Morinaga Choco Flake

 こんばんは！

Cereal is one of my favorite things. I did not eat it for years for no particular reason and decided to pick up a box one day in college and the rest is history. With milk, dry as a snack, in yogurt...OK, I'm done. This little individual sized bag of Morinaga Choco Flake instantly appealed to my tastes (plus those Flakes with faces are adorable) and it was only $.99!

The bag is actually "pocket sized" according to the text. Japanese is full of onomatopoetic words such as gorogoro (the sound of rolling or thunder) and dokidoki (heart beating). The term sakusaku is often used for something crunchy or crispy.

Look at how cute the little Flake twins are when describing how delicious they taste!

 

The flakes were not what I expected. They are pretty much Corn Flakes with a thin layer of milk chocolate. It's hard to reconcile...the milk chocolate coating makes them unlike cereal and yet they are a bit too much like cereal for a snack. I even put some in milk after my initial taste and it was clear that was not how they were intended to be consumed. The flavor is not bad but the chocolate is rather mediocre. I would rather have a handful of Chex or Cocoa Puffs!

Tohato Habanero Spicy Pizza Potato Sticks

こんばんは！

I picked up this bag of Tohato Habanero Spicy Pizza Potato Sticks on my last trip to Mistuwa for $2.69. How is one not charmed by the angry demon pepper or the promise of habanero pizza?

I appreciate the spice scale on the front of the bag. I'll warn you right away that it is inaccurate. I really do love the bag's design. The Italian colors and pepper make it fun!

Demon pepper makes another appearance on the back of the bag talking about the spiciness and deliciousness of what is inside. I like how emphasizes the pizza aspect with the tray and soda. Classy, demon pepper, very classy.

The bag has a fair amount of product. However, the snack itself was less than impressive. The sticks tasted oily and only after consuming a few did I get a semblance of spice. The spice scale should have been zero. The pizza part was barely there with a slight cheesy flavor. I would probably be happy to try another flavor before I write off this line of snacks from Tohato.

Morinaga Hi-Soft Caramel

 こんばんはみんなさん！

Apologies for long time between posts! I've started a new job and catching up with my friends and family whom I've neglected with crazy operations hours for the past few years. Also, I misplaced my camera's memory card and just realized that technology is amazing and I can upload photos from the internal memory with a cord instead. Back to business as usual!

I recently went to Mitsuwa in Edgewater, NJ, and picked up some fun new items! I've have Morinaga caramels in the past but they were fruity. In all honesty, I bought them because I was young and thought the Hamtaro cell phone charm that came as a prize was adorable and of course I needed to collect all 12 of them. In any case, I figured it was time to give a true Morinaga caramel a whirl.

This box is incredible. I know you may be thinking I'm nuts but my other passion is vintage travel anything (posters, luggage, extinct airline memorbilia) and this color scheme and design is EXACTLY on point.

The back of the inner carton is covered in cute sketches of French themed items. How adorable!

There are a dozen little bricks of caramel in the package. I appreciate the actual box and it makes it easy to through in a purse or bag and share with others. The travel palette continues to the wrappers with the simple silver, red and blue. I cannot mention enough what great design this is!

The caramel is chewy and rich. It has a nice sweet milky flavor. I'm no caramel expert but I did like Glico's version a bit better, they were a tad bit softer and easier to chew. I would definately buy these again if Glico's were unavailable or try different varieties.

Meiji Lucky Stick Cappuccino

こんにちは！

My initial foray into Japanese snacks, like most, consisted of your typical Pocky, Ramune soda and Hi-Chew candy assortment. I always viewed Meiji's Lucky Sticks to be a knock off of Glico's Pocky and so I was rarely tempted to try it. My husband actually picked this out on our last Mitsuwa trip. Cappuccino is not usually my flavor of choice but if I'm going to go for a treat I have been hesitant about in the past, why not go all the way?

The box immediately makes me uneasy as it is all in English aside from the katakana below the logo that reads simply "Lucky Stick". The design on the box is pleasant, English aside. It gives a nice view of the treat and a lovely looking cup of cappuccino.

When opening the bag, I was immediately reminded of a coffee shop. This smelled exactly like a store in my local mall that ground coffee fresh for customers and brewed a mean specialty cup of joe. Isn't it weird how a smell can conjure such specific memories?

Anyway, the biscuit itself was relatively flavorless (as most biscuits in products like this tend to be). The chocolate was creamy and tasted sweet and coffee-like. It was actually pretty good quality and filled with flavor. I would like to try some other varieties of Lucky Stick in the future. This particular flavor did not edge out over Pocky but it was surprisingly close!

Kabaya Quattro Choco Biscuit

こんばんは みんさん！

Thank you for dealing with me during this few week delay! I'm in the midst of changing jobs and have been working for 3 weeks straight between the old and new. It's exciting and very scary and a Japanese treat or two have certainly eased the stress meanwhile.

Today we have a treat from my beloved Mitsuwa Marketplace. This was featured on sale on an end cap during my latest sojourn. It was priced at $2.50.

My experience with Kabaya treats have tended to be along the lines of,  "great idea! poor quality!" and so I was equally excited and nervous to try Quattro. The box is not particularly eye-catching but I suppose it is trying to go for a more mature audience.

The box contains 6 individually wrapped biscuits which is a terrible deal and an even worse one when not on sale! However, this sort of excessive packaging always reminds me of why I love Japanese treats and the pride taken in making sure each individual product is presented well to the recipient.

 

The snack is called Quattro as it contain 4 layers. The biscuit supports a white chocolate layer filled with "thick chocolate sauce" topped by a "bitter" chocolate. Fancy! The complete treat is certainly well done if not remarkable. The biscuit is crunchy, the sauce gooey and the remaining chocolate to standards. However, there is nothing so delicious or distinct to set this apart from the many other variations of biscuit and chocolate.

Meiji Suppai Lemon Gum

 おはようございます！

You might be thinking I picked this up because of the Meiji brand name but it's actually a different Meiji than the beloved chocolate company! If your second thought was that the lemon gumballs with faces were incredibly alluring- you would be correct. I picked these up at Mitsuwa for only $.89.

The package claims to be a sour lemon gum ball- and they were not lying. What you see on the package is exactly what you get (though without fun faces). I've never seen gum packaged so nicely! It's a little bit more fun to try a product that is packaged with care.

 

These gumballs were extremely sour. I like sour things, Warheads were my favorite candy as a kid, but these were intense. At first there was a normal level of sour, followed a few seconds later but a burst of almost-had-to-spit-it-out sour which then evened out into a slightly sour and less flavorful chew. I didn't dislike these but I don't think I would purchase them with any frequency. If you love sour candies than you will be very satisfied!

Kabaya Delicia Chocolate Strawberry Biscuit

 こんばんは！

There seems to be a great variety of chocolate-with-biscuit styled Japanese treats. I have tried a few in the past and I am bound to try some more. The idea is great- similar treats a la "Le Petit Ecolier" are extremely delicious. I believe it was my husband who snuck this particular chocolate-with-biscuit snack into our basket at Mitsuwa.

The packaging design is pleasant if uneventful. I'm sure the feel of the words are lost in translation but the biscuits claim to be a dichotomy of "airy and thick". 

 

While there are not a lot of treats in the box (8 to be exact) this style of packaging is my favorite. I am fully convinced that good packaging predisposes me to enjoying the product. The box opens to reveal a small bit of text about the biscuits and the individually wraps treats inside.

 

I love this shot...the actual treat compared to those great diagrams the Japanese seem to put on nearly every snack. The top layer is milk chocolate followed by a strawberry sauce infused whipped cream chocolate. The biscuit is, of course, a biscuit.

The whole treat was surprisingly good! While I usually don't prefer white chocolate, the "whipped cream chocolate" had a delicious vanilla and cream flavor. The biscuit was hearty and sweet and kept up well with the heavy chocolate. I almost appreciated the parts over the whole but everything combined well. While I have not seen other Delicia flavors, I would consider buying these again in the future.