Melon Cream Soda Chips

This... has to be one of the most bizarre flavor combinations I've ever seen. Melon cream soda sure, chips sure, but together? What a combination that is. I can't even imagine how this would work, but it very well could work. Although salty and sweet combinations haven't worked well for Japanese chips just far. Maybe this could be the one to break the trend?

The very first sniff of this bag is a shocker, because these chips do in fact smell just like melon cream soda. I would've definitely failed a blind smell test on these for sure, but I think the rest of my pack would've too. While these look normal, almost like Lays, the smell suggests that they are anything but.

Biting into these chips continues to be a confusing experience. Now I get the texture and salt and potato flavor, but the melon soda flavor is still there in droves. It almost has a fizzy taste to it but I can't tell if that's the cream soda mixing with the salt or actual intentional fizz. In short the taste experience for this one is almost magical, like this flavor should not be able to be combined with this texture. The melon cream soda flavor that is there is nice, the melon comes out nicely and it's not overwhelmingly sweet. I wouldn't exactly say it mixes well with the salt, but the two somehow find a way to coexist. You get the salty potato chip, but also the melon cream soda, and they don't really interfere with each other and you choose which one to focus on. That can turn eating these chips into quite the interactive experience. I don't think it's going to become a hit anytime soon, but I'm pretty impressed at how this concept worked!

Rating: 6 - Aruff!

One Piece Bubbly Jelly DIY

 

Been a while since I've had a jelly DIY! These are always pretty fun except for figuring out how to eat them of course, because those tiny straws never cut it. This one also comes in the slightly more unique flavor of melon, which I at first haven't been a fan of but it's certainly growing on me as I try more and more melon snacks. Japan just does the flavor justice. This one also seems to come with a reusable cup, which actually worries a bit because the snacks with reusable cups I've had before haven't been good. Can this one break the mold?

Pretty simple setup this time, but also more involved than the other collectible cup DIY drinks, haing two packets. Likely this means there's a soda and jelly layer, like a DIY drink I had a while back. There's also a spoon instead of a straw, yay! No issues with trying to slurp up thick jelly, which is always a plus. The souvenir cup is nice too, but these are always so tiny that I don't know what to do with them.

Splatoon Gummies

One little known thing about me is that I LOVE Splatoon. Like whenever I get the chance to play video games I'm addicted to this game. So seeing a Splatoon snack in this month's box was quite the delight, and just like the colors of the game it comes in unique melon and orange flavors. I'm not the biggest fan of melon but Japan seems to do it justice. Will this make me a woomy pup?

I unfortunately did not get the rare octopus gummy but still the assortment of colors here is quite nice (they appear yellow but are in fact orange). They have a more opaque appearance than I'd expect, but still some nice smells. I'm much more a fan of the melon one here smell-wise, it's quite vibrant with the added sweetness in a way that I wouldn't expect. The smell of the orange one on the other hand is just confusing to me.

But nevertheless I'll try the orange one first. I'm less confused upon tasting it, maybe the smell just blended with the lemon. These gummies are quite chewy, a little bit more than I like, and have a bit of a gritty consistency to them, but some nice flavor from the orange one. It is a little bit too on the sweet side for my liking, to the point where I think it clouds up the orange flavor, like overly sweet orange juice.

The melon one works much better, as melon on its own needs a bit of extra sweetness. Same situation though, the sweetness seems to cloud out a bit of the wonderful melon flavor that I've experienced from some other snacks. Overall these are not my favorite gummies out of the ones I've tried, but still nice flavors in their own right. No "booyah" or "woomy" from me but it's enough to ink my flavor turf.

Rating: 5 - Ruff!

Pandaro Melon Bread Cookie

This snack comes at a very convenient time because I just watched an episode of the anime Yakitate!! Japan all about melon bread and after seeing that I couldn't not go for the melon bread snack first thing when I opened this box. By the way if you love baking, go watch that anime, it's quite stellar and I'm learning a ton about bread. And licking my lips the whole time. But now, let's dive in! A small cookie, hopefully it packs tons of melon flavor.

First impressions are good. The cookie has a really cute panda face, and has some green in it to represent the melon. But the smell is absolutely tantalizing! I didn't get how melon bread was supposed to work watching the anime, but I certainly do now. It's primarily a butter smell but with the fruity tangy accent of the melon. It all makes sense, this could supply the one thing butter cookies are missing which is flavor depth. I can't wait any longer to dig in.

I get pretty much everything I was expecting from the cookie. It has a strong butter flavor, and while I'm not a fan of melon normally, it's the perfect accent here, adding some tanginess to contrast the stark sweetness and richness. And none of that annoying watered down nonsense.

Although the texture of the cookie is slightly disappointing. I would've liked this to be a bit softer. One of the things melon bread seemed to be known for is the combination of fluffy bread and crispy cookie but all we get here is cookie. It means too that the depth of flavor doesn't last quite long enough or really melt in my mouth too well. Good start, but mostly it just had me craving real melon bread. I have to find some!

Rating: 7 - Aroof!

Kit Kats - Kyoho Grape, Hokkaido Melon, Wa-Ichigo Strawberry

This time we have three more Kit Kats with some different fruity flavors. While matcha and strawberry are familiar territory, I'm really interested to see how grape and melon translate into Kit Kat's wafter structure. The last one is the ever-familiar strawberry but with Wa-Ichigo tacked onto it. I wonder if that will be any different?

As usual I look up the meaning behind any unknown words and see that kyoho grapes are a type of grape grown in Japan. Regardless  I don't expect this to be too different from the normal grape flavor, though this one has a lighter color and different smell than I expected. It smells... almost like grape toothpaste? Not sure if that'll be an entirely bad thing. It's definitely not pure grape smell, kind of muddled with a milky flavor and added sweetness.

The flavor does seem to work a bit in context of the wafer. Without it I imagine a pure grape flavor would be in stark contast to the rest of the treat. It still feels a little out place in candy, after adjusting to it, it's okay, but still odd and not quite what I'm looking for. It's a bit too sweet where from fruit flavors I expect something more authentic. This... is okay, but doesn't quite work for me.

Rating: 4 - Boof!