ZOMG, Candy!

I got a set of five Meiji Mini Candies from my friend Michael, who is originally from Japan. I’m still looking for a place where I can buy them in the states.

Let’s go left to right and top to bottom, starting with the chocolate sugar-shelled candies (possibly called Marble Chocolate?). These were slightly thicker than M&Ms. Either the chocolate had a slightly fruity finish, or the shells were flavored. They were agreeable enough and get an OM.

The next three were variation on a theme, lemon, yogurt (?), and strawberry. I love the little character thingies in the corner. Japan does ridiculously cute so well! These were all little spheroids with sugar shells around a sugary flavored centers.

Strawberry was lightly pastel pink. It tasted bright, with a slightly sour strawberry preserve taste. It was so genuine that I wouldn’t be surprised if I found seeds inside. OM.

Lemon was yellow and tasted bright, tart, and effervescent, like a candy version of lemon zest. OMG.

Yogurt (I think) was white and had a little blue alien instead of a lemon or strawberry head. It had a sour tinge to it and reminds me of those little yogurt jugs you can get in Asia. The Chinese name for them literally translates into “sour milk”. Not for me, but a pretty genuine representation of what they were going for. O.

I was all sad that I had lost my Poifull notes. Then I realized that I didn’t lose them; I’d just already reviewed them here. If you’re too lazy to click over, they got an OMG.

I would buy the whole assortment just for the lemon sugar thingies and the Poifull. Of course, ideally I could just buy the lemon sugar thingies and the Poifull on their own, but hey, variety is the spice of life.

I received my box of Poifull from my friend Michael who bought them for me in Japan in a set of assorted mini boxes. I’ve never seen these guys in my local Asian supermarkets, but I’m definitely going to start looking for them now.

As you can see from the photo, they’re look like jelly beans or Mike and Ikes. And they sort of are, as they have a hard sugar shell with a jelly innard. But the insides of the Poifull were much bouncier than those of jelly beans. I wouldn’t be surprised if they squeaked between my teeth. The nexture was almost rubbery, which you may think would be unpleasant, but that wasn’t the case.

Poifull come in four colors and flavors. Purple was grape and tasted like a red grape. Pink was apple, in the sweet Fuji way as opposed to the sour Granny Smith way. Yellow was pineapple, which carried a wonderful acidic tang, and green was muscat, which is a kind of grape. Its flavor was noticeably different from the purple grape. The concept of Poifull was simple yet well executed, with vibrant fruit flavors that carried a wonderfully bright tang, earning them an OMG from me. My tiny box quickly disappeared, and while fruity/sour Jelly Bellies may make a good substitute until I can find more Poifulls, they just don’t bounce against your teeth like the Poifull do.

More Japanese candy fun thanks to my friend Michael, this time in the form of Gummi Sushi. The Japanese are quite good at coming up with cute things (Hello Kitty much?) and clever things, and they certainly haven’t skimped on cuteness and cleverness in their gummis. Better yet, unlike the gummi hamburgers or pizzas that you can find at most party stores,the Gummi Sushi actually tasted good.

I like the cartoony sushi chef guy on the packaging and the clearly illustrated instructions on how to eat sushi gummies. Just in case you couldn’t figure it out for yourself. And I liked the little pictures of fruit - an apple, a cantaloupe melon, and a strawberry - on the bottom to help those of us who love Japanese candy but can’t actually read Japanese.

The gummies themselves are sealed inside a second bag and arrayed on a plastic tray so you can marvel at the cuteness of the gummi shrimp and rice and things. The gummis are sweet and fruity smelling, with a scent that reminds me of those little lychee gelatin pots.

The gummis are very soft (a case of good double-bagging!) and slightly greasy to the touch. And they’re so cute! Red is strawberry, white is apple, and orange is cantaloupe. While the apple and strawberry go well together, the melon flavor of the cantaloupe is so strong that it’s not so good for pairing. A sweet concept with a sweet and tasty execution earns these an OMG.

Part II of II of the Meiji Chocolate tasting (courtesy of my worldly friend Michael) that started on Monday. Today, we shall begin with the somewhat incongruously named Black Chocolate.

Why incongruous, you ask? Because for a bar that’s named BLACK in giant letters, this one isn’t very dark in taste or appearance, though it did have a nice snap to it. You can see the coloring for yourself below. It’s definitely brown, not black, and it’s not even a very dark brown at that.

This “dark” bar had a nicely smooth melt, but that’s less of an accomplishment when your cacao percentage isn’t that high. It also tasted quite sweet, for too sweet for a dark bar. I found its finish to be fruity; berries, perhaps? Overall, an OM. As chocolate, it’s not that bad, but it’s also not that great. As a dark chocolate bar, it should hang its head in shame.

The Meiji Rich Matcha bar was another bar where the color is worth noting. Matcha is a green tea used in Japanese tea ceremonies and is also used as a flavoring for lots of Japanese foods. The wrapper is an iridescent green and is sort of pretty, in a cheaply flashy way.

The chocolate bar itself, not so much. Instead of being a bright, fresh, spring-timey green, it’s the color of pea soup. While I’m unsure as to how appetizing bright green chocolate would look, I can tell you that G.I. Joe green chocolate is not appetizing. Especially when it smells and tastes like flowers.

I don’t know if matcha is supposed to taste like flowers, but Meiji’s Rich Matcha bar had a strong floral scent and a sweet floral flavor with a slightly bitter finish that lingers a bit, almost imperceptibly. I’d wear that lovely floral scent as a perfume, but I didn’t like eating it in my chocolate. This bar was really not for me and gets an O. You can read Terry’s take on it here; he didn’t much care for it either.

My friend Michael brought me a ton of candies from Japan, including four Meiji chocolate bars. I shall review two today and two on Wednesday, making them parts N and N+1 in my Asian candies series (sorta forgot to keep counting on that one). First up is Meiji Hi Milk.

Like all the Meiji bars (I think; my notes are annoyingly ambiguous on that, so I may be misremembering), the Meiji Hi Milk came sealed in a thin foil wrapper that did a wonderful job of keeping it fresh. It had been sitting in the bottom of my desk for several months but tasted great. If only individual wrappers didn’t come with the sustainability guilt trip.

The chocolate itself had a crisp and clean snap. It smelled thick and creamy, and it tasted that way too. The middle of the flavor profile was incredibly sweet, with the buttery caramel tones that I’ve come to associate with Asian milk chocolate. Far better than any Hershey’s bar, this deserves an OMG.

Meiji also makes a Milk Chocolate bar that, as far as I can tell, is slightly darker than the Hi Milk but is still mighty milky.

The Milk Chocolate is a slightly darker shade of brown than the Hi Milk, and if you look closely, you can see that the Meiji imprint is sharper on the Milk than the Hi Milk, which is why I’m pretty sure the Milk Chocolate bar has a higher cacao percentage.

Despite the fact that I think it has more cacao, the Milk bar tasted sweeter to me. It was also much fruitier, with a great cocoa finish. And, like the Hi Milk, it was rich and thick and creamy. Also an OMG, though it’s not as indulgent as the Hi Milk. My like of these two sweet and creamy milk chocolate bars is part of what got me wondering if I’ve developed a greater tolerance for sweetness, by the way.

Here’s a more tempered review from Mariko at Candy Addict. Try to stop yourself before you get to the Black review; that one’s posting on Wednesday.

I got a box of Meiji Porte Hokkaido Milk candies (available from Amazon or J-list) along with several other Japanese candies courtesy of my friend Michael. They were so delicious that I immediately thanked him for bringing them into my life.

I would call these candies vanilla creme over a light chocolate cookie with a thin chocolate shell, all dusted in cocoa powder. J-List describes them as “a Hershey’s Kiss shaped snack that is filled with a finely whipped white milk chocolate and covered with a delicious chocolate, with a air-infused layer of chocolate on the bottom and powdered with cocoa powder.”

The vanilla layer is sort of weirdly textured. It’s not creamy or foamy, but it does melt on the tongue. That must be the “finely whipped” part. It tastes of fresh, sweet cream. The chocolate cookie layer is super airy and crunchy. I loved it, but my roommate thought it a bit stale. The cocoa power that dusts the outside is sweet, not bitter like I expected.

My box had 12 individually wrapped candies inside. I shared a few and ate the rest, and I wish there were more. The deliciate flavors and the great textural combination earns these an OMG.

I am Asian, so you will be reading about a lot of Asian candy. Consider this part I of an open-ended series.

Lotte Cafe Coffee chewing gum

This gum tasted like weak coffee with too much sugar and cream. The flavor didn’t last very long, and once it was gone, the gum took on an unpleasant taste and texture. I was not a fan, but my mother, who likes her coffee weak with lots of sugar and cream, loved it. Go figure.

Meiji Apollo strawberry/chocolate thingies BUY

These little cones are adorable and delicious. It may be hard to tell from the picture, but they’re about the size of a peanut, sans shell. The pink top is strawberry (I think it may be flavored white chocolate), while the brown bottom is milk chocolate. The texture is wonderfully creamy, and the sweet strawberries ‘n’ cream smell is incredible. I’m a dark chocolate lover and usually find milk and white chocolate to be too sweet for my taste. These candies are on the sweet side, but I don’t find them offensive or cloying at all. Interestingly enough, they may be named after NASA’s Apollo command module.

Ramune Soda Fizzy Candy BUY

I polished these guys off at the restaurant, so I apologize for the poor photo from Amazon.com. The candies are snow white in color and look kind of like pills. Size-wise, they’re like fat Tart N Tinys. Taste-wise, they taste like Ramune soda, which can be found at any Asian grocery store. Ramune soda bottles have a very distinct shape. The bottles are stoppered with marbles. To open the soda, you break the seal and push the marble into the bottle’s uniquely shaped neck, where it rattles around while you drink the soda. The fizzy candy makers have tried to emulate the bottle’s shape with their plastic container, a design note that I appreciate.

Ramune soda (and, by correlation, ramune soda candy) is supposed to be lemonade flavored. I find the taste to be more of a generically crisp citrus flavor, which is quite enjoyable, if unremarkable. The fizzy part of the candies is far less noticeable than that of the Jones Soda candies, but the Ramunes taste much better and have no lingering aftertaste. The citrus flavor isn’t that strong, but it doesn’t have to compete with an overpoweringly sweet sugar flavor, so the citrus really comes through. The compressed sugar Ramunes are also slightly softer than the Jones candies, somewhere between a Sweet Tart and a Smartie.

I would definitely buy the Apollo candies again, and the Ramune candies are maybe worth another taste in the future. As for the coffee gum, I’ve given the rest of the pack to my mother. Good riddance.

Edit 09/05: The Apollo strawberry candies are worth a ZOMG!, the Ramune candies an OM, and the gum just an O.