Chances are most people who have seen the Asian section in a local supermarket know what Hello Panda is. It's one of the most recognizable snacks, along with Pocky, Hi-Chew, etc. And normally being the curious puppy I am, I like to try the more unique things Japanese snacks have to offer but when I saw at my Japanese market that they made these in matcha flavor I had to try. While I haven't reviewed anything green tea flavored yet, I love this flavor! Whenever I'm baking in the den I always throw some matcha powder into my treats.
Well the box certainly misled me! I was expecting cute panda designs on the cookies, instead I get brown smush on ordinary looking green cookies. Probably got rattled up too much At least the top one is in fact a panda shape - I was even more confused when I pulled out the bottom one first and it was just a generic oval.. Smelling these, they have much more of a cookie smell than a green tea smell, but that's alright because the creme is inside the cookies.
Tasting it gave me an exact correlation with the smell. The green tea flavor definitely isn't as dominant as I'd like or expect, but it's certainly there. If anything I get more of a butter flavor from these cookies. I think this is common of Hello Panda but I'd like that to be toned down a bit for the green tea flavor to shine. I get that these are supposed to be more mainstream Japanese snacks, but there's nothing wrong with letting matcha do it's thing.
The texture is moderately crunchy as expected and to my pleasant surprise there is an ample amount of cream in the cookies. Sometimes they show tons of cream on the package and don't follow up. But it's a good balance. There's also a good amount of cookies in here for the $1 I paid, so it's a good value. Just don't be afraid to let your star flavor shine on it's own, okay Meiji?
Rating: 5 - Ruff!
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