05.02.09
I Mei Thin Crispy Biscuits (Chocolate & Black Sesame)
While I was filling out April’s all liquid review month with a couple more selections, I decided to pick up some extra JSF fun. Hua Xing likes to have a minimum credit card purchase of $10 and who am I to argue with needing to get more snacks? So I wandered around until I came upon these critters (which are technically TSF, I Mei being Taiwanese and all). It wasn’t just the strange little happy face drawn on the picture of the cookie which landed these in my basket. Nor was it their striking similarity to Tohato’s Harvest Cookies that prompted me to snap them up, although both factors did help.
The deciding purchasing prompt was the funny slogan on the side that got me laughing. If your packaging makes me laugh out loud in the store that is pretty much a guarantee that it’s going in the basket. I love “Not only crispy but tasty!” Like tasty is a happy afterthought. “Oh look! We perfected crispy like no other crispy thing before us and what do you know, it is palatable!” Taste shouldn’t be a happy accident people! Perhaps that’s what the “chalked in” smile on the cookie is all about. You might also notice (and will even more so when the sister cookie premiers) that the box is printed so it has a sideway as well as an up and down configuration. I like the little touches like that; you can display these long-ways or tall-ways…however best fits in your store.
Another cool thing I want to point out is that the cookies are further packaged down into 4- cookie-per-packet units. There are about six or so of the packages on the left in the picture and that is utterly awesome for me and probably good for nomming in general. I can just crack into a single package and leave off reviewing for a while without fear of the product going stale (or have to go wandering around for a Ziplock baggie to keep the product fresh) and the general consumer can get a small snack fix and still enjoy the awesome crispity when they open another package down the road. Win-Win, although I suppose more people are going to fall under the general consumer category than the lazy reviewer category. Still, I love individual packaging like this as long as it doesn’t go feral.
Ahhh crispity. These are very much Thin Crispy Biscuits (in the British sense) so well done with the naming. In this regard TCBs, if I can be that familiar with them, are very similar to the Harvest cookies; both have a really nice snappy crunchity. Both are also delicious coco-y chocolate but whereas the Harvest had coffee, the TCBs have sesame.
Hmmm. Chocolate and sesame. I wasn’t exactly sold on the combo at first even though chocolate and peanut butter are part of the holy triangle of sweets (the other being chocolate and mint but never peanut butter and mint. OK, maybe holy lambda then. Whatever, chocolate + peanut butter = gooOOOoood!) Buuut I do like me the chocolate and peanut butter and sesame is really close to peanut butter in taste so I thought I’d give it a go.
Can I get a yum? Chocolate and black sesame might possibly be even better than chocolate and peanut butter for certain incidences of Thin Crispy Biscuits. I was expecting the black sesame to be overpoweringly SESAME but it blends exceedingly well with the chocolate and awesomely with the crispity. Wow do the chocolate and sesame play nice with each other. Now I’m not so sold on all the individual packaging because it’s just going to get in the way of my nomming. Om nom nom!
Looking back on the Harvest chocolate biscuit/cracker/cookies I can say that the Thin Crispy Biscuits are every bit as good. Can I say they are better? Possibly yes, maybe no, more likely the answer will come out to six of one and half a dozen of another. Personally I think TCBs are just a liiiiitle bit better than Harvest but probably not a whole ranking better. Maybe a 0.25 pea better but I was pretty blown away by how well the sesame and chocolate meshed. Let’s go with a similar rating as Harvest chocolate but add or detract a fine pea point depending on your loyalties to peanut butter or coffee.
Rating of 4 wasabi peas out of a possible 5 wasabi peas.
