Meiji Takenoko no Sato Cookies & Cream

 

This is definitely one of the things I was looking forward to in this box, because I loved the original Takenoko no Sato. It's one of those snacks that nails every avenue, with it's nice rich semi sweet chocolate flavor with a nice sweet crunchy biscuit backing it on the inside. And this one steps it up a notch with a cookies & cream flavor! It's also a limited edition flavor, so this won't always be around sadly.

One of the things I didn't catch from the box is this actually seems to be the reverse of the snack I had earlier! There's chocolate biscuit on the inside this time and vanilla with cookies coating on the outside. I quite like this variation in textures from an idea standpoint. The smell is also absolutely tantalizing, it smells like an Oreo except the cream filling is even more pronounced than normal, being on the outside.

To my surprise, the coating is even softer than expected. My teeth slice right through the vanilla frosting, and it's incredibly creamy, having somewhat of a milky taste to it. The chocolate inside too is surprisingly soft, not as soft as the outside, but I quite like it. This means the whole thing really gels together and blends into cookies & cream goodness. One of my favorite textural touches in this is how the top point of this is entirely frosting so there's one bit of really soft cream that makes the whole thing just that more enjoyable to eat.

Just like an Oreo though neither of these components is exceptionally great alone (yes I'm looking at you cream-lickers), but together they form something really special. The creamy frosting would be too sweet and one note if not backed by the less sweet chocolate filling. The only thing holding this snack back is like the other one, the dryness of it. But the flavor combination is incredible, as is the texture variety, and it's so great that I think I can give it a perfect mark. Oreo could certainly learn a lesson here!

Rating; 10 - AWOOOOOOO!!!

DIY Candy Apples

I've tried one variant of carnival food with the chocolate banana, why not another one? This one is a particular favorite of mine: something about candy coating mixed with apples makes the vibrant sweetness of apples even more pronounced. And this one has all the fun of being a DIY kit!

I was surprised in this one to see that the candy coating was not a powder, instead a very thick liquid in a packet. Not that I'm complaining, let's me get to the eating that much quicker! The apple candies in here absolutely explode with delicious apple smell, and while likely artificial it's got that richness to it that I'd expect from a real apple, with all the candy sweetness. The candies are a bit thicker than I expected, only changing in shape with a little force, but all the better to stick a toothpick in. From what I licked off the packet, the candy has a very nice sweet taste.

The whole process of putting a candy apple together is quite seamless. The candy coating sticks easily, and the sprinkles stick to that in turn with no mess. The taste of these is absolutely divine. The apple candy is everything I'd want flavor and texture wise, with sweet and rich apple flavors, but not overpowering or too much richness, and the candy aids in making it even sweeter, but more importantly supplying some liquid texture that these would desperately need otherwise. And lastly the sprinkles make it crunchy and soooo satisfying to eat. Everything is so perfectly balanced that I couldn't stop eating these, and I think given infinite amount of these I'd eat them all day! Good thing that's not happening, as I need to stay in hunting shape...

Rating: 10 - AWOOOOOOO!!!

Giant Caplico, Chocolate

It's a hot day outside, it sure would be nice for some ice crea---you mean this isn't ice cream??? Actually I knew that. I've seen these fake ice cream cones lying around in stores for a while and I've always been intrigued. Now it's time to see what they're made of. This one certainly looks appetizing, it's large, and promises lots of crispy chocolate!

The snack certainly bears its resemblance to an ice cream cone. Even as I look at it, I'm expecting it to melt. The chocolate is a little soft on the top, but mostly a crispy consistency, and surprisingly not oversweet smelling - actually smells a little bitter, with some sort of a coffee smell in there? Seems promising.

I initially get a surprisingly soft consistency in the chocolate. My teeth tear through it quite easily and it melts down, which is quite something. Almost like room temperature ice cream with the way it melts and goes down my throat. Inside the chocolate has a more solid texture, but it's still not quite crispy like the package seems to make it out. But that's okay because the wafer cone provides penty of crispiness to supplement it. The texture even changes a bit inside the wafer cone to more of a soft cakey consistency, and where it is surrounded by cone this goes VERY well together. I'm pretty impressed by the mixed textures present within here.

The chocolate is also solid. Like the smell it's on the more bitter end of the spectrum, and I mean that in the best way possible, I really get the essence of the chocolate here. The wafer isn't overly sweet either. This makes the snack very light and it all just comes together and forms something very nice. I wonder how this would taste cold...? Maybe it would be a nice cooling alternative to ice cream that way!

Rating: 10 - AWOOOOOOO!!

Meigum Colorful Seeds Soft Candy

So many flavors in this one little package, how exciting! True to it's name, Colorful Seeds seems to have... a lot of color. Three colors to be exact. It's comprised of orange, ramune, and grape candy. It even encourages you to mix the flavors together, for flavors such as orange soda, grape soda, and... apple? How does that work from combining orange and grape? Meigum is a genius if they can get that one to work.

As expected, purple, orange, and white candies lie within. The ramune candies have both a different shape and texture from the others as it's in tablet form and grittier. Sniffing the bag... is a wild experience. So many fruity flavors colliding with each other. Maybe apple is lurking within there somewhere?

Starting with the orange one, it has a texture to it that I absolutely LOVE. Reminds me of Sprees, the way it puts up a little resistance to my canines as they make their way through and unleash the layers of orange flavor. The flavor is what you'd expect from an orange flavored candy, a little tangy and a little sweet, not the most natural tasting ever but quite pleasant. The grape one I like even more, the flavor really pops out and has this really nice rich taste to it, like I was biting through a slightly chewier grape. Lastly the ramune one. The texture is vastly different, it's that chalky texture where ramune bursts in my mouth with its light airy flavor. It's really nice and refreshing, and no liquid required!

As for the combinations... grape soda combines the refreshment of the ramune and pop of the grape and it is quite amazing! Orange soda actually seems very accurate to its name, as the tangy orange flavor gets a little lightness and coolness to it with the addition to the ramune. And the moment of truth? Somehow the combination of grape and orange actually does remind me of apple. The two seem to neuter each other out in a way that creates a light crisp apple flavor. I'm actually shocked by this. What kind of mad scientist came up with this??? This is so impressive! The three together... it's pretty chaotic and really hard to tell what's going on. You'd think it makes apple soda but then you get the grape and orange soda flavors in there too...

I wasn't expecting to like this that much, but after discovering the apple combination this is truly something special. Meigum managed to make this candy both delicious and fun!

Rating: 10 - AWOOOOO)O!!!

Kit Kats - White Chocolate Citrus, Pumpkin, Beni-Imo

Now that I've gotten past some of the standard fruit flavored Kit Kats, things are starting to get a little stranger. There's a white chocolate citrus flavor which sounds great and also has a baseball theme to it. Then there's some kind of pumpkin, which is always welcome, and a peculiar purple sweet potato flavor that sounds like it could be a recipe for success.

Oh no, the citrus one is melty! It has been a hot day, but I don't think I expected this. It's a plain white color, but has a distinctly orange smell that's really nice actually. Kind of reminds me of a creamsicle? I could go for one of those in this hot weather.

Despite the meltiness, this one really doesn't disappoint. It somehow creates such a refreshing feeling in my mouth that it's unreal. It's so creamy and orange-y yet feels so light at the same time. I don't even understand how it can be like this. You'd think that something with white chocolate would be so much heavier, but it isn't. This tastes like all those light refreshing orange-y drinks out there, except unlike those it's candy! I hope they hand these out at hot ballgames... except they'd melt. But you feel so relaxed and cool after eating these. Like a fan blowing orange scented goodness in my mouth.

Rating: 10 - AWOOOOOOO!!!

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!!!

Kit Kats - Matcha, Raspberry, Strawberry

For this batch of Kit Kats, we've got the ones with fairly plain packaging, but the flavors are sure to be anything but. I'm particularly excited about the matcha one, but the fruity flavors are sure to add a great touch alongside the crispy Kit Kat presentation too.

The matcha Kit Kat, despite the very dark green package, has a bit of a lighter color, but this makes sense. The matcha scent however is very strong ,and there seem to be specks throughout, so it's sure to be great.

Like the smell, the matcha flavor is incredibly strong. Some might almost find this too strong as it seems to lessen the candy properties of the Kit Kat, transitioning more from sweetness into the bitter tea flavor, but for tea enthusiasts like me it's a nice kick.


Rating: 7 - Aroof!

Tirol Strawberry Assortment

Another assortment of the lovely square bundles of joy that is Tirol. This one focuses on strawberry desserts which I'm VERY excited about as the strawberry jelly Tirol was definitely my favorite so far! They clearly have strawberry down and are good at recreating very complicated things in such a small package, so we'll see how they do on this.

The three desserts shown, from left to right, are strawberry brownie (my namesake!), strawberry tiramisu, and strawberry confiture. I don't believe I've even had regular tiramisu, so no frame of reference here for that one, although the confiture sounds very much like strawberry jelly, so a big aroo if it's anything like that.

Kracie Popin Cookin Taiyaki

These look like quite the varied batch of snacks to make! The star of it of course is the taiyaki, a fish shaped pastry kinda like a waffle, with the filling of your choice (in this case chocolate). From there other Japanese desserts seem to be included: strawberry daifuku, a cup of ramune, and mitarashi dango, which appears to be soy sauced glazed mochi. And it uses the microwave, which is different. Not sure if that's because the products are meant to be eaten hot or because the microwave cooks the various powder/water mixtures.

Tirol Choco Pack

I return! After enjoying the holidays with my pack, it's time to get to trying some candy again, and this time I've got a few things to try. I've heard of these Tirol chocolates for a while now but haven't gotten the chance to try them. Finally a pack appeared at my local Japanese market and I pounced on the opportunity. I love the square wrappers, when you put them together it looks like tiles! Not sure how to describe it, almost like a retro vibe. And I'm certainly excited to try the cookies & cream flavor, I love that Hershey's cookies and cream bar!

Smashmallow Cinnamon Churro

As I mention in my description I'm not limited to reviewing Japanese snacks, because the Americans put out some fun and interesting things too. Why ignore them? This in particular got my hungry puppy senses tingling as I saw it at my grocery store. Marshmallows? Cinnamon? CHURRO??? I'm down. What's even nicer is that these are only 80 calories per serving, important to me as I try to stay in good shape to hunt or play or do whatever I please.

Yaokin Pudding Marshmallow

For once I'm going to cut the fancy introduction and just say these things are incredible. So incredible that this was actually the first thing I ate when I first got the November Japan Crate a month ago, and it was so good that I immediately ordered two of these giant bags of them. This is a real gem, in fact my tail is already going a mile a minute at the chance to try these again. In fact I think my instincts are taking ove---AWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!