Ginbis Yogurt Ginza Rusk

Ginbis, my old friend. Haven't had anything from you for a while. The strawberry ginza rusk from a few boxes back was a nice treat, and this time for the summer I have this cooling yogurt flavor. Sounds just perfect! And now that I know what rusk is from the other rusk snack in this box, I'll have a better understanding and appreciation for the texture. Already the cream drizzling onto the toast cubes on the package looks so tantalizing. And it has lactic acid to help with digestion!

The first thing I notice about these is they seem to have a slightly squishier texture than the other ginza rusk. Not by much, but I definitely noticed it pulling these out of the bag, there's just a bit more give to these and they feel denser than the other one. The yogurt flavor is very nice too, more on the tangy side, exemplified by the herb shown on the bowl of yogurt in the package.

Though the first thing I notice eating this is that it does in fact have a nice bit of sweetness. And then after that I still get the more tangy aftertaste. It almost does seem like an herb or something, but I really can't tell too much myself. This makes it a very well balanced yogurt flavor: yogurt has both sweet and savory applications and this seems to highlight them both together. The texture as I expected is also crunchy, but less so than similar snacks. It feels like there's some moisture in this as well, and since this is yogurt flavored, that blends quite well. It has this nice creamy consistency going down too, like that extra bit of moisture in it helps the whole thing melt in your mouth.

If I had any complaint with this it's that it's too one-note. Yogurt is great but I feel like it needs another flavor, it would be great alongside strawberry or blueberry. Maybe blueberry since that's rarely seen in Japanese snacks. Still though, very solid snack and the extra digestive benefits are well appreciated for my next feast!

Rating: 7 - Aroof!

Ginbis Shimichoco Corn - Milky Red Bean

My stomach is growling more than I ever do right now, and of course because of that I grab the largest, most appetizing, filling snack I can find in the TokyoTreat box - this one! I know shimichoco corn has had a really nice texture and flavor, with a puffed corn base on the inside and icing on the outside, and I hope this red bean flavor will take it up another notch. I love red bean normally, and combined with the milky white chocolate flavor? It seems like it's set up for success with this type of combination, and the image on the bag of red beans drowned in milk looks tantalizing.

The corn itself takes on the white color of the milk more than the red bean, but you can see the red bean in there through red flecks mostly on the tips of the stars. The smell however seems to be an even distribution of milk and red bean, the red bean adding some earthiness and substance, and the milk adding creaminess and richness. They seem to go well together.

Biting into it, I once again experience the nice texture of the shimichoco corn, with the the inner corn part providing some real substance, and adding a new flavor to what I smelled before that works quite well, in this case the starchy base. This snack seems to have everything going for it: sweetness, earthiness, richness, a bit of fruitiness actually that I wouldn't expect from having the red bean in here. There's also some grittiness that the dust on the surface adds to it that I'm really enjoying.

In fact, it's hard to write this review because I can't stop eating this. There's so much depth of flavor and a ton of sensations that I'm getting here, and it's a really satisfying bite all the way through. I may have developed some self control from some of my canine brethren but I'm losing all of it here, because this is too good. Maybe I'll need to go out and hunt for more!

Rating: 10 - AWOOOOOOO!!!

Ginbis Ginza Rusk Strawberry

First up in the TokyoTreat box we have Ginza Rusk, which according to the guide is a two-textured snack - wafer on the outside and soft filling on the inside. And it's by Ginbis, who has brought some nice wafer treats this far. This with pure strawberry could get my tail wagging!

Strawberry treats always deliver a strong sensation to my sniffer, and this one delivered it in spades. Such a pleasant aroma putting me in a daze! It's on the sweet side of strawberry smells, kind of smells like strawberry cheesecake, and the lighter color on the cookies also shows that. The cookies also have a pretty nice looking texture, lots of holes promising a light airy taste that should perfectly complement the strawberry flavor.

Ginbis Big Bar Z Milk

A familiar face showed up in this month's Japan Crate, another Big Bar Z! And this one is milk flavored, which could be very interesting. According to the description, the milk flavor is emulated by white chocolate, which of course isn't milk, but seems like it could be a noble attempt. I guess I'll see how it stacks up to the normal Big Bar Z, which was a chocolate puffed corn bar covered in a layer of chocolate icing.

Surprisingly this one isn't star shaped, but instead like an umaibo, a cylinder with a hole in the middle of it. And it does very well capture a milk flavor, at least in the smell. I can definitely tell it's white chocolate, but in this case whatever they did made the white chocolate emulate milk quite well. I ain't no feline, but I'm still very much itching to try this and see how this smell stacks up with the texture.

All in all? It works very well. I was worried the puffed corn flavor would clash with the milk flavor but it doesn't, I guess in this case the taste is a bit reminiscent of Corn Pops with milk. All that in the form of a bar! It has a good amount of crunch too to make the flavor seem satisfying, but not so much that it becomes a drag to eat. Unlike it' chocolate sibling, it doesn't have as much icing, which actually works in its favor because it doesn't feel like a tasty outer filling vs a not so much tasty inside. Everything blends together more. The flavor gets ever so slightly stale as I eat more of it, but that's more of a minor nitpick because I can't be satisfied with just milk like those pesky meowers are. But overall, very good job Ginbis! I thought I had tasted all they had to offer, but I was wrong.

Rating: 8 - Rowf!

Ginbis Big Bar Z

I pretty much picked this up for no other reason besides it being a bargain bin item at 59 cents... yup. But hey, I've had some good luck with Japanese crispy chocolates before so maybe this will be good. And as it is the big bar, there is a lot of it, yum... I believe this is also made by Ginbis, the same company that made the shimichoco corn that I was impressed with. I'm hopeful my impulse bargain purchase turned out well.

Ginbis Christmas Shimichoco Corn

The December Japan Crate, included not one, but two puffed corn, and with this one we have chocolate corn! I've been told these ones are chocolate corn puffs that are then also covered in chocolate icing. Double chocolate? Yum! Sticking true to my name, I love me some chocolate, so I'm excited to try these. They also come in star shapes as evidenced by the smiling rainbow star on the bag.