Pocky'n'stuff
Dec. 8th, 2006 02:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wombat1138For the final volley of Thanksgiving leftovers, I stopped by one of the local Asian supermarkets for some ingredients to help me convert turkey stock into hot and sour soup. As usual, I got snared by the candy aisle. Today's damage: Haribo "fizzy cola" gummies, kuroame hard candy, and two multipacks of Pocky.
The "fizzy cola" is pretty much the same as regular cola gummies, except with a coating of sour sand, probably a mix of citric and malic acids based on the ingredients label. The slighty grittiness does provide a partial illusion of carbonation (how I miss the carbonated chocolate frogs Trader Joe had a few years ago), but also significantly masks the base cinnamon/orange flavor. The gummies themselves also seem a bit tougher than usual-- I'd guess from lower moisture content; Haribo's regular gummies usually have a thin protective layer of oil, though they're not as downright soggy as some other brands can feel right out of the bag.
I've been looking out for kuroame since I first encountered it in a bag of mixed hard candies. I only remember two out of the other three flavors from that bag: green tea and millet jelly, which were both pleasant enough but didn't seize my attention like the kuroame. (The millet jelly didn't really have much flavor to speak of; its sweetness had a faint tinge of salt and a very smooth mouthfeel.) Kuroame, or "black sugar", was traditionally made in Okinawa by boiling down raw sugarcane juice without further significant purification; the result has a lovely caramelized, semi-smoky taste somewhat reminiscent of maple sugar/syrup. (Hm. The label says the kuroame candy contains MSG. That's strange.)
And finally, the Pocky. One box is labeled "kurugo" (black five) in both kanji and romaji against a black background, which is further decorated by five different sets of other kanji surmounted with equivalent romaji: kurogoma, kurokarin, kuromatsunomi, kurogome, and kuromame. The only ones I was fairly sure about were kurogoma (black sesame seed) and kuromame black bean); the others seem to be black currant, black pine nut, and black rice.
Similarly, the other box is labeled "goka" (five fruits) on a kinda orangey background-- it's hard to describe the exact shade, sort of a pale bittersweet or dark peach. Its subtypes are anzu (apricot), kuri (chestnut), momo (peach), natsume (jujube fruit), and sumomo (apparently a type of Japanese plum that's related to but different from ume).
I haven't tried any of the Pocky yet since I'm still chomping my way through the gummy colas, so I don't know whether there are five distinct flavors in each box or whether all five flavors are blended together into a uniform coating.
The "fizzy cola" is pretty much the same as regular cola gummies, except with a coating of sour sand, probably a mix of citric and malic acids based on the ingredients label. The slighty grittiness does provide a partial illusion of carbonation (how I miss the carbonated chocolate frogs Trader Joe had a few years ago), but also significantly masks the base cinnamon/orange flavor. The gummies themselves also seem a bit tougher than usual-- I'd guess from lower moisture content; Haribo's regular gummies usually have a thin protective layer of oil, though they're not as downright soggy as some other brands can feel right out of the bag.
I've been looking out for kuroame since I first encountered it in a bag of mixed hard candies. I only remember two out of the other three flavors from that bag: green tea and millet jelly, which were both pleasant enough but didn't seize my attention like the kuroame. (The millet jelly didn't really have much flavor to speak of; its sweetness had a faint tinge of salt and a very smooth mouthfeel.) Kuroame, or "black sugar", was traditionally made in Okinawa by boiling down raw sugarcane juice without further significant purification; the result has a lovely caramelized, semi-smoky taste somewhat reminiscent of maple sugar/syrup. (Hm. The label says the kuroame candy contains MSG. That's strange.)
And finally, the Pocky. One box is labeled "kurugo" (black five) in both kanji and romaji against a black background, which is further decorated by five different sets of other kanji surmounted with equivalent romaji: kurogoma, kurokarin, kuromatsunomi, kurogome, and kuromame. The only ones I was fairly sure about were kurogoma (black sesame seed) and kuromame black bean); the others seem to be black currant, black pine nut, and black rice.
Similarly, the other box is labeled "goka" (five fruits) on a kinda orangey background-- it's hard to describe the exact shade, sort of a pale bittersweet or dark peach. Its subtypes are anzu (apricot), kuri (chestnut), momo (peach), natsume (jujube fruit), and sumomo (apparently a type of Japanese plum that's related to but different from ume).
I haven't tried any of the Pocky yet since I'm still chomping my way through the gummy colas, so I don't know whether there are five distinct flavors in each box or whether all five flavors are blended together into a uniform coating.
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no subject
on 2006-12-09 01:29 am (UTC)[and... carbonated chocolate frogs? ... Trader Joe's?]
... *dies from jealousy*
no subject
on 2006-12-09 06:19 pm (UTC)^_^; Ook-- I didn't mean to... do you need a Pockygram? If you want to send me your Snail address and some hints about snacky preferences (all Pocky, all the time? Random hard candies or gummies or cookies etc. from one of the Asian supermarkets?), I can stuff somekinda mailing box and send it along; my email address is in my profile. I think.