Marukawa Kirby Mix 'n Match Gum

Even though I've gone through the anime snack box, this is Japan, so there's always more on the horizon! Or at my local Japanese market. This one is equal parts cute and iconic being Kirby, and what better way to celebrate a character that can copy so many powers by swallowing them with this gum having many different flavors and combinations? Since Kirby swallows so many enemies to do this, it'll maybe make me feel like I'm doing the same, except the powers I'd get from these... wouldn't be all that interesting.

There are a total of five flavors here, which are yogurt, soda (ramune), orange, apple, and the ever-enigmatic prank gum. That last one in particular scares me, what could it be? The combinations add another layer to this, where I can get flavors like... an orange apple hybrid? Intetive. Also lemonade, apple cider, milk tea, ice cream float, and cola. The last type of mix 'n match snack I had actually delivered on its wacky mixing promises, so maybe I'll get just those flavors here too.

The five colors in here I believe are the gray mystery gum, orange... orange, light blue ramune, red apple, and white yogurt. I don't get any smell from them individually, but sniffing the bag I get a whole cornucopia of flavors, but this is gum, so that means it's likely the slow-release variety.

First up, the orange. It has a crunchy sweet coating, which means it probably won't last long, but that's fine here considering there's so many of them in this bag. It's a very bright sweet orange flavor, like an Orange Julius, which is quite nice. It also lasts a bit longer than I expected it to. Not long by gum standards, but with that size and sweet coating, a nice surprise. The apple flavor though, I am taken aback by even more because it tastes possibly the most natural of any apple flavor I've ever had. It brings me back to fall with the ripe apples, apple cider, candy apples available, mmm... And still plenty of sweetness bursting out from it. The ramune one is pretty standard ramune fare, and a less strong flavor than the other gums but still decently strong. The yogurt one is a surprise if only for how accurate it was. I was expecting something milky, but it's very tangy and just like some of the most concentrated yogurt out there. The mystery gum though... at first it seems like a grape flavor, but as time goes on it gets more bitter and has a terrible aftertaste, so I think this definitely leans more on the prank side than the mystery side.

Now for the fun part, the combinations! The first one, apple and orange, doesn't seem like much of a combination, as initially I get a lot of orange and then it transitions to strong apple. For lemonade, surprisingly I do get a bit of a lemonade vibe. The orange and ramune together create sort of a light sweet and sour mix that is reminiscent of it, even if it doesn't actually taste like lemon. Apple cider though... doesn't taste like too umch. The ice cream float one is quite nice, and really does bring that milky, refreshing mix to mind. The last two don't really resemble their flavors at all, but the mix is nice. So these combinations are a bit less accurate than the other mix 'n match, but still interesting nonetheless. Do I dare combine the prank flavor with anything? Maybe later when my tastebuds can handle it...



Rating: 8 - Rowf!