05.26.08

Sweety Novelty Company Mochi (sesame)

Posted in 1.5 Wasabi Pea Rating, Mochi, Sweet at 12:38 am by Boo

I thought that I might post(date) a little Memorial Day JSFR for funs and also I’m quite far behind and have missed last weekend (or two weekends ago if you are reading real time). I guess this is less “extra JSFR goodness” and more “getting me current on the review” but can’t we pretend that this is an extra JSFR and get on with the review? I mean, it’s Memorial Day (hush) which is traditionally a cooking out sort of day and here I’ve brought some portable ice cream goodies to the mix. From a new company even: Sweety Novelty Company.

Heh. Sweety. Here’s the interesting thing about today’s JSFR: It isn’t. I sort of wish I had discovered this before I had written the entire review up but as it happened, I was trying to figure out the parent company and lo. There on the side I did not use for my pic it says “Product of the U.S.A.” Doah. But, mochi is definitely an eastern thing so I’m going to honorary in Sweety’s contribution to the mochi market because this is the good old U. S. of A jumping on the mochi bandwagon.

Sweety makes a couple flavors of mochi that I’ve previously reviewed from other mochi companies but this is the first sesame mochi I’ve seen. Rock! And also I thought it might not be too bad because sesame tastes somewhat peanutty and I like peanut. Indeed, these mochi do taste somewhat peanutty in a decent sesame sort of way but that’s not what grabbed my attention.

I forgot that sesame comes in a couple different flavors and the most potent of them is not the delightfully creamy tan-brown sesame. Nor is it the white sesame. It is in fact, the black sesame and when you make an ice cream mochi out of black sesame, it comes out the color of concrete. Or brains. Even concrete brains in some rare instances, but the point of this colorful narrative is that the color of the ice cream is…bizarre. Personally, I was delightfully amused to be eating slate gray ice cream but LunarGeography, my handy Guinea Pig, was appalled. It is true that gray matter looking sweetie treats are a little off putting but come on. It’s gray! Ew! And also HEE!

As far as the mochi’s handle on sesame they managed to get the flavor across nicely. The ice cream is solid name brand tasting ice cream and everything would have been peachy if it were not for the odd oiliness. It’s a lingering mildly gritty oily and sort of slicks your mouth after the mochi is gone. Meh…not entirely pleasant. LG was highly bothered by the sensation and had quite a few unpleasant things to say about it. I was more amused by eating GRAY but I will agree that the oiliness is a little off putting.

In looking at the packaging I discovered a few odd things. On the side there is a listing of the flavors which include Vanilla, Gourmet Coffee, Chunky Strawberry, Tropical Mango, Oriental Red Bean, Green Tea, and Peanut or Taro. No mention of Sesame whatsoever but there on the box is boldly printed SESAME. Huh. Also, there is no sesame mentioned in the ingredients list either. That’s…weird. There is peanut butter and caramel coloring but no sesame.

So…wait. Did the U.S. just make a sesame mochi that has no sesame in it and then colored it gray matter splatter anyway? Seriously? I mean, if you aren’t going to have any sesame in it why color it unappetizing detention cell gray? Oh wait, I know the answer to this! Peanuts are cheaper than black sesame so who’s the wiser if you save a few bucks and pretend your product is all fancy? Call the mochi “sesame”, stick a picture of some sesame seeds on the front, color it “sesame black” and wala! No one’s the wiser. Well those of us who read ingredients might take exception to being bait and switched and some of us will dock you a pea point for it.

I don’t know how they got a decent sesame flavor out of peanuts with no artificial flavors though. I’ll had it to them for that.

Rating of 1.5 wasabi peas out of a possible 5 wasabi peas.

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