Lotte’s Crunky Nude Ball is the most hilariously named of the Korean candies that Nana and Justin sent me. Here’s Nana’s description: “Bought just for the name…Crunky is a Korean Nestle Crunch rice chocolate; here the puffed rice is on the outside.”
Like the Pepero, it’s “nude”, meaning inside out. That means this review is safe to read at work (just in case you were nervous)!
They came packaged in a plastic barrel with a flip-top, which was quite fun. Each ball was about the size of a grape and covered in tiny rice crisps. When I say covered, I do mean covered. There’s very little chocolate that showed through on the surface area of the ball.
The rice crisps were nuttier than I expected. I wonder if they were brown rice crisps? They tasted almost like cornflakes or sesame seeds. The rice crisps were also found within each ball.
The chocolate was thick with dusky hints of malt. The texture paired well with the airy puffs of rice. The sesame/cornflake notes were a different taste experience. I’m not sure exactly how much I appreciated the flavor pairing, but the texture and delivery of the chocolate treats were quite fun.
I give these an OM. I bet they’d be even better with cookie bits or more normal-tasting rice puffs.
Varsha