With the growing popularity and availability of Japanese snacks one may wonder what to try first. Or you may be that person who just doesn’t try new things and would like to see what your getting into. This guide will cover some of the most popular Japanese snacks, as well as some others that taste great too! Giving both the adventurers as well as the not so bold an idea of what’s in store for them. Most of these items can be found at Asian grocery stores, as well as at many on line establishments, such as Asian Food Grocer.
The most common and probably well known import is Pocky. Pocky consists of a biscuit or cookie type stick coated in assorted frostings. The most standard flavors being chocolate and strawberry. They also range from a simple coating to a lavish and rich frosting. Such as Pocky Dessert, which has flavors such as tiramisu, double chocolate, strawberry cake, and other flavors that you can find from time to time. The makers, Glico, also make Pretz which is in the same stick form but without the coating. More like a cracker, perfect for snacking anytime. Pretz comes in different flavors as well.
Another favorite is Morinaga’s Hi-chew. These are very similar to Starburst, although are packaged one flavor to a pack, and are very soft and chewy. Most common flavors are green apple, grape and strawberry. But there are also more interesting flavors such as mango, kiwi, pineapple, lychee and aloe. These are becoming popular as some American stores are starting to carry them as well.
Morinaga also produces a milk caramel. This is not your everyday caramel. The taste is faint, milky sweet with a slight orange aftertaste. It sounds weird but it works. Also unlike the caramel that we’re used to its not as chewy or soft. If you try these take note that there are two different varieties, with different quality. Make sure that you get the ones that are produced in Japan, the easiest way to identify the difference is to locate the web address listed on the packaging. It will end in “.jp”.
Botan rice candy is a favorite from my childhood, it is also a traditional Japanese candy. This chewy candy has a delicate citrus flavor somewhere between orange and lemon. The candy has an outer layer of rice paper. Rice paper looks clear and almost like its made of plastic. But it is in fact edible and melts in your mouth. Originally each box included a small plastic toy, this was later replaced with a sticker.
Meiji produces several different kinds of chocolate candies. Coffeebeat is a coffee flavored chocolate candy, shaped like a coffee bean, that has a crunchy candy coating. They also produce Hello Panda, a hollow biscuit or cracker like shell with a cartoon panda stamped on it, filled with either chocolate or strawberry cream. There is also a delightful little candy called Apollo which has a chocolate and strawberry flavor. It can also be found in blueberry, and melon. These and other chocolates that they manufacture come in a variety of flavors and packaging.
Ramune is a carbonated drink that also comes in several different forms of candy. Well known for its uncommon bottle design, the flavor is much similar to that of most lemon lime beverages. As with most other Japanese candies there are different variations of flavors. A good example of the candy form comes in a small plastic replica of the glass bottle the beverage comes in. They are small, round, white, and slightly powdery. There are also hard candy and chewy forms. Just like the beverage these come in the original flavor as well as melon, lychee, blue hawaii, orange and many others.
This is just a few of the many snacks you can find at a Asian grocery store or online. I hope that it helped to encourage some of you to try new things, and maybe this guide will help you find that new favorite snack.
