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  Japanese Candy Fest 2013: Guimauve 01:12 PM -- Tue October 1, 2013  


Guimauve
9/10 YUMS
This is an altogether unique experience. Even the name is awfully unique. What you get here is a bunch of rather dense, firm marshmallows, in 2 colors. the peach-colored ones (or mango-colored ones) are mango flavored, and the green ones are kiwi flavored. The flavor is very strong, mainly because it comes straight from actual fruit juice. The texture is just dandy... they're not as airy and collapsible as normal marshmallows, yet not as dense and stale as Lucky Charms marshmallows. They're almost like much-less-dense taffy.

And it is an enjoyable experience to chew on them! I give them 9/10 Yums. They remind me a bit of Now & Laters (which are basically squares of fruit taffy), but they're so much softer and they don't get all up in your teeth like taffy does. Fruitastic!
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  Japanese Candy Fest 2013: Animal Crackers 03:55 PM -- Mon September 30, 2013  


Animal Crackers
5/10 YUMS
Japanese animal crackers are not American animal crackers! Let me preface my remarks by pointing out that Sol Hunt really likes these. Because I don't. They're okay, but they're pretty odd. They are a very dense and dry animal-shaped cookie, coated with a dried frosting in one of several colors. But these aren't just colors! Oh no! They are actually flavored. The pink frosting has a little hint of strawberry, the green one is... well... it doesn't taste the same as the pink. There are differences even if I'm not sure quite what they are.

Overall, these are acceptable to put in your mouth. If they were sitting out in somebody's living room, I'd crunch a few without making a face. But they are not exciting, and they don't wow me in any way. I wouldn't buy them for myself again. 5/10 Yums is what we call that situation.
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  Japanese Candy Fest 2013: Chocorooms 09:51 AM -- Mon September 30, 2013  


Chocorooms
7.5/10 YUMS
I've actually reviewed these on Behind The Dumb Episode 4. They're chocolate mushrooms. They're also Kinoko No Yama, or "Mountain of mushrooms" according to Google Translate. You don't really get a whole mountainful in the package, but you get a decent number. I think Behind The Dumb pretty much explains it all, but for a semi-transcript: These are short little Yan-Yan sticks about an inch long, and the top half of the stick is covered with a mushroom-cap-shaped blob of chocolate. So really simple, chocolate and cookie, and it looks like a mushroom.

They're not my favorite for one simple reason: the chocolate is a little bit dark. Not super dark by any means, and not as dark as Chocolate Wheat Puffs, but a hint of bitterness in there that I don't want. I'm happier with all the other wheat+chocolate Japanese options, like Chococone, Hello Panda, Pucca, Pocky, and so on. So in the end, I will eat these if I'm trapped on a desert island, and at the moment I'm trapped on just such an island - an island made of these being the only chocolate-based candies I have left. So I'm eating them. But I'm protesting it. 7.5/10 Yums.
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  Japanese Candy Fest 2013: Giant Caplico 09:36 PM -- Sun September 29, 2013  


Giant Caplico
8/10 YUMS
As you might expect, this is a Caplico, only a whole lot bigger. Along with the size increase comes a more normal ice cream cone shape, and a lot more difficulty and mess involved in eating it. Other than that, it tastes a lot like Caplico! You get a lot more chocolate versus cone, because it extends about 2 inches above the top of the cone, where normal-sized caplico just barely pokes out of the cone. In addition to that, the sheer thickness of the cone relative to the space inside is such that the overall ratio of chocolate to cone is weighted much more heavily towards chocolate in the giant edition. I'm not sure this is an improvement, but I'm willing to eat aerated chocolate.

I guess what it comes down to for me is the question of which size I would rather have. And ... I think it's normal size! These big ones are just messy. And though I don't remember what I paid, I'm betting you get better caplico for your money without the giantness gimmick. 8/10 Yums is a fair enough rating - almost as good as normal Caplico.
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  Japanese Candy Fest 2013: Coconut Pocky 09:40 PM -- Fri September 27, 2013  


Coconut Pocky
9/10 YUMS
Pocky is back! Yeah, I got a few. These ones are just what you would expect: a Pocky stick, with chocolate on it, and coconut bits in the chocolate. The only other fact worth noting here is that the chocolate seems to be lighter than usual, a very light color, and more sweet (I.e. further from dark chocolate). I don't know if they jammed some coconut oil or coconut milk or something into it, but whatever is in there, it's good sweet chocolate.

Normally, I do not like dried coconut. I love the flavor of coconut, and coconut oil is like my favorite substance in the world, but dried coconut is a texture problem for me. Little bits of paper in your mouth that won't go away. However, they did a really nice job here, perhaps just by shredding the coconut into very small bits, or maybe it's kept soft by the chocolate. I don't know, but whatever it is, it makes the coconut much more a flavor and less a texture, so it's fantuberous! I rate Coconut Pocky 9/10 Yums. It is chocolatey, coconutty, and delicious.
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  Japanese Candy Fest 2013: Sour Grape Soft Candy 10:26 PM -- Thu September 26, 2013  


Sour Grape Soft Candy
2/10 YUMS
Oomph. I didn't realize these were sour when I got them, then I noticed the face the grape-monster was making on the package. Also, the English description on these, "Soft Candy", is remarkably misleading. These candies are rock hard. Now, they are gummies, but they start out incredibly hard, and they have to sit in your mouth a while before you can even begin to chew them without suffering dental injury. So they are little pyramids of rock hard grape-flavored gummy, coated in sour powder.

Now I don't mind sour candy, I kind of enjoy it, but these just aren't good. They actually kind of taste like wine at first (well, once you get past the initial blast of ULTRA SOUR), then as the sour powder fades away they become just sweet grape flavor. Combine those flavor oddities with the hard texture, and it's just not pleasant. I must admit that I was initially attracted to these because they have some sort of special coin thing involved - on the back of the package it displays a few different coins with little gems and swords and such on them, and assigns them numerical values of some type. Inside the package, you find a few such coins in addition to the grape candies. They are the same hard gummy as the grapes, but they have a different flavor, and seem to have less sourness although I may have just gotten one that was underpowdered. I actually like them a lot better.

I hate to be all sour grapes about this, but I'm giving these 2/10 Yums, and there is some debate as to whether I'll even finish the package. And for me vs. candy, that's pretty serious!
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  Japanese Candy Fest 2013: Strawberry Baked Pie 01:37 PM -- Wed September 25, 2013  


Strawberry Baked Pie
9/10 YUMS
Now here's something different! These are hexagonal pies. Well, sort of. They are hexagons of puff pastry, about an inch across, very light and flaky, just your usual puff pastry. Inside, they are stuffed with - you guessed it - strawberry chocolate. It is most unfortunate that now, as I am down to my last 3 pies, I examined the box closely enough to realize there are microwave directions on here. I've been eating raw pie! No, it's not raw at all, but it apparently is supposed to be warmed up! I just gave one a 7-second cook (I see a 6 next their list of microwave wattages, so maybe it's supposed to go 6 seconds? It's sure not supposed to go 6 minutes, I can tell you that), and it was more delicious than ever. I've got two more chances... I think I'm gonna try a little longer. Hmm, after 10 seconds, the strawberry goo inside is still cold, but I'm scared to go longer.

Let's try it with the last one anyway. 30 full seconds... but wait, is the 6 talking about power settings? Let's give it a while at 60%. Oh wow. Yep. Do it! Thirty seconds at 60% made it piping hot, yet non-lethal, and oh so much tastier!

So what's not to like? You got puff pastry, strawberry chocolate, warmth, and that's that. Yummy pie. I think I'm gonna raise my initial rating now that I've baked my own pie. Deserving a full 9/10 after I nuked it into yumtown. I wanna get these again and cook them up properly next time! I also want to try the chocolate flavor. I'd also love to get these with a jam type filling instead of the strawberry chocolate, because they really do work nicely as little tiny pies.
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  Japanese Candy Fest 2013: Strawberry Pocky 04:50 PM -- Tue September 24, 2013  


Strawberry Pocky
8.5/10 YUMS
These are a fairly classic Pocky you may be able to find at your local non-Japanese grocery store, although there are (I think if I am remembering right...) two or more kinds of Strawberry Pocky. The kind you're most likely to find is not this one - it's just a pocky stick with plain strawberry chocolate around it. Those are okay. These are much better! They have the strawberry chocolate, but it's peppered with little dots of strawberry seeds (not sure that's a good thing...) and dried strawberries. Yum! As a bonus, or perhaps a minus since it actually means you get less food, the sticks are heart-shaped!

I rate Strawberry Pocky 8.5/10 Yums. It's very tasty, but not the greatest ever. So hard to rate things at this top end of the scale, but as I finish this review munching on my very last strawberry heart-stick, I think I've done it right. 8.5 will do. Oh man, maybe I should've said 9... but I have no more to test! Oh well.
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  Japanese Candy Fest 2013: Cream Collon 02:51 PM -- Mon September 23, 2013  


Cream Collon
8/10 YUMS
These are a unique candy... it's a wrapper of pastry that is about the same as Pirouline - very thin, flaky, crispy. Inside this wrapper is a substance I've never eaten before. It's like some sort of cream cheese and whipped cream combination, with a little bit of some spice in it that I can't recognize. But mainly it's all about that cream flavor. Perhaps that's why they call it Cream Collon. Or they call it that because if you're lactose intolerant like me, it could cream your colon.

I'm going to give these an 8/10, but it's a tentative rating... they definitely taste good, but there's just something a little odd, and I'm just not quite sure. If I had the equivalent little tube of pastry with actual cream cheese frosting in the middle, I'd be giving it a 10/10, but this is something a bit different!
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  Japanese Candy Fest 2013: Musk Melon Hard Candy 05:38 PM -- Sun September 22, 2013  


Musk Melon Hard Candy
7.5/10 YUMS
It's hard to review hard candies, because I'm never as excited about them, but at the same time, they always taste really good (unless they don't, which is really bad). If you don't know what the oddly-named musk melon is, it's pretty much a cantaloupe. I researched a bit and I'm still not entirely sure if the cantaloupe is a species of musk melon, or vice versa, or they're both a species of some larger group. Some sources claim they're just different names for the same thing. Regardless, they're not very different, so these candies taste just like cantaloupe, and that's about all there is to it. A hard candy you suck on for a long time to enjoy a sweet cantaloupe flavor.

It's good, and I'll be happy to have these around for months to come, because that's how long they'll last. I rarely even want a hard candy, but they are really nice for getting a sweet flavor without actually having very many calories. Not so good for your teeth, though. The best rating I can guess at here is 7.5/10 Yums, which feels a bit unfair because the flavor is very good, but I just can't get all that excited about a hard candy.
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