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.

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.