Kabaya Apple & Mango Gumi カバヤアップル&マンゴーグミ

This is the last bag of sweets from a carepack from a friend in Tokyo, M.


It's a bag of individually wrapped gumi candy. There were 13 in the pack, 7 apple and 6 mango.

The pack smelled wonderful inside, so fruity and fresh. The gumi are so soft and smooth and have a texture of being almost wet.

They are really like eating jelly, much softer than any other gumi I've had. The mango did not have a strong flavour, it was much weaker than I expected, though in the middle the familiar mango flavour was present. The apple tasted like a nice juicy red apple, it was sweet but also had a sourness at the end.

These gumi were really enjoyable, the flavours were nice but not profound. I enjoyed serving these up to guests and Yasu really like the mango even though he's never been a fan of the fruit itself.

Brand: Kabaya Calories per bag: 216 Buy it now at Daiso

Lotte Plus X Mango Mint Gum プラスエックスガム マンゴーミント味

Wow, two posts in two days, am I on a roll or what?

Plus X is pretty much the same format as the Lotte Xylitol Gum. It's the same small chiclets, and the same super bright gum.

In this case though, the flavour is tropical. Mango Mint to be exact. Not totally out there as far as gum goes. It could be a flavour in Australia or America, not some oddball creation we know they can usually come up with in Japan!

I had no trepidation about trying this flavour, in fact I thought it might be a little mundane. The colour of the gum was anything but mundane - very bright orange in colour.

This gum, like the Lotte Xylitol gum, has xylitol in it so it so it's sweet without sugar. Supposedly better for you too. There are 14 individually wrapped chiclets, and the pack is worth 37 calories.

The taste is very tropical. The first bite tastes like a mixture of tropical fruits, and then it blends seamlessly into a full mango flavour and then again a blend of mint comes in with the mango. But the mint part of this gum is not very strong, it's more mango than mint.

I was surprised that the mango and mint is still around and it's been more than 5 minutes. Mind you, it's not as full flavoured as it was at the beginning but that's because I have probably gotten used to it.

When you're on a diet, getting used to sugar-free, xylitol and sweetener infused products is hard at first, but then you get used to it. I'm now at the point where I can say I actually like this gum. Before, the sweetness would have been too fake, and too bland. It's not as sweet as other Japanese gums I have tried, so if you like your gum on the sweeter side (for example Juicy Fruit) then this gum is probably not going to be for you.

On the otherhand, if you're looking for a good option to have that's not going to stack up the calories, then this would be ideal.

Brand: Lotte Calories per pack: 37 Website: http://www.lotte.co.jp

Country Ma'am Mango Pudding Chocochip Cookies カントリーマアムマンゴープリン

I bought these on a last minute shopping trip to Seria in Hokkaido. I bought them primarily as souvenirs; in my family food seems to go down much better as a gift than a scroll.

105 yen seemed like a good price for a pack of 5 individually wrapped cookies. I bought too many though, and have now ended up with a few left over, hence this review.



I'm not a diehard mango fan, but I do like the flavour. I love white chocolate though, so the two combined, in my mind, seemed like a good match.

The flavour is actually mango pudding, and the bag states that apple mangoes were used. The cross-section of the cookie on the image shows 2 rather large white choco chips.

The cookies themselves are small and round, about 3cm diameter. There is a sweet smell of mango, and the colour is a light orange. I found one small white choco chip in my cookie, but maybe I got the runt of the litter.


The cookie is soft in the middle with what tastes and feels like mango puree. The flavour is light, not too sweet, and the texture of the cookie is a little bit hard on the outside but soft and smooth in the middle.

The chocolate chips really don't add much to the flavour, the mango is the star here. I don't mind that though. I thought this cookie was really well done. It's a nice little treat to serve with afternoon tea, or as a small snack after dinner. It's got a hint of sweetness that is just right. I really like the lightness of the mango flavour, and I'm sure this is very close to the real mango pudding.

Luckily I have two more packets of these to chow down on, but I would definitely buy them again, if I'm not sick of them in 14 cookies time.

Morinaga Mango Milk Kyorochan Cake マンゴーミルクケーキ

When I was in Japan a month ago, I began to see Kyorochan - of Chocoball fame - gracing the shelves in the form of cookies and cakes. The cookies and cakes all had one flavour - Mango Milk.

One box will set you back 158 yen, or about $1.50. I viewed the cake as more of a dessert treat than the cookie, so bought the box of cakes.

The box states キョロちゃんが作った, meaning that the cakes were made by Kyorochan. I guess it's another ploy to rope kids into getting their mum's to buy a box!

In true Japanese style, this box contains 6 individually wrapped mini cakes. They are round like cookies but are made from chocolate sponge cake, with a mango milk cream filling.


The cakes really are quite small, but great for portion control. They smell really nice, the mango filling is the most prominent scent when opening the pack. The chocolate sponge is so soft that it crumbles when picked up, you really have to be careful when holding it, and not press too hard.


The chocolate sponge is somewhat bland, there is no real 'chocolate' flavour present, but this is ok for me as I don't like strong chocolate tastes. I really like the soft texture of the sponge though, despite the crumbly texture.



The cream is whipped, like a mousse, so it's very light and fluffy. The taste is really strongly mango, and I think the milk component is in the whip texture because it gives it some creaminess on the end notes.

In all, I really liked these cakes. They are great little snacks for lunchboxes and for on the go, light, and well priced. :)

Mango Pudding Kit Kat マンゴプリンキットカット

This flavour was released singularly or in a bag of mini's.

There is a mark on the packet that says these are better to eat when they have been refridgerated, but as it is winter here now, the weather is already quite cold so I think it should be ok.

The chocolate is a very fake orange colour, looks like the cheese in a McDonald's hamburger to me. The smell that is wafting up is very strong and does have a very true scent of mango, but with some chemical undertones.
The first bite into this reminded me of pineapple and a very sour taste at the back of my mouth. There are parts of it that taste mango, and at other times also a coconut flavour, mostly in the cream between the wafers.

I like mango as a fruit, but I'm not a fan of it in this Kit Kat. It just tastes too much of other non-related flavours and chemicals, and less like a fruit. I found this made me really thirsty, and the endnotes were very sweet.