Snack Review: Kumamon Hot Cocoa Pocky

I can't believe I haven't blogged about Pocky yet. If you don't know what Pocky is, you've been missing out because it's one of the most well-known, fun and tasty Japanese snacks around. They're pretty much chocolate covered biscuit sticks, but Glico, the company behind Pocky, create different flavoured chocolate coatings for the snack. 

Last week, while at my local Asian grocery store, I found a special Kumamon box of Pocky. They didn't say what the flavour was, but there was a picture of a cow and a cup of steaming brown drink, which I took to be hot cocoa (I did some research later on and online sellers of the snack have said that it's hot cocoa flavoured). The packaging was cute (and I have a soft spot for Kumamon), so I bought it. The cool thing about the box was that you could pop out the ears and arms....Along with the Kumamon face, you could turn the box into a square Kumamon!

...So after opening the box, that's exactly what I did. It was adorable. I really liked the internal plastic packaging for the biscuits too. They had lots of little Kumamon pictures printed on it. Kumamon has such cute little arm movements!

How were the biscuits though? They were very chocolate-flavoured. As soon as I took them out of the plastic I could see chocolate flavoured biscuits sticks, dipped in 'hot-cocoa-flavoured' chocolate with cocoa crumbs. The biscuits and the chocolate flavoured dipping were a good match. While the biscuits weren't that sweet, the cocoa chocolate added that flavour to the biscuits. The chocolate was quite milky in flavour. It reminded me of some instant Hokkaido milk tea drinks that I'd tried. 

The coca crumbs were also nice. It made it a bit crunchier in texture and differentiated the flavour from other chocolate flavoured versions of Pocky. It wasn't my most favourite flavour as I'm not always the biggest fan of chocolate-flavoured snacks despite my love for real chocolate, but it was pleasant for a sweet treat. More milky and cocoa-flavoured than heavily chocolate. 

In any case, I definately liked it and would buy them again if I was craving Pocky, provided that there were no new flavours I wanted to try.

Overall, Kumamon Hot Cocoa Pocky is pleasantly milky and reminds you of solidified hot chocolate in biscuit form. Kumamon Hot Cocoa Pocky scores a 7/10.

Zebra Sarasa Clip: Chupa Chup Series

Remember how excited I was when I heard about the Chupa Chup Sarasa pens? Well I bought them pretty much as soon as I could...I could just never find enough sunlight to get a good picture of them. But I finally managed today. (I'm starting to think I should just find a way to take photos without relying on the sunlight. I have thousands and thousands of pens...and it's pretty much winter now, so this might take me a looong time to photograph my entire collection!)

This is a limited edition series that has been on sale since Janurary 2015 and it shows a collaboration between Zebra and the lollipop company, Chupa Chups. The newest scents for Zebra exhibited in this collection are: Dark Blue (Cola), Yellow (Pudding) and Red (Cherry). The pen bodies are beautiful and bright with patterns similar to Chupa Chup wrappers. Each flavour is also printed on the pen.

The whole collection consists of 10 pens: Black (Chocolate ice-cream), Purple (Grape), Pink (Peach), Red (Cherry), Orange (Orange), Light Orange (Mango), Yellow (Pudding), Dark Green (Green Apple), Light Blue (Vanilla) and Dark Blue (Cola).

Snack Review: Meiji Takenoko No Sato White Chocolate and Cocoa

Have you tried Meiji Takenoko No Sato snacks before? They're little chocolate-covered biscuits shaped like pine cones (Actually, they're bamboo shoots, but they look more like pine cones to me, so excuse me for calling them that!) There's always new flavours on the market, most of them limited edition or seasonal, so if you ever see a special flavour that you've never seen before at your local Asian Grocery store, grab several boxes before they sell out! I've tasted other flavours in the past including Strawberry and Chocolate, but I ate most of them before I had a blog, so I haven't posted anything about them before.

Today, I'll be reviewing the snow-covered bamboo shoots. What flavour is that, you ask? Why, it's white chocolate with Cocoa biscuit (and Cocoa powder). To start, I'll say I really like the packaging of these biscuits. They have really cute winter illustrations...just look at those little birds and snow covered houses! When I think about it, I never know how I actually motivate myself to open Japanese snacks...it always involves taking apart the boxes and destroying the cute illustrations you see! And in this case, the packaging cuteness didn't just stop there...There was also a plastic covering with little villages and forrests printed on it...

When I opened up the packaging, cute bamboo shoots fell out. The shape of the little biscuits were so adorable that I almost didn't want to eat them. The impressive thing about the snack was that it looked exactly like the illustrations on the front. It shouldn't be that impressive, but sometimes the snacks you buy look nothing like their enticing advertising. Especially Japanese snacks, which have pretty wrappers and boxes (I guess that's the downside of cute packaging...it can be very deceptive!) But yes, the biscuits were super cute and actually resembled snow-covered bamboo shoots. They tasted delicious too - cocoa flavoured and covered in smooth white chocolate. They were very biscuity and crunchy and I could really taste the milk, eggs and cocoa used to bake them...which made the snack feel a lot more fresh than many of the other similar products out there.

The white chocolate was milky in taste and reminded me of Cadbury's white chocolate, but not as sickeningly sweet. The pairing of the cocoa with the white chocolate was smart because it made the subtle chocolate a lot more flavoursome. I must warn you all, though, that these are seriously addictive. I opened the packet up to photograph them and within a few minutes, my sister and I had devoured them all. Once we popped, we couldn't stop...

Overall, these little bamboo shoots were fun and delicious to eat and I'll definately eat them again (I'll probably review all the seasonal flavours as I find them!) Meiji Takenoko No Sato White Chocolate and Cocoa scores a 9/10.

Snack Review: Tokyo Cup de Cheesecake

I'd seen the little cheesecakes for sale at my favourite Japanese snack store, MD Ranking, twice before. But on both occasions, I'd missed out due to the popularity of the snack (I'll also mention that MD Ranking seems to order a limited amount and snacks get sold out like that!) So when I saw the last box for grabs yesterday afternoon, I made sure to buy it even though it cost me $25!

The cheesecakes sat in a very cute little box. Whilst not Kawaii cute, the box made the food look delicious and soft, especially with its pictures of the rippling cheese and spoons full of creamy cheesecake.

Each of the individual cakes had a little plastic around them stamped with the cute light blue logo of the company. I also liked the actual cups the cakes were in. Tiny, shallow little oval dishes. The Japanese just do such a lovely job with packaging, though sometimes I wish they would use a little less plastic.

The Cheesecakes were soft and rich and creamy. Totally smooth and silky on my tongue. I don't normally expect this from packaged cakes, but Tokyo Cup de Cheesecake cakes were really creamy and delicious! I would totally recommend trying it if you see it in your local Japanese snack store.

There was only one flavour in my local store - this creamy original or vanilla flavour. But if you're interested in other flavours, you can view them on this Japanese sales website for Tokyo Cup de Cheese!

Overall, Tokyo Cup de Cheesecake scores a 10/10. Smooth, creamy cheesecake cups. Treat yourself. You know you want to...

Zebra Sarasa Clip Pens: Pink Series

It's been awhile since I've posted about my pens, right? I like to do pen photoshoots when I have enough natural light...lately it's been getting darker here as it's winter. But I managed to snap a picture of one of my newer collections the other day.

Today I present to you....The Pink series. I wasn't initially into these because it seemed like they were rather plain, and being a limited series, they were rather difficult to find. Thanks Heidi and Pamela for the trades! But the idea of owning all the different shades of pink grew on me as I've always liked the idea of collecting all the colours of the world...in gel pen form. Also, I really liked some of the illustrations on the pen bodies. My favourite ones are the mustache and the airplanes. Cute designs, even if they're a bit girly.

The whole collection comprises of just 5 pens: Baby Pink (Crowns, Rings and Locks), Rose Pink (Rainbows and Planes), Cutie Pink (Hearts and Logo), Peach Pink (Yellow and Pink Stars and Logo) and Coral Pink (Pink and Black Mustaches and Bows).

Please note: This set is not for trade. It's just a display of my collection. Thanks!

Snack Review: Meiji Rich Matcha and Meiji Rich Strawberry Chocolate

Japanese Chocolate is surprisingly good. You never really think of Japan as being a chocolate manufacturing country, but as I mentioned previously on my blog, I like the Japanese chocolates A LOT more than the American ones. Japanese chocolates are not as sickeningly sweet and they're creamier than American 'candy' bars. But they've got less calories than some of the richer European chocolates.

Meiji's Rich Matcha and Rich Strawberry chocolate blocks are a good example of this. They're beautifully packaged with metallic green and red wrappers respectively. The Matcha block is decorated with pictures of green tea leaves, while the strawberry block has strawberries. Haha, no surprises there. I call them chocolate blocks for want of words. They're quite thin and small in size, only 3 or 4 rectangular blocks wide.

I really like both favours, but if I had to pick one over the other, it would be Matcha. The Matcha bar was dense, packed full of creaminess and strong matcha flavouring. It was just right in terms of sweetness and contained a lot of matcha powder. The green tea scent was strong and pleasant and the texture was very, very smooth. It kind of reminded me of a crayon...but I only use that idea to describe it's texture and not it's beautiful taste.  I would rate it as one of the best Japanese chocolates I've tried so far.

The Strawberry bar was also thick and creamy, dense and rich. But it had more of a tart flavouring and contained little strawberry pieces blended within the chocolate. It also had a lovely strawberry fragrance.

Overall, Meiji's Rich Matcha and Rich Strawberry chocolates are delicious. Some of the best Asian chocolate I've had even though they are pricey at $5 a pop. These bars score a 9/10.

Snack Review: Bourbon Choco Milk Chocolate chips

Sorry for the long delay in posts...I've been busy securing my sets of Chupa Chups pens. I'll definately show them off when they arrive. I'm quite in love with the design!

Today, though, I'll be doing a Japanese snack review on Bourbon Choco Milk Chocolate Chips. Until very recently, I use to think chocolate covered chips were weird. The combination of a very salty snack with a very sweet one sounded like it would be extremely rich and to be frank, a bit sickening. But then my local Japanese store started selling Royce chips and I tried it and was sold for life. Unfortunately, no photos of Royce yet, so I'm going to review another popular brand of chocolate covered chips - Bourbon.

Bourbon chocolate chips come in a cute, small little tub. The design is very luxurious with golden Japanese font and pictures of pools of chocolate dripping onto chips.

To open the container, you just peel off the top and you have access to Milk chocolate covered chips. Bourbon packaging is much smaller than Royce packaging, which places the chips into square boxes, double the size of the Bourbon tubs. The plus side of this (aside from not being made to over-eat) is that Bourbon chips are cheaper. In Australia, Bourbon chocolate chips are $4.50-$5.00, while Royce chips are a dear $17.00 per pack.

In regards to Bourbon 'chips', I say the term very loosely. They're not so much chips, but puffier, salty crackers in the shape of crinkle cut chips. Definately not like the potato chips produced by Royce. Do they taste bad? No, not really. Especially not with the chocolate covering. But they're definately not your traditional chip and will disappoint those looking for the conventional potato taste. But I like these crackers enough to keep eating the little treats. They're pretty much as salty and crunchy as regular chips, so I don't feel that they lack in a 'chip' taste at all.

As for the chocolate, it is creamy Japanese milk chocolate. I prefer Japanese chocolate to American chocolate, like Hershey's and Reece's. I feel that it has a fresher, creamier taste...more aligned to European chocolate, which I really like. Bourbon chocolate has a rich taste, but is not bitter. The chips are covered just enough to make them deliciously sweet and crunchy. If they're curled in the middle, there's more chocolate. Something to look forward to? I think so.

Overall, Bourbon Choco Milk Chocolate Chips score a 7/10. Sweet n' salty fun.

Zebra's latest pen collection announced: Zebra Sarasa x Chupa Chups

Happy New Year! It's been a busy start to the year for me so I haven't had time to update. But I'll be getting back into the swing of things soon - especially as I recieved a pen trade that completed two of my pen collections - The Aqua Shabon of the Zebra Sarasa Fresh Paradise collection and The Moustache Pink for the Zebra Sarasa Pink Series collection. Thanks so much Heidi for trading with me! I've also made a Jetpens order for some lovely Field Notes notebooks, which I can't wait to get! Photos coming soon.

But I'm here today to announce some exciting news from Zebra Japan. For their latest Sarasa pen collection, Zebra have teamed up with Chupa Chups to create a colourful, new series of pens. These pens will be on sale from Jan 19th, 2015 from all shops in Japan that carry Zebra Sarasa pens.

There will be 10 pens in the set, which the following colours and scents: Red (Cherry), Orange (Orange), Light Orange (Mango), Yellow (Pudding), Green (Apple), Dark Blue (Cola), Light Blue (Vanilla), Pink (Peach), Purple (Grape) and Black (Chocolate ice-cream).

As usual, the pens will come in a packet of 10...

Although you may also purchase them in separate packets of 5, in both a red packet and a blue packet

What I really love is that the pen barrels will be lined with the Chupa Chups flavour, as well as little lollipops. The print will also follow the pop-arty designs of Chupa Chup flavours with the iconic Salvadore Dali designed logo. 

I'm also really looking forward to the new scents. I know Uniball have created Cherry and Cola scents before, but I've never owned any Cherry or Cola scented pens by Zebra. I'm also looking forward to a pudding scented pen. Wonder what that would be like?!

The next collaboration I'd like to see with Zebra is maybe with Kit Kats (as there are crazy Kit Kat flavours in Japan)...or maybe Pepsi (Again, there are some mad Pepsi flavours that you'd only get in Japan!) To see them immortalised in pen form would be awesome. Who do you hope Zebra will collaborate with?