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.