My Favourite Pocky - Part 5 - The Different Stick

All this week we've been posting short blog posts celebrating our favourite Pockys that we've reviewed over the years. Today we're posting our last installment with a variation that we've only seen once with Pocky. Normally the thing that changes about Pocky are the flavour of the chocolate, the ingredients added to the chocolate, or the flavour of the cookie stick. This variant however changed the shape of the stick instead.

The flavour of this Pocky is a standard strawberry flavour, I think this is a flavour they've done a few times with a few subtle differences. This time however they changed the stick, and not in a way you might think. Instead of bending the stick, or turning it into a pretzel or something, they changed the stick from a round stick to a heart shape in the circumference. While I can't say that the idea worked well, it was pretty cool to see them go out on a limb and try something totally different.

I'm a really big fan of Pocky, and it's one of those treats that's become well known for the crazy varieties that are available. It's good to see that this company is willing to play with their classic treat, but it's also great to know that whenever you want, you can always go back to the original.

Click here to read about this fun strawberry Pocky.

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My Favourite Pocky - Part 4 - My Main Squeeze

Make sure to check out our earlier posts this week where we featured some of our favourite Pockys that we've reviewed in the past. We're in Japan right now, hopefully finding some new Pockys to try. Today's entry is a really interesting Pocky, that's because it's a flavour of candy that you don't really see very often, grape.  Let me clear that up, you do see plenty of hard candies in grape, but you don't often see chocolate based treats in grape, and you certainly don't find too many grape cookies. But that's  not the only thing that makes this Pocky unique.

The flavour itself  was pretty interesting too, it wasn't that fake grape you might expect, it was a slightly tart, slightly more realistic grape. In my opinion, grape is an underused flavour, particularly when you're talking about a real grape flavour. That's what I like about candies like Pocky that keep coming out with different varieties, eventually they get desperate and start to explore flavours that aren't commonly used. Sometimes this ends in a wonderful disaster, but sometimes you get something really interesting. I've said it before, I'd rather try a creative disaster than a sure thing that's boring.

I've seen one other flavour of these Pocky Squeeze treats before, I forget what flavour it was, but I'm hoping to see more. I would be really keen to try this in a raspberry or maybe something interesting like a dragon fruit.

Click here to see what we had to say about this Pocky.

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My Favourite Pocky - Part 3 - Panda Pocky

All this week we're looking back at some of the Pocky we've reviewed in the past, today's Pocky is one that grabbed my attention right on the shelf.  I don't like to admit that I'm a sucker for a package or a gimmick on a candy, but I am. This is probably a perfect example of how a candy company can take a simple premises and turn it into something much more with a clever name and fun package.

What you have here is cookies and cream Pocky. The stick is the same, but they use a white chocolate with cookie bits on the outside. It's a simple idea that's been done a million times in the candy world. The thing that makes this Pocky great however is the cool package. In fact if you check out our Pinterest feed, you'll see that I've made this package the cover image for the "candy I've eaten" section. I love this package so much. It's simple and very clear. I would seriously buy a Panda Pocky t-shirt and wear it every day.

I'm sitting here years after writing the review and I can't for the life of me remember how these tasted, yet I can probably redraw the package from heart. That's how powerful some marketing can be. It's strange that Pocky can be a real hit or miss when it comes to marketing their different varieties. On yesterday's post we saw an example of a really weird marketing idea that even felt a little off putting. Today we're celebrating one of my favourite package designs ever.

Click here to read the review of this really good looking Pocky.

We're in Japan right now, follow us on Facebook and Twitter to find out what we're up to.

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My favourite Pocky - Part 2 - Manly Pocky

Remember, all this week we're looking at some of the Pocky varieties that we've already reviewed. We're also in Japan right now, and might be discovering some new ones. Today's Pocky is one of the first varieties of this treat that I'd ever sampled, and it was a little strange.

I've seen a few other candies, and in particular chocolate bars, that have gone with a "for men" campaign. The problem I've had with these candies is I've never actually been around to see the advertising campaign itself that goes with it, which I assume would explain why women can't eat this particular candy. So to me I always see these as being a little sexist. From what I remember about these Pocky, the only difference between these Pocky for men and the regular ones is that the chocolate is dark.

The macho man in me wants to believe that for some reason there's a food that only I, as a man, can handle, but it couldn't be further from the truth. Even more to the point is the fact that most women I know prefer dark chocolate. I would say that the first introductions to dark chocolate, and the appreciation I have for it has come from women. So I really don't understand this variety at all.

Click here to read our review of this sexist Pocky.

Make sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook as we search Japan for a Pocky for women.

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Most Notable Candy We Ate In 2017 - Wine Gums "Special Edition Canada 150"

These made this list of notables because this year Canada celebrated its 150th birthday. Of all of the Canadian treats and snacks that we came across, this one really resonated with me. The shapes included a skate, a loonie (our one dollar coin), and many other fun Canadian shapes. The best thing about these shapes is they not only represented my home and native land, but the cheesiness of the whole idea is very Canadian quirky as well.  The only way to make these more Canadian would have been to give them some Canadian flavours, like bacon, maple syrup, and poutine.

Click here to read about the most Canadian candy we reviewed this year.

Also make sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook because it's the Canadian thing to do.

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