Is It A Cookie?

Is there a certain ratio that makes a cookie a chocolate treat? One of the biggest challenges I come across on a regular basis is trying to figure out which category of treat to put many of the snacks I review. This latest review is just such a problem. It's a cookie, but it's also a big glob of chocolate. There's probably more chocolate than cookie, but the cookie really feels like the part that's holding this whole treat together. So is it a cookie, or is it a chocolate?

Check out this latest confusing review.

Classic Candies From Around The World

It's funny, if I was to ask you what you might consider to be a "classic" candy, I'm betting there are several people around the world who would disagree. For example, this latest review from Japan is a true Japanese classic candy, yet many of us have only learned about it recently. If you want some better context (particularly for you Americans), it's only been recently that most of the world has learned what an Almond Joy bar is, and many people have never tried Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.

Check out my latest classic candy review.

Japanese Sugar

On a recent trip to a Japanese grocery store I came across a collection of flavoured sugars. While I can’t read the packages my assumption is that you’re supposed to sprinkle this sugar onto toast (likely with butter) to give plain toast a sweet boost. While I think this is a good idea, I feel like there’s more you can do with these sweet sprinkles, and toast is only the beginning. So I picked up 3 of the flavours and I’ve decided to do a taste test and not only see which is best, but which one works beyond toast.

To get started I figured I would taste test them with toast as intended.

The first flavour I picked up was Melon-Pan. Now I don’t have a history of enjoying melon flavoured... well.. anything, but the one exception is Melon-Pan (or melon buns) from Japan. I not only enjoy these melon flavoured buns, but I seek them out every time I visit Japan. The main reason I love them is that they really only have a hint of melon, and the rest is a wonderful buttery flavour.

This Melon-Pan Toast flavour on the other hand is very melon heavy. I’ll be honest, I was kind of expecting this, but I figured I’d give it a try anyways. I’m sure if you slathered your toast with even more butter the flavour would die down a bit, but at this point I find it to be a little too melon forward for my liking.

Next I decided to try the Vanilla Sugar flavour. This one seemed like the simplest of them all and also seemed to be the most versatile. It even feels like the kind of sugar sprinkle you could use for baking in a pinch. The real trick of this particular sugar is that the quality of the vanilla has to be fairly good for it to work. A cheap/fake vanilla flavour might be a little off putting.

On toast the vanilla seems pretty good. I’m not entirely confident that it’s pure vanilla extract, but I feel like it might be a blend of fake and real vanilla. There appears to be some black spots in it, which could be vanilla bean. The flavour works well on this toast, however I wonder if the flavour of the whole wheat bread is helping it out a bit.

Finally I went with the most ambitious of all of these sugar sprinkles, Caramel Cinnamon. This is either going to be the best of the bunch, or it might disappoint. The flavours are fairly common with this kind of treat, after all cinnamon and sugar is probably the oldest sweet toast powder out there. I’m just worried that they might over do it and it might just be overly sweet.

On the toast this one kind of disappoints. The problem isn’t the cinnamon, but the caramel. In hindsight I should have thought about that before getting it. Caramel is really just a form of sugar, and hardened caramel can sometimes just taste like brown sugar. If you don’t burn the caramel a little in this case, the flavour can be too subtle and lost. That’s pretty much what we have here, it really just tastes like cinnamon sugar. Not that it’s a bad thing, but there’s nothing really special about it.

Now it’s time to expand the tasting and see if these sugar sprinkles work on other foods. I decided to start with apples.

The Melon-Pan sugar just didn’t work at all. I thought maybe there would be a hope, since they’re both fruit, but the melon is just too fake a flavour and it really clashes with the real apple. I’ll be honest, I don’t have much hope for the Melon-Pan at this point, but I’ll keep trying.

The vanilla is fine, but with the real apple flavour it seems to highlight how strong or possibly fake the vanilla flavour is. Again, I’m fairly certain there’s real vanilla in these sugar sprinkles, but I’m not convinced it’s all real vanilla. There’s just something odd about the flavour of this apple and the vanilla.

Cinnamon, sugar and apples, it’s a match made in heaven, and works here as well. It’s a fine flavour combination that’s been around forever. Again, the caramel doesn’t really come through, but I really enjoyed this as it was anyways.

I’ve decided to stay with fruit, and I went for a banana next.

Melon-Pan didn’t really have a hope of working with a banana. I guess if you really like this fake melon flavour, and don’t really like bananas, then you might enjoy this. The melon flavour is just too strong and doesn’t work with the banana, but covers it up instead.

The Vanilla is surprisingly good. I’ve used banana and vanilla together in baking, but I’ve never thought of just putting vanilla on a banana before. It’s doing what vanilla often does in baking and making the banana taste a little better.

I thought the Caramel Cinnamon would work, but I’m wrong. I can taste the banana, and I can taste the cinnamon (still no real caramel flavour) but at no point do they really merge into their own flavour combination. It’s as if they’re each fighting to be the dominant flavour, rather than working together.

Popcorn seems to make sense... right?

I’ll be honest, I don’t hold much hope for the Melon Pan sugar. It’s not surprising that melon flavoured popcorn isn’t that great. As I’ve said before, if you like fake melon flavour maybe you’ll like this, but I do not. I didn’t have much hope of this tasting good and I was rewarded as expected.

While the Melon may not be great, the Vanilla keeps surprising me. As it turns out, vanilla popcorn kind of works. Like the banana, the vanilla doesn’t just add a flavour, but it seems to bring up the original flavour of the popcorn. I’ve said it before, but I believe vanilla is the most important flavour in all of snacks and candy. This latest experiment is only proving it more true.

The Caramel Cinnamon was fine. I would not be disappointed if I was given a bowl of this popcorn, but I’m not sure I’d ever order it myself. The biggest problem is one that’s been happening this entire time, and that’s the lack of caramel. My popcorn was a little sweeter with a hint of cinnamon. Tasty enough, but nothing worth shouting about.

Melon is the last hope.

I’m pretty sure that you can guess that I decided to try using a melon in hopes that it might merge or even improve the real melon. Unfortunately it does not. It also disproves a theory I had about why I don’t like most fake melon flavoured treats. I used to believe that the key to a melon flavour working the refreshing texture you get with a real melon. However after tasting this I don’t believe that to be true anymore. The fake melon flavour is not improved with a real melon texture.

Vanilla is continuing to be the super hero of this taste test. I thought that it might be fine, but it’s actually blowing away the competition. I’m starting to think that I might start keeping a jar of vanilla flavoured sugar on hand, just to improve all kinds of snacks. While the melon wasn’t my favourite treat, it was improved with a little vanilla.

Cinnamon just doesn’t really work with melon. I don’t think I was expecting it to, but I might have been hoping to be pleasantly surprised. While it wasn’t gross, it also wasn’t great.

A Look Back at a Dark Chocolate From Japan

 Today I tasted a dark chocolate that came from a place that didn't used to have a lot of dark chocolate. Now it's got much more dark chocolate, and this doesn't really cut it anymore.

CC

Truly Some Of The Most Beautiful Candy Art Ever

 All this month I've been posting some funny and downright weird candy commercials from Japan. I didn't want to leave out the fact that Japanese hand made sweets and desserts are some of the most beautiful pieces of candy art in the world. This video is just one example, and best of all most of these beautiful creations taste amazing too.

CC

A Little Strange Mayber

 What I love about Japanese candy commercials is how they never get too weird.

CC

Saved Brittney!

 I'm not sure why celebrities are/were always willing to do commercials in Japan and not in North America, but I feel like they wouldn't be the same if things went differently.

CC

I've Been There

 I love this series of Japanese gum commercials because they show off different parts of Japan, a few of which I've visited and really enjoyed. Ironically I don't think I've ever tried the gum.

CC

Beautiful Fake Food

 Japanese fake food is the best in the world, and this man is a master.

CC

The Ultimate Japanese Candy Experience

Check out this tour of the biggest Japanese candy store in all of Japan. A place I'm adding to my list of places to visit in the future.

CC

Not All Snickers Are Created Equally

 Check out my list of the top 5 Snickers variants that I've ever reviewed.

CC

Making a Chocolate Dinosaur

If you're unfamiliar with Kracie Pop 'n' Kitchen, it's a series of do it yourself candy making kits from Japan. The theme of most of these kits is to make miniature candy/snack versions of popular Japanese meals. The process to make these kits is can be very complicated, but also a lot of fun. I recently came across a new kind of kit from Kracie, one that focuses on learning, as opposed to eating, and it's also a bit less labour intensive. I picked up one of these kits that teaches you something (?) about dinosaurs.

The aim of the kit is to have you make several chocolate dinosaur parts out of chocolate, then using the handy placemat that also happens to be the bag holding everything together, figure out which dinosaur(s) you got and learn something about them. I did not learn anything about my dinosaurs, but that's only because I can't read Japanese. Fortunately for me my focus is on making the chocolates.

The instructions on how to make your kit are half illustrations and half in Japanese. I might have been able to figure out most of this without Google translate, but I may have had a few challenges figuring out the timing for letting the chocolate melt and set.

Speaking of melting the chocolate, that was the first step towards making these chocolaty dino shapes. It was surprisingly easy, and I can only assume I did it right. All you have to do is take the two bags of chocolate chips and put them in a cup of boiling water for 5 minutes. This was the part that I had the most guess work as even the translated instructions didn't make much sense. Fortunately it seemed to work fairly well.

After the 5 minutes I tested to see if the chocolate had melted by squishing the bags. I was pretty amazed at how quickly and smoothly the chocolate had melted, but I probably shouldn't be as the folks at Kracie are masters of candy chemistry. After melting the chocolate I folded it as shown on the package and cut the tip off.

The next step is probably the one that requires the most patience and steady hand of this entire project. Having said that, compared to the other Kracie kits I've done (see video here), it's still pretty easy. I had to carefully squirt the chocolate into the mould. One of the tricks on the package suggests that you tap the mould after you've filled it in order to let the chocolate settle better.

Before the chocolate sets, you're supposed to add the cookie crumbs. I'm not really sure what this adds to the aesthetics of the dinosaur, but it did add a little crunch to the chocolate. After the cookies were added it was into the freezer for 10 minutes (apparently you can also use your refrigerator for 20 minutes instead).

The next part was really the moment of truth. This would be the moment when I discovered if I made any mistakes, or if the kit had any flaws. It was time to pop the set chocolate dinosaur parts onto my plate. Fortunately for me, neither Kracie nor myself had any problems.

It did take a little work to shake out the pieces, some of the shapes were more challenging than others. In general I was pretty happy with the results, and while I had a few small bubbles in a few places, I felt like I, and the team from Kracie, did a great job making these dinosaurs.

The next stage was to sort out my pieces and construct my dinosaurs.

I had two complete dinosaurs.

A footprint and a shell.

I looked up my dinosaurs on the placemat, and I did find them, however I didn't really learn anything due to the language barrier. I didn't mind though because I always have Google to look up information on dinosaurs, and while I'm doing that, I have some tasty dinosaurs to eat.

CC

Vending Machine Heaven

 If you like buying odd foods from vending machines, this is the perfect video for you.

CC

Mysterious Packages

I feel like the lesson about taking candy from strangers was completely lost on me. I regularly accept candy from strangers, and open packages and eat contents for things that I have no idea who may have made it. My general assumption is that if it's packaged well than it mush be okay, but sometimes I don't even follow that rule. I've bought candy off a vendor at the side of the street in a package that's been poorly taped up. I eat candy found in packages from foreign lands with no idea what I'm getting into. This week's feature review is a fine example of that. I opened the bag and...

Find out what was in this very random red envelope with Japanese writing on it.

CC

Cake In a Can

Japan is a truly amazing place. In Japan they not only think of putting cake in a can, but they manage to make it work. Making something innovative work is the key to amazing treats.

CC

Kit Kats Till Thursday

I recently got my hands on 4 new flavours of Kit Kat bars from Japan, and I've decided that I'd review them all this week. The plan is to eat one every day till Thursday. I'm always amazed at all the variety of Kit Kat flavours out of Japan, and even more surprised when I discover a "new" flavour that seems like it should have already been a flavour. This first variety is the perfect example. It seems like cheesecake and Kit Kat bars would make for an obvious team up. So obvious that I'm surprised that we haven't even seen cheesecake Kit Kat bars in North America already, after all, there are plenty of Kit Kat flavoured cheesecakes out there already.

Check out my full Kit Kat cheesecake review right now.

Make sure to follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to keep up with this week's Kit Kat bar candy review-a-thon.

CC

Crunky All Week Long

Many people outside of Asia have no any idea what Crunky is, but those who have visited or lived there are very familiar with this chocolate treat. I'm not too sure what was the first Crunky treat since there are so many different ones available right now. It was likely the milk chocolate bar with the rice crisps, but I could be wrong. All I know is that today there are so many different treats made in the Crunky style, and this week I'm going to review 3 of them.

Check out the first of many Crunky reviews.

Be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram to keep up with all the other ones.

Also be sure to check out my book called Treats and Beasts.

Terrifying Japanese Candy Commercial

An odd casting choice was made when making this commercial.

If you like twisted gummy treats, check out these twisted gummy bear t-shirts.

Making Mochi

 I don't think I've ever seen someone make mochi on such a big scale.

CC

Japanese Candy Movie

This movie is an interesting look at the candy industry in Japan, maybe not today, but I'm sure it's still pretty competitive.

CC