10.30.10
UHA Maccha and Azuki Cucu
Happy penultimate day of October, Junkies. Here’s an offering from Japan picked out by oft Guinea Pig Badmovie. I’m not exactly sure what the clincher was on this but I have to say it has a lot going for it. First of all, this candy is a looker both on the package (which is pretty visually interesting in its own right) as well as in real life.
Granted, the package Cucus are much more shiny but the reality cubes are pretty fancy. This is one of those few times when the snack actually looks pretty close to the picture on the package. I kind of dig the white, green and brown swirly pattern too. Plus, the cube is pretty close to the same size as a die and that’s cool. I like dice, they are rather nicely square.
I also like the look of the package as a whole. I’m not sure what the parent snack is, which the Cucus are supposed to be a candy representation of, but it appears to be red beans on a bed of frozen green tea and topped off with a hat of something white. I’d guess it’s cream judging by the ingredients but it looks more like a frosting glaze to me. Cream makes more sense paired with the tea, especially if they take after the Brits, but cream and beans? Maybe? Sweet beans and frosting glaze sounds just as plausible to me though.
May I also point out the Cucu mascot. Cucu seems to be short for “Cute Cube”, if we can trust the candy body dog.
Cucus are an interesting thing; they are definitely green tea tasting, red bean tasting and tempered a bit with a smooth milkiness. I’d give them plus points for red bean flavor since it’s pretty spot on and tasty. I’d also give them points for green tea since the cubes taste a bit grassy to me and that, I am told, is the wonderfulness of green tea. Unfortunately, my green tea Pig wasn’t so enamored of these cubes because she first tasted a bit of black tea and then a bit of green tea and that didn’t sit well with her. I’ve been munching on the cubes trying to figure it out and sometimes I think maybe the red bean gives off a bit of black tea flavor and other times I think I might be on crack.
Which leads me to what doesn’t work with Cucus, and that is the combination of green tea and red bean. I think these would have been an outstanding red bean and milk candy or a green tea and milk candy but the combination of all three flavors sits a little weird in the mouth. The green tea and the bean never mesh into a delightful experience, rather they seem to fight for taste dominance the whole time. I wish the milk flavor was a little stronger in order to smooth out the disharmonious bean-tea war but I’m not sure that would even fix things.
My Guinea Pigs were pretty underwhelmed by this snack and I’m not a big fan either. I’d say this is probably a touch better than 2.5 but only a 3 pea snack if you like the combination of red bean and green tea. In fact, if you are a red bean-green tea connoisseur than this may very well be a 3.5 pea snack for you. For all the others, this is a decent 2.75 pea snack with a little extra pea pointage for the look.
Rating of 3 Wasabi Peas out of a possible 5.
