'll pick up the Muscat and see if that is any different, though for $3.39 per pack of gum, It's a little bit steep.

Collon Cheesecake

I bought these at an oriental/Japanese grocer in the city for $3.99. As the box states that there are 6 servings inside, i thought it was a good buy.

When i opened up the packet though, i realised the packets were really small, so there was alot of air in the box, as opposed to collon.



My disbelief was even greater when i opened up one of the packets to find only 6 collon pieces! That means the total pieces of collon in one box is 36. Considering the box is quite big, probably 2 hand-spans long, that is such a great waste of packaging! Plus, i thought i was getting more than what i actually got, which is probably Glico's intention.



The collon themselves taste very much like the regular cream collon but with the slightest hint of lemon. If you weren't looking for it, these could pass for regular collon. A look on the back of the packet reveals that lemon juice powder is the 4th ingredient from the end, in a long list of ingredients. So that's why the flavour is not really noticeable i guess. After you eat all 6 pieces you only just start to build up the flavour a little.

I guess these would be good as lunch box treats or a little snack now and then, but holy moly, only 6 pieces in all that packaging? That is more deceptive than weight concious!!

My husband Yasu thinks these taste like "Japanese rare cheesecake". He said it was "lemony" so obviously it suits Japanese tastes, or expectations of what cheesecake tastes like. For westerners who are used to cheesecake being very rich and full flavouring, then this is definitely a let-down.