♡ Welcome to Candy Land ♡

みなさん、こんにちは!

Have you heard about the Candyman? The Candyman you say? Why yes the Candyman is a bastard because he's created such wonderful sweets for all the boys and girls of the world to devour and break their diets and become fat again *cries internally a little*

Today's subject is less about sweets and angling more towards potato snacks really... but there are sweets involved, just not so many as you'd think. Also the delectables mentioned today shall be from Japan as over the past couple of weeks, I have been accumulating some pieces and tasting and just... wow. I am in love with some pieces whilst others are just... meh. But all in all, I can see why some people go for these delights more than pieces from their own country. Personally, I've only just stuck to sweets purchased from Expo (from Sushi Noms and Tofu Cute) and sometimes branched out when gone to certain shops in Chinatown that sell Japanese sweets/snacks or even at Japan Centre with their extortionate prices.... but anyway back to the actual subjects of this post. I'm not sure how I'll write this post so bear with me please!

Candies - Gummy, Chewy and Hard

Suica and Kakikori Gumi

I love themed sweets and as it's summer, how can you resist summer themed ones? The watermelon gummies were going to be an obvious choice, as watermelon is one of my favourite fruits, and I decided to go with 'shaved ice' style gummies to see what they were like. Honestly, I was extremely disappointed with the watermelon gummy... I was expecting to taste more like watermelon? Instead, it felt like I was just eating an overly sweet lump of sugar and that's just nasty to me as I hate extremely sickly, sweet items. However though, I was surprised at how tasty the shaved ice gummies were! There was, hmm to describe it is difficult as it was like a sugar layer but it wasn't sugar? In fact, the shaved ice gummies tasted less sweeter than the watermelon altogether as there was a squishy centre, almost liquid but it wasn't quite liquid nor in solid gummy state. I'd definitely get the shaved ice gummies again in the future and hopefully they'll come back for next summers sweets line.

Milky (Creamy)

I love Milky's and I especially love this creamy version. I originally purchased a packet back at May's Expo as an impulse buy and I'm so glad I did. Also, my mam likes these sweets as well! They're a chewy sweet but they're not too chewy - if you eat toffees they're kind of like soft toffees and not the hard toffees that take forever to get through. I loved the extra creamy surprise in the middle as well, it kind of made the sweet feel kind of like a milkshake and it helped ease the chewing. Again, I find these sweets not too overly sweet which are perfect for me! Even though I find it hard sometimes, I do restrict myself to eating one of these delights per day to make them last longer!

Puccho

Puccho, by far, is one of my ultimate go-to chewy sweets! Because I like sour foods, some of the flavours appeal to me the most - the raume and cola ones more - as they have some sharp, sour pieces embedded in the chew! The others have gummy pieces which give a burst of juicy flavour instead of sharpness and that's also nice to eat as well... but the cola and ramune flavours will always be my favourite followed by the peach flavour.

Chocolate

CRUNKY

Chocolates can sometimes be a hit or miss for me. In the past, most chocolates from Japan have mainly been a miss because the taste just has never appealed to me and I sometimes find them a little too sweet. Even though I don't like overly sweet sweets, I do however enjoy eating white chocolate every now and again and with this particular Crunky bar there are hidden... how can I put it... rice pieces? You know like rice krispies? Them. The contrast of the texture works really well against the creaminess of the chocolate and because it didn't really have a flavour, it kind of tones down the sweetness. However, I won't be purchasing this again as once is enough for me!

Kit Kats

Japanese kit kats are definitely on a whole different level than the kit kats here in the UK! Over here, the flavours are quite boring and only recently, have branched out with some new ones. Another little perk of these kit kats are the fact that they come in mini size so you can share them with others and still have loads left over! I still have all of these flavours pictured above after getting some sent to me via my penpal whilst the others were purchased from Hyper Japan and on ebay. Also, if you have tried any of the kit kat flavours, has anybody noticed how strong certain flavours come out? For example; I don't drink and so when I purchased the rum rain kit kat, I thought it would be a very mild flavour but it wasn't, the rum is extremely over powering to the point where it feels like I could get drunk off one kit kat! In the end, I gave the box to my parents and they've been enjoying them instead, I wish I could have liked them but hey, you can't like everything right?

Snacks

Umaibo

Umaibo is a strange thing for me... it's sort of crossed between a puffed snack and a crisp snack... more puffed than a crisp in looks though. The flavours are really intense on these creations but they seriously are super delicious! My favourite flavours so far are the cheese, tonkatsu sauce and the beef tongue! I'm surprised that I enjoyed the beef tongue actually but the flavours available are so unique and different that it would be a shame to miss out! I need to get some more flavours of these things as I haven't tried them all yet, but I'm looking forward to tasting what is left! I think the only one I'm steering clear of is natto flavour as I'm not too keen on natto in general!

Chip Star

These were another impulse purchase. I noticed that they resemble Pringles a little bit so I was curious about them. I was kind of right, they are like Pringles but they taste less... stuffed with preservatives and e-numbers if that makes any sense? They taste very light and I don't feel bloated and over stuffed after having a couple. Plus the big tube on the left lasted me almost a month because inside the tube they have a foil inside which keeps the chips fresher for longer! No more stale Pringles for me!

Scones & Cheetos

Scones and Cheetos... two different labels and brands but pretty much almost the same product at the end of the day. Cheetos are actually, my all time favourite crisp snack and I would eat them 24/7 if I could. So when I read that Scones were a cheeto-esque product, I was curious to find out how "cheeto like" these crisps were. I was not disappointed. The flavours are amazing - especially the triple cheese flavour (white packet in left picture) as it really tends to a cheese-a-holics needs! The flavours, also, are not overpowering at all - which is a nice bonus - and they don't taste greasy nor do they have the tendency to leave a thin film of flavour on your fingertips like some crisp products do. The points I've stated above are exactly the same with the Cheetos, I'm really glad that I was able to taste some other flavours besides the ones we get over here - puffs, jalapeno and crunchy. Honestly, go on ebay for the Cheeto flavours and go to either Oyatsucafe or Candysan for the Scones, you won't regret it.

And thus, I bring this post to a close. I hope you all enjoyed what you read and if you ever decide to try any of the products listed above - let me know! I also want to write more food/snack posts like this in the future but I'm not sure how to go about it really - maybe recipes or restaurant reviews on where I go to eat when out in London? Any suggestions about this subject would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks for reading!
xoxo