Making Mochi

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

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I Can't Believe We Have A Candy Update Today - Kinako Mochi Choco

I'll start off with the update itself, it's a Japanese candy that's not great. It's pretty cheap, and it consists of flavours that are very common in Japan, mochi and chocolate. This candy could work, but it doesn't, because it's cheaply made. I could tell you more about today's review, but frankly I have a bigger story to tell Now onto the reason that I'm amazed that I'm even writing this.

Last week the main computer we use to run this site died. It died and many of the programs we use to make this site stopped working. I was pretty sure that this was going to lead to at least a week's worth of silence on our end. Then gradually, I started to rebuild. I had to make a few updates to our system, but in no time things started to come together. We have backups here, and I'm totally stunned that they all worked. I was able to get everything back up and running in two days. While there still might be a few speed bumps ahead, it appears that all is working well enough to not only keep the updates coming this week, but also continue working on the new version of Candy Critic (coming soon).

I freaked out last week about this, but as I sit here now, I'm kind of  happy it all happened. Things seem to actually be running smoother, and we even updated a few things.

Click here if you want to learn more about today's new candy review.

Also be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, we might need some tech support if things do go south while we recoup.

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Happy Chinese New Year

I was wandering through my local market when I came across this really strange thing. The sign in the store had the words “mochi” on it. Mochi is a popular Asian treat made from pounded glutinous rice. Since this was a grocery store and it said “mochi”, I assumed it was some kind of treat in a really creative package. I took it home and filmed this video.

The packaging was really unique and I had an interesting time opening it up for this movie. You’ll also notice that each mochi were individually packaged. What I didn’t expect was the texture of the mochi. Normally mochi is very soft and sticky, this on the other hand was hard and plastic like. You’ll see that I cut one in half for the video, it was no easy task. After shooting the video I took a bite of one, and I couldn’t sink my teeth through it at all. I’m not convinced these are eatable.

I think they might be fake mochi, in a really ornate package, to give as an offering for a shrine. Unless someone can convince me otherwise, I don’t think I’ll attempt to eat them again.

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December Is A Busy Month For Candy Critic Starting With A Unique Japanese Candy Review - Kotabe “Chestnut”

This month is going to be super busy at Candy Critic and it all starts with this new review. This new review (Kotaby Chestnut) is the first of many reviews this week as we're kicking off a jam packed Japanese candy review-a-thon. The only Japanese candy we won't touch this week is Kit Kat bars, that's because next week we're doing a special Japanese Kit Kat review-a-thon.

Click here to check out the first in this week's Japanese treats.

Make sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to keep up with the entire review-a-thon.


We're not only going to be posting cool Japanese candy reviews this month, we have a whole bunch of other stuff lined up this month as well. Rather than write about it, we decided to talk about on this week's episode of Chris's Monday Morning Breakfast Thoughts.

If you're on the YouTube, make sure to subscribe to our channel to get all the latest videos.

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Opening A Classic Kyoto Candy

We’re on a train opening a special Kyoto treat known as Kotabe. It comes in many different flavours and we chose chestnut. It’s a treat you can only find in Kyoto, and it’s pretty unique. We’ll be posting the full review when we get home, but for now...

Check out the video of us opening and sampling some Kotabe.

Also make sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook to keep up with our entire adventure.

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Part 4 Of Our Asian Ice Cream Review-A-Thon Looks Pretty Fancy

There are really two categories of ice cream treats. Simple cheap looking treats, and fancy expensive looking treats. This clearly falls into a fancy looking treat because the package depicts it as something you might see served at a fancy restaurant. The key to the look of this fancy treat is the fact that the package depicts it with the lid slightly askew. I always love the fact that when you get a fancy dessert in a restaurant that's contained in some kind of edible shell, the chef often chooses to open it slightly for you. It's as if they're not confident that you know how to open up an edible shell yourself.

Click here to read all about this fancy ice cream dessert.

You can also follow us on Facebook or Twitter to keep up with all of our Asian ice cream updates this week.

Why not follow our Instagram feed called "Snack Facts" too, you might learn something new.

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Candy In The Media

Watching people make mochi (a strange Japanese dessert) is both heart stopping and mesmerizing.

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Hey Jelly Belly!!! Some Flavour Ideas - Japanese Snacks

Japanese Snacks

All this week we're looking at some new ideas for flavours of Jelly Bellies.  Yesterday we looked at Middle Eastern spices, today it's all about Japanese snacks.

These Jelly Bellies would fall firmly in the middle of tasty candy and gimmick.  Japan is well known for their "weird" selection of candies, so I think this would be a trend that Jelly Belly could hope right on.  Two of these three flavours are not too odd to the North American pallette, and would therefore be a great way to start this line of beans.  There are also hundreds of other strange Japanese candies and snacks that could be turned into beans in the future.  This line would be never ending.

Of the three suggested flavours on this list, taiyaki would probably be the simplest to convert.  The only two issues I could think of with these beans would be the appearance of a fish (even though there is no fish or fish flavour in it), and the idea of red bean in a sweet.  If you've tasted red bean sweets before you'd know that it's not that strange at all, but some might be a little nervous about trying these taiyaki Jelly Bellies for the first time.

Mochi might be one of the weirder ideas I've thought of for Jelly Bellies so far.  It's not strange because the flavour is so powerful, it's strange because the flavour is so weak.  Moochi is just a ball of stick rice that has been pounded so many times that it turns into a sticky ball of goo.  The flavour of Moochi is what you might expect, like that of unflavoured rice.  I've tried it a few times, and each time I keep expecting to find some kind of bold flavour, but I never do.  While this is a strange flavour to choose for a Jelly Belly, it is a popular treat in Japan, and should not be left off the list.

The first two flavours of Japanese Jelly Bellies I feel could be fairly manageable for the average North American, but salted plums might be a little extreme for many.  A real salted plum tastes like a cross between sea water, sour powder from gummy candies, with a slight hint of plum.  The first time you try it is often a bad experience.  Japanese people claim that the taste grows on you, so maybe getting a big bag of salted plum Jelly Bellies is a good idea.

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It's Not All Cinco De Mayo Today

Let us not forget about other cultures as well. For today in Japan is "Children's Day" and that means mochi filled with sweet bean paste. It's good times for all.

Click here to read more about this other 5th of May Holiday.

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A Mochi that I Like

A few years back a friend of mine invited Allison and myself to a Mochi festival here in Ottawa. For those that are unfamiliar with Mochi, it’s basically sticky rice that’s pounded into dough formed into, most often, little balls and consumed.I went to this festival with the best intentions, I left with an appreciation of what it takes to make Mochi but I really didn’t like eating it at all. Since then I’ve continued to sample Mochi whenever I can to try and understand it. In Japan I tried several varieties but still couldn’t get a handle on it at all.The other night I once again tried my hand at Mochi with these sesame covered and filled blobs of rice and finally I’ve discovered one I don’t mind. Now I wonder if the taste is growing on me or if they just need the sesame seeds to be palatable.

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