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thistlechaserSince I went shopping the other day, I have lots of candies to choose from. Good candies. Things with cute kittens on them, things with lists of ingredients on them so that I know what I'm getting into. So why am I doing one of the most scary items currently in my bag? Probably for the same reason I ate my veggies first when I was a kid: Get the bad things out of the way first, then you have only good stuff ahead of you. That and bad candies are probably more entertaining to read about than good...
Just how scary are Chocolate Starfish Kisses? (I made up the name, there's not a single word of English on the bag.) Check out this picture of the character on the front of the package. Look at the "mouth". What does that remind you of? Now look at the figure. Looks like chocolate, doesn't it? Put it together with the mouth and get... blech.
So happy-go-lucky Thistle took photos of the front of the package and the back, then opened it up so I could take some of the product itself.
Talk about flashbacks.
The first thing that hit me was a rotten wood smell. Now, I've had lots of experience with Japan's version of chocolate, so I knew to expect a smell (burnt oil), but I was not expecting that awful smell the orange peels had. Without realizing what I was doing, I poured them out of the package. Guess what. They're covered with white powder, just like those peels were. See?
Whimper.
That was about a half hour ago. Once I talked myself into coming out from under my bed and returning to the task at hand, I sniffed them again. Perhaps I was wrong in thinking them chocolate. Maybe (strong maybe) they're root beer? Or cola? The American shorts the chocolate figure thing on the package is wearing might fit with the soda theme... right? (The American shorts are what first attracted me to buying this. If it had American colors, maybe it would be okay to American tastes!)
However, they're enough like those orange peels to make me wary. Very wary. So I squeezed one to see what would happen. They seem to be gummi-like, and whatever that white power on them is, it comes right off. Dare I touch this to my tongue? Perhaps take it into my mouth? Bite it so that it gets stuck in my teeth and I never get the flavor out?
Have I backed down yet?
(Oh look! Photos are finished! I can save and resize and upload them first!)
(All done, but now Catlove is down. Again. Grr.)
So time to taste one!
jdewbvaswn fnejranjrenf fbjreklqbnfjlbbnlkq &^*&809!!
I said to myself that that white powder could NOT be salt. Not not not. It's a candy! This is not orange peel! GAH! Yes, that white coating these things have *is* pure salt. Some sort of super-strong burning Japanese salt! I did the same thing as last time: Just touched it to my tongue, and suddenly my mouth was flooded with burning salt! (Which explains the pucker on the package, I could *feel* all the moisture being drawn to the place that I touched it.)
Gah gah gah, blech! Covering candy with salt! Besides being disgusting, that must be terrible for you! Why is Japan doing this to their own people? Why are they doing it to me?
Sorry, folks. But I'm not eating one. I came, I saw, I tasted it... but I'll go no further than that. (Looking at them closely, they're in a shell of salt. A thick shell. That's insane!) I think I'll save the package though. It's rather... unique.
So a rating for these things? Ha. It can wait in the pile with those orange peels for a scientist to discover a number low enough. (And keep in mind, I like salty things. I sometimes add salt to TV dinners. I love salty popcorn. This is just salty to an insane level!)
Past candy reviews can be found here.
--------
While downloading photos, I noticed I had some of my cat. She likes to sleep on my footrest, even though it's nearly too small for her. See? That plastic bag right behind her is the candy bag of dooooom.
Edited to add: The candy has a website. It's ... really different.
And don't mind the clutter in the cat photo. That's my clutter-corner, right next to my desk. Lots of stuff ends up there until I can deal with it.
Just how scary are Chocolate Starfish Kisses? (I made up the name, there's not a single word of English on the bag.) Check out this picture of the character on the front of the package. Look at the "mouth". What does that remind you of? Now look at the figure. Looks like chocolate, doesn't it? Put it together with the mouth and get... blech.
So happy-go-lucky Thistle took photos of the front of the package and the back, then opened it up so I could take some of the product itself.
Talk about flashbacks.
The first thing that hit me was a rotten wood smell. Now, I've had lots of experience with Japan's version of chocolate, so I knew to expect a smell (burnt oil), but I was not expecting that awful smell the orange peels had. Without realizing what I was doing, I poured them out of the package. Guess what. They're covered with white powder, just like those peels were. See?
Whimper.
That was about a half hour ago. Once I talked myself into coming out from under my bed and returning to the task at hand, I sniffed them again. Perhaps I was wrong in thinking them chocolate. Maybe (strong maybe) they're root beer? Or cola? The American shorts the chocolate figure thing on the package is wearing might fit with the soda theme... right? (The American shorts are what first attracted me to buying this. If it had American colors, maybe it would be okay to American tastes!)
However, they're enough like those orange peels to make me wary. Very wary. So I squeezed one to see what would happen. They seem to be gummi-like, and whatever that white power on them is, it comes right off. Dare I touch this to my tongue? Perhaps take it into my mouth? Bite it so that it gets stuck in my teeth and I never get the flavor out?
Have I backed down yet?
(Oh look! Photos are finished! I can save and resize and upload them first!)
(All done, but now Catlove is down. Again. Grr.)
So time to taste one!
jdewbvaswn fnejranjrenf fbjreklqbnfjlbbnlkq &^*&809!!
I said to myself that that white powder could NOT be salt. Not not not. It's a candy! This is not orange peel! GAH! Yes, that white coating these things have *is* pure salt. Some sort of super-strong burning Japanese salt! I did the same thing as last time: Just touched it to my tongue, and suddenly my mouth was flooded with burning salt! (Which explains the pucker on the package, I could *feel* all the moisture being drawn to the place that I touched it.)
Gah gah gah, blech! Covering candy with salt! Besides being disgusting, that must be terrible for you! Why is Japan doing this to their own people? Why are they doing it to me?
Sorry, folks. But I'm not eating one. I came, I saw, I tasted it... but I'll go no further than that. (Looking at them closely, they're in a shell of salt. A thick shell. That's insane!) I think I'll save the package though. It's rather... unique.
So a rating for these things? Ha. It can wait in the pile with those orange peels for a scientist to discover a number low enough. (And keep in mind, I like salty things. I sometimes add salt to TV dinners. I love salty popcorn. This is just salty to an insane level!)
Past candy reviews can be found here.
--------
While downloading photos, I noticed I had some of my cat. She likes to sleep on my footrest, even though it's nearly too small for her. See? That plastic bag right behind her is the candy bag of dooooom.
Edited to add: The candy has a website. It's ... really different.
And don't mind the clutter in the cat photo. That's my clutter-corner, right next to my desk. Lots of stuff ends up there until I can deal with it.
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no subject
Date: 2003-07-21 09:49 pm (UTC)...Okay, so you don't actually have to taste it. I just thought I'd ramble a bit. You're very, very brave for even going there. Gah. ;)
no subject
Date: 2003-07-21 10:01 pm (UTC)Gummis are the worst candy to do this with, because they get in your teeth and you can't get the flavor out of your mouth for hours.
Now that I've settled down some, I'd be more open to cutting one open and maybe tasting the inside, but they're all in the trash already. I'm not willing to eat out of the garbage to try them. :P
Next time I won't wimp out and not try it all the way though.
no subject
Date: 2003-07-21 11:15 pm (UTC)I get the feeling Asian kids are a lot more into "savory" snacks than we are in the West here with our sweet-tooth focus. I wonder if it was some sort of salt-cured vegetable and not a chocolate at all. Hmm.
My friend Ray at work reads some Japanese, and spent the first 10 years of his life there or so, maybe I can show him the picture. He is the one who always provides "tech support" for my ramen or udon purchases :)
no subject
Date: 2003-07-21 11:40 pm (UTC)The shigekix.com site didn't translate well because it is all graphics except for the flash and realplayer instructions.
Searching on link:shigekix.com gave some other sites that link back to your candy. A promising one is here.
http://www.uha-mikakuto.co.jp/pro/gummi/02.html
Feeding through Babelfish you get:
Super cola: Expressing sourness and the foaming impression with the powder which is attached outside. Not only sweet, sourness and cola unique bitterness are feature.
-----------------
I like Babel's new Japanese feature but it usually stumbles over translations or gets them way wrong. It can't really tell when something is a proper name either, like Mononoke-Hime is not supposed to be "The Thing Removing Princess"
no subject
Date: 2003-07-22 07:11 am (UTC)Wow... I... That's somehow more scary than not knowing what it was supposed to be like.
I am guessing this... item... was not from the local Japanese market? They are usually pretty good about putting ingredients and maybe two or three words of descriptive text.
Actually it was from the local place. I was sort of surprised how many things had no USDA info stickers on them (at least fully 50%), as I thought it was the law that you had to do that for food sold here.
Mononoke-Hime is not supposed to be "The Thing Removing Princess"
That made me laugh. Loudly. :)
no subject
Date: 2004-03-06 12:22 pm (UTC)actually, I can confirm this. My parents find American sweets COMPLETELY too sweet, to the point that they get migraines off it. I have the sweet-tooth of the family, but then again I eat *everything*. It might have been helpful to know that 'sweets' aren't necessarily 'sweets' more of a lumped catagory of 'snacks'. I have this favorite lollipop that's semi-carmelized sugar with a supersour/salty preserved plum in the middle. If it also helps, know that aLOT of latin american candies feature chili powder in their sweets. Or, you can view it as a more extreme version of warheads...
no subject
Date: 2004-03-06 12:27 pm (UTC)I'm not good with strongly flavored food (other than perhaps sweet), even Warheads are too much for me! I can't imagine chili powder in candy. Eek!
:)
no subject
Date: 2004-03-06 12:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-07-22 06:18 am (UTC)I can't stand sours personally, but I know people who love 'em - they're widely available over here.