Milk Chocolate Salty Pocky

 こんにちは！

I apologize for the slightly slower updates the past couple of weeks...I've had quite a bit of hours at my real world job. The excessive hours should be ending this week and so I will update regularly- thank you for your patience!

Though I am a fan of Pocky, I find I don't purchase it that often as there are so many other interesting snacks out there.  I picked this variety up at Mitsuwa for $1.99 due to the fact I enjoy salt with chocolate. On a side note, my first review ever was a pumpkin flavored Pocky. Since it's quickly becoming autumn, I am hoping to find that particular option on the shelves soon. It's really a delicious flavor!

I love most Pocky packaging. The colors are vibrant and eye catching. This blue box practically yells at you from the shelf.

 

I don't know how I feel about their new slogan "Stick to fun!". I guess it's because it is sort of awkward and I don't know what they mean exactly. Is it "stick to fun!" like "you should stick to having a good time, because a bad time is not fun!"?

 

It looks much like your average milk chocolate Pocky but if you look closely you can see small granules of salt. I did not actually taste much salt when I tried it. It's there, but very very subtle. I do not think I would purchase this over your regular flavored Pockys since the salt did not add much to the experience. Now, putting sea salt on Men's Pocky (dark chocolate) would be incredible!

Morinaga Hichew American Cherry

 こんばんはみんなさん！

Today I will review my first Morinaga Hichew! Hichew seems to be a pretty common Japanese candy but for some reason I have never gotten around to trying it. I picked these up for a very reasonable $.99 at the check out counter of Asian Food Market. I'll admit I was curious simply because it was some sort of American flavor.

This treat seems to be in a series of "world fruits". The packaging has a dated postcard looking picture of New York City on it. What makes me curious is why an American cherry flavor has a picture of New York City on it! Being in the shadow of the city, I am fairly certain there are no cherries grown there. I am also fairly certain there are no cherries grown on the east coast. In any case, I actually really like the packaging and it was originally what drew my eye when I spyed it on the shelf.

 

Having never had a Hichew, I naturally assumed I would be consuming a chewy candy. Well guess what folks...I was right! The texture is plasti-cy and takes quite a while to chew. I would compare it to a slightly softer Laffy Taffy.  It was very sweet but had a slight sour note as well which helped with the balance of flavors. I'm not a huge chewy candy fan and I would rate this as a mediocre treat. It's fair enough if your like that sort of thing but I don't think it is much better or worse than other Japanese and American chewy candies.

One Piece Hello Kitty Gum & Magnet

I have a real treat for you all today! When I see something really odd, I get very excited and this Japanese snack was the perfect quirky treat. I picked this up at Mitsuwa for $3.49 which is a little more money than I usually like to pay.

I'm sure everyone is familiar with Hello Kitty. I don't think you have to be a huge anime fan to know One Piece either. Now, combine them and stick them on magnets and VOILA! I'm not sure exactly why this product exists but, honestly, who cares! It's adorable and fun.

 

I love the packaging. It;'s colorful and full of promises of what may be inside. This sort of package is exactly the type that draws my attention on a crowded store shelf.

 

There are apparently 12 different magnet designs and there are 2 randomly assorted sheets in each box. The first one I pulled out is mostly pink and has 4 magnets. One Piece is not an anime I am familiar with so excuse me while I call the one character AntlerGuy. AntlerGuy and Hello Kitty are chilling with their respective skull and cross bones logos.

 

The second is primarily red and has 5 separate magnets. AntlerGuy and Hello Kitty are waving awkward positions. There is an odd assortment of auxiliary magnets including test tubes, a doubloon and a black bag. The magnets are really good quality! They are thick and stick strongly to the fridge.

I've come to not expect much out of these gum and collectible prize combo packs. The gum in this pack continued the trend. It is strawberry flavored and coated in a candy shell. The flavor is not bad it but lasts for about 5 seconds.