11.07.10
Hana Junior Ball Cookie
Bubbles entertains us today with a “somewhat” tastier version of
Hot-Kid Honey Ball Cookies from Hana brand, simply named Junior Ball Cookie. Junior Ball Cookie has even fewer ingredients than Hot-Kid’s cookies (potato starch powder, sugar, honey, carotin) but sadly, have some unfortunate similarities. Both tiny round (but nicely crunchity with a light airy crisp) cookies are dusty. I’m taking pot shots at the potato starch powder for that; it’s like a round sweet puff fell onto the eraser ledge of an overused chalkboard. Meh.
Junior Ball also has a pretty prevalent chemical taste about it just as the Honey Balls did. I might as well blame the potato starch powder for that too, although it seems to me that Junior Ball Cookie is somewhat more palatable than the Honey Balls were. That could be just time and tide softening the punch, or maybe it’s the sugar. One thing Junior Ball Cookie has is sugar. Woah gees. I remember getting to eat Honey Smacks (back then called Sugar Smacks), which is basically puffed rice slathered in a sugary coat, for the first time and thinking “Wow, these are like bland dipped in pure sugar.” Junior Ball Cookie is a lot like that except the sugary bland also comes with a helping of unpleasantness. Yet again, I blame the potato starch powder.
The pluses are few but pretty noteworthy. I like the crunch. I also like the cute little round puff balls, I bet these are the perfect size for tiny fingers to grab. I also dig the packaging quite a lot – cute bunny! I wouldn’t, however, ever feed my kids or anyone else’s kids these snacks though…there is a reason Cheerios are a time honored tot snack institution. It could be because even plain boring Cheerios have a decent oaty taste to them and they are probably way less sugary too.
Rating of 1 Wasabi Pea out of a possible 5.
Bubbles said,
November 15, 2010 at 5:05 pm
Yeah, the super-adorable bunny is basically the only reason I picked it up. 🙂
Kevin said,
November 18, 2010 at 2:05 am
…and the horrible-tasting balls then turn into a paste which coats the inside of your mouth. BLEAH with a capital B. 1 pea might be too generous.