Hot Chili Salad Pretz

Hot Chili Salad Pretz

(Japan Crate: November 2015)

[Japan Crate description: A Japanese take on a tasty Thai dish, these crispy sticks are packed with flavors ranging from chili spice to basil and spring onion. Which flavor sticks out the most to you?]

Kimberly Says:

This was a strange mixture of bland and spicy. At first there...really wasn't any flavor. As I continued to eat, though, the spiciness came through at the back of my tongue and moved forward, until my whole mouth was hot...but still no real flavor.

It's not often I outright don't like something...but I didn't like this one. >.<

Melissa Says:

They were really kind of just flavorless when first eaten – a mushy stick of nothingness. But then, it begins to burn at the back of the mouth. It moved forward as I ate the rest of the stick, burning up and down my tongue.

It wasn’t bad, all considered, but I definitely wouldn’t be eating more of them. I’m rather fond of my taste buds as they are!

Hia Shuwa Cola

Hia Shuwa Cola

(Japan Crate: December 2015)

[Japan Crate description: A cola flavored adventure with 3 different levels: Fizzy, soothing, and gummy. Each bag also includes one big tropical flavored hard candy.]

Kimberly Says:

I got one of the fizzy candies. It...wasn't bad. I actually kind of liked it and the way it popped against my tongue. I don't understand why so many things in the Japan crates are soda flavored, though. xD

It wasn't...bad, but it wasn't thrilling.

Melissa Says:

While one of them was fizzy, I had the “soothing” candy. It had a covering of sugar over a normal, cola-flavored candy. It was as it said – oddly very soothing! I wouldn’t mind having it again. I didn’t have all of it, though, since it gets boring after a while. Tasted exactly like cola, too.

Konpeito

Konpeito

(Japan Crate: September 2015)

[Japan crate description: A very traditional Japanese candy from the 16th century!]

Melissa Says:

These are super cute little sugar balls. They're fairly bright, looking like a little raspberry type of shape. They taste like straight sugar, which they are. They're really yummy tasting, but definitely one to refrain from snacking on. Almost a bit too sweet, but one or two are pretty good. 

Will definitely be eating more of these.

Kimberly Says:

Okay, so I was fairly excited about these. They are adorable and I remembered them from Spirited Away and the soot sprites.

They're really pretty simple - sugar. Straight sugar. Crunchy little sugar bits. Delicious, cute, but very sugary. xD

I enjoyed them, will happily finish off the bag, and might buy them if I see them again.

Sweet Corn Pretz

Sweet Corn Pretz

(Japan Crate: September 2015)

[Japan crate description: Enjoy the taste of summer with these Pretz. They taste just like the buttered, salted sweet corn you enjoy at a barbecue.]

Kimberly Says:

Japan is really good at making corn flavored snacks that really, really smell and taste like corn. xD

This was surprisingly good, though. I really enjoyed it, and will happily finish off the box and maybe look at getting more in the future. The Pretz snacks have been pretty good so far.

Melissa Says:

When you open them up, they smell like corn. Lift it up and look at it, and it's really corn-colored. Eat it, and you're eating sweet corn. Japanese confectioners are really good at corn flavoring. It's actually really yummy, and I'd definitely eat more of them.

FullGurt Candy

FullGurt Candy

(Japan Crate: September 2015)

[Japan crate description: This fruity, crunchy candy comes in to flavors - blueberry yogurt and mango yogurt. Which is your favorite?]

Kimberly Says:

We tried one of each of the flavors (blueberry and mango). I was expecting something...softer. Not quite gummies, but more like a yogurt snack and not a sort of...soft hard candy. It was just hard enough to hurt to chew, but too soft to sit and suck on.

The mango tasted like real mango, but the blueberry tasted like blueberry flavoring. Neither flavor was really very good, I don't think I'll be eating any more of these.

Melissa Says:

These are like an odd mixture of hard candy and crisp candy. They have the look of a hard candy when you get it out of the packaging (perhaps a bit harder than intended with short fingernails). They taste like hard candy that has been sucked just long enough to get it soft. They coat your teeth like them too. 

The mango one tastes pretty spot-on to mango, but the blueberry one tastes a bit like fake blueberry. All in all, not bad. Just not one I'd choose to eat again.

Chocoroom DIY

Chocoroom DIY

(Japan Crate: August 2015)

[Japan crate description: A popular snack turned DIY kit.]

Melissa Says:

Tastes like chocolate! Surprise, surprise. The fun part is making the chocolates. After warming the chocolate in hot water, you can squeeze them into the little supplied mold. There are little round candies to put in them, too. We just liberally sprinkled candies into the chocolates. Tasted like the pink color was strawberry. The little round things were sugar candies. They tasted really good because of how hard we worked on those buggers. I'd definitely make these again! It was a ton of fun.

Kimberly Says:

Okay, this was fun to make. You ended up with fairly bland chocolate, but the process of doing it was fun. xD

The candy bits are yummy, but they make the rest of it look weird, as you can see in the last picture in the bottom left.

But tasty. xD

Pulling everything out.

Getting it all ready to go!

In progress shot.

Getting ready to put in the freezer.

Mmm, all done! Some worked better than others. xD

Adzuki Mizu Yokan

Adzuki Mizu Yokan

(Japan Crate: July 2015)

[Japan crate description: A more traditional Japanese dessert, this red bean snack is sweet with a gel-like texture.]

Kimberly Says:

All right, I'd been putting this off for a while. I had doubts and concerns.

When we finally got around to trying it, though, it was...not terrible. 
We started out just eating it plain by the spoonful. If it had been more...well, every time I hit a big chunk of bean it put me off. It if had been more like jelly than jam, more of a puree, without chunks of bean, I think I would have loved it.

Or if we had had something other than italian herb ritz crackers, because the next thing we tried was spreading it on crackers. Plain Ritz, or maybe a sweet rather than savory cracker, would have been delicious.

Blurry, but tasty. x3

Melissa Says:

It looks like the cranberry stuff served at Thanksgiving, but tastes like beans. It's a tad odd. It's incredibly sweet-tasting, with the texture of pureed beans. That is, until you hit a whole bean. Then it's more unique. It's pretty good spread on a cracker. I probably wouldn't eat it again, but it wasn't bad once.