There are a surprising number of candies that carry the Hello Kitty brand. I found these adorable little plastic barrels of compressed sugar candies in a Sanrio store next to Sanrio gum, lollipops, and hard candies. Each barrel was $0.75, and they came in Hello Kitty (peach), Badtz Maru (cola), and Pandapple (apple).
The candies themselves were little tablets that were similar to Tart N Tinies in shape and size. They were made from a compressed sugar that was fairly soft, like the core of a Smartie after you nibble away the outside rim (everyone eats their Smarties that way, right?). The peach was a faint pink, the apple a pale yellow/green, and the cola a soft light brown.
The Hello Kitty peach flavor was lightly floral and completely different from that of a peach flavored Jolly Rancher. Though it still didn’t taste exactly like a real peach, it was also far from artificial tasting. I would call it reminiscent of the flavor of a peach Asian gelatin candy (you may be more familiar with the lychee jelly version, but they do come in peach as well). The Badz Maru had a dark cola taste that was almost fizzy, and the Pandapple candies had a lightly sweet apple taste that was more like a Fuji than a Granny Smith.
These compressed sugar candies get an OM from me. I found them to be tasty, addictive, and cutely packaged. My only wish is that the little barrels were resealable (they have little pop top pull tabs, like canned sodas do abroad), but I think a packaging change would probably drive up the price.
Varsha