Japanese Candy of the Night: "Pompompurin" (Lips Candy)

[thistlechaser]

Continuing the "cute as heck and hopefully safe" trend, tonight we have Pompompurin! I'm not sure why I think this, but I almost believe that Pompompurin is the name of the dog character on the front and not the name of this product. 'Lips Candy' is written in English on the side of the container. (Oh, and I didn't crop that photo closer to show off my keyboard in the background. Look at my shift key! I wore an actual hole in it. There's only a broken off "flap" of plastic in place.)

This product comes in a little metal tin, with the cute as heck dog (wearing a hat!) on the outside. No matter how the candy inside tastes, this container is a keeper.

Unlike the other candy we've had lately, this one not only has the name in English, it has one of those "nutritional information" stickers on it. There are no ingredients listed, but let's see how healthy these are!

Vitamin A: 0%
Vitamin C: 0%
Calcium: 0%
Iron: 0%

However, on the other hand, all these bad things are listed at 0% as well: Fat, saturated fat, sodium. So what's in it? Sugar: 24 g. These candies are tiny (estimating smaller than my pinky fingernail) and they have 120 calories in each of them. I'm not really sure how that's possible, even if they were pure sugar.

Bah, speaking of sugar! These darned things make a *mess* on my desk every time I open them. They're covered in (what I hope is) powdered sugar, and it just falls all over the place when you open the can.

So, despite my worry at sandy white stuff (won't be salt, right? Promise me that! Promise me!), it's time to try them! Attempting the powder first, to make sure it's not salt. Hm. Not salt. It's not powdered sugar either. Sort of a waxy baby powder.

Got one in my mouth now. Under the white stuff is a hard candy. Oddly (very, very oddly) it warms up fast. Feels warmer than my mouth. Wow, freakily strange...

That baby powder/waxy flavor is still there, with a tiny under-taste of citrus. If not for that odd heat they seem to produce, these would be okay. Too flavorless to be "good", but boring enough not to be bad. (Hey, when you chew them they're a lot better. Almost like Life Savers, but in lemon.)

So their score? They gain points for non-deadliness, and more for a cute package. Let's give them a 9/10! A half-point lost for the messy powder, and a half-point just because.

Yay not dead Thistle!

(While rereading this to edit I realized that I should have known the white powder wasn't salt, since it has sodium listed at 0%. Silly me!)

Comments

[malecrit.livejournal.com]

Purin is indeed the name of that dog on the lid of the tin. He's a Sanrio character. In Japan he might be Pompompurin, too. The English Sanrio website claims he's just "Purin," but there are discrepancies between the English and the Japanese names (like "Badtz Maru" in the U.S. and "Bad Badtz Maru" in Japan). Actually, "Pompompurin" would make sense, because it's similar to "Kerokerokeroppi," which I *think* is the frog character's name in Japan, even though he's just "Keroppi" over here.

I'm guessing the reason for the English and nutrition information on the container is because it's a Sanrio product, too. The reason for the "lips candy" thing completely escapes me, though. (Have you ever been to engrish.com (http://www.engrish.com)? It's a joy to behold.)

...And I'd just like to excuse my Sanrio knowledge by mentioning that I lived in Japan when I was about thirteen. *hides collection of Sanrio, Winnie the Pooh, and Sesame Street-themed mechanical pencils and stationery*

[metron-ariston.livejournal.com]

That is too cute cute.

They look like lemon drops of some sort. Lemon-type hard candies always seem to come in similar tins here (unless they're Lemonheads in the old-fashioned boxes.) I have a feeling the nutritional info is just inaccurate, since I don't think it's possible for 24 grams of sugar to be in a single one of them.

And... I hate that burning-mouth feeling Japanese hard candies tend to have. I once bought a package of hard candies by Kasugai. I figured, they make really good gummis so the hard candies must be just as good and last longer. WRONG. Burning, ow, can't taste things right for two days, icky.

... I need to add Japanese candy to my interests list or something, I love eating it, talking about it, reading about it... whee.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

You know, that should have pinged with me as well. How could these little things have 24 grams of sugar each?

Silly non-metric me!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

While I don't tend to buy much, I love Sanrio stuff. So cute!

And it's been a while since I visited engrish.com, I should wander back there again!

I did a search on 'Pompompurin' after I made this post. They listed the names as Purin as well:

purin is a good-natured golden retriever who dreams of growing up and becoming a big dog -just like his mommy and daddy!

http://members.fortunecity.com/yoyi/MellowYellow/purin.html

[metron-ariston.livejournal.com]

Favorite foods... milk and pudding... Purin = what the Japanese call pudding... He's a dog made of pudding and he EATS HIMSELF.

Lips Candy

[tersa.livejournal.com]

Since you didn't include a pic of the nutritional label, I can't confirm my theory--however, the nutritional contents of food is generally by *serving*, and they will generally say at the top of the label (before the percentages) what constitutes a serving.

For example, Hershey Kisses have a serving size of 8 kisses.

As for the white-powder--I've seen that on U.S. candies, too, like Lemonheads (a U.S. lemon drop candy). I don't know what it actually *is*, but I think it's dusted on the candies to prevent them from sticking together in the packaging.

Re: Lips Candy

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the photo of the label didn't come out well (pictures of all-white things tend not to, at least for my camera). It does have a serving size: "1.10 (then some odd symbol)" Since I didn't think one and a tenth container made sense as a serving, I figured it must have meant one and a tenth candy (and just rounded it for ease-of-reading in the post).

The dusting of stuff makes sense, yeah. And I'm really glad it's not salt. :P

[hamburger.livejournal.com]

I was gonna be Miss Know-It-All and say that Purin is the name of the dog and that he's a Sanrio character-- but someone beat me to it! Curses! My one job in life has been stolen! ;)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

...

...

Japanese people scare me so much.

:)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Heehee! No worries, we'll love you anyway!

Re: Lips Candy

[rowanrhys.livejournal.com]

It's probably cornstarch... or possibly a rice-based starch, being these are from Japan. That's the only thing that I know of that matches up with the "taste" you described for the powder.

I really enjoy reading your candy reviews!