07.16.11
I-Mei Cream Wafers (strawberry)
Or maybe I should have written that creme Wafers (STRAWBERRY). Bold tags? Perhaps an exclamation point or two. Anyhow, look what I found…Asian Sugar Wafers that look more or less like the local sugar wafers. I Mei’s wafers are a bit fatter, double wide if you will, and have 3 layers of frosting to 5 layers of wafer which…I do not think the American version does. The pic shows but one layer and 2 wafers but I can’t rightly recall what the “standard” sugar wafer construction is. I do know that the American frosting layer is thicker and sweeter (a little granier on the sugary as well) and the wafers are a little thicker, which makes them crispier by default.
That’s not to say that these Taiwanese (Haters, please note this statement wherein I identify the product as TAIWANESE and not Japanese before you fire up your outraged comment) Sugar Wafers are bland and mushy. On the contrary, the thinner wafers carry a nice micro crunch (in comparison to the robuster American Wafers) for their slimness and the waffling pattern helps keep it real.
Actually, I’m not sure what the waffling pattern does for a wafer but I wanted to mention it in the review. I’d hazard that the waffling makes the wafer studier if I was pressed to come up with a reason for it. I’d also say that it makes the wafer a little more visually interesting. Waffling also has the side benefit of breaking up the surface so that the wafer doesn’t glom onto your tongue in one giant flat hard to remove pile of wafer goo. I think that’s true of pretty much all cake wafers, not just the Taiwanese ones as cake wafers have the ability to, once moisten, partially dissolve into a (tasty) lump of wafery goop.
Wasn’t that appetizing? Wafer goop. Mmmm. Actually, these ‘cookies’ are pretty tasty. The wafery bits are the standard cake cone like you might find in the domestic Sugar Wafers or an ice cream cone bottom (the…cone part). The wafer bits aren’t flavored anything but cake cone flavor (vanilla? Well not overtly VANILLA but whatever the base cake cone flavor is) and the strawberry frosting is nice and light with possibly a touch of “not berry fresh”. It’s good, it’s sweet, it’s not particularly Crunchberry, although there is a small element of the Crunchberry in the flavor. I am not impressed but neither am I horrified by the strawberry. I’ve also eaten several of these things and enjoyed each one so there you go.
Lastly, the whole sugar wafer is a lot less sweet than the American counterpart. Almost refreshingly less sweet, especially if you’ve ever experienced spontaneous time travel from the sugar rush after binging on an American made Sugar Wafer.
My “assistant” looks on.
Inspector Tycho “helps” with the shoot.
Rating of 4 wasabi peas out of a possible 5 wasabi peas.
