08.03.13
Midi Pocky (strawberry)
Hey there JSFR fans, how’ve you been doing? I’ve been hiatusing for a bit but I’m super tired of having to chuck my snacks as they reach and exceed their expiration dates so I’ve decided to fire the Blog back up. I also may have taken pictures of my dead snacks in hopes of finding fresh snacks of the same ilk and back posting these last two years. Anyway, hello again real time snackers. Archive readers, also hello but when I eventually cover the past two years with back posts your reading will appear seamless so this won’t make much sense. Sorry that.
Today’s Hiatus Breaking post is brought to you by Glico, Japan’s Pocky king. I thought I’d start with an actual Japanese snack since I didn’t feel like being lynched for popping in out of the blue and being off culture. Did you know that even though there were no new posts for 2 years, people STILL complained in comments about ‘X’ thing clearly not being Japanese (insert implied idiot here)? There are a limited number of ways to nicely say “Yes, but when you read the post did you not notice where I said this was Chinese? Or that this was the Taiwanese equivalent of Pocky? You did read the post, didn’t you?” Thus today we return with the very Japanese Pocky.
Actually, we return with stubby little Pocky. Pocky Midi to be precise. Kinda makes me wonder where I plug my keyboard…although I would not at all be surprised if the Japanese mad food scientists came up with such a thing. If anyone is going to make dual purpose Pocky, the Japanese will. However, in this case I think they are playing off of Mini and not doing the best of jobs. Or, as my esteemed colleague over at Japanese Snack Reviews mentions, Midi have a layer of whipped chocolate covered by a normal layer of Pocky chocolate so midi probably stands for middle. I’ll take that as an explanation as well.
Pocki Midi do indeed have a much fatter dipped end than the standard Pocky (but about the same as the Dessert Pocky or any of the other fancier Pockys (ies?) that have come out) and the fatness does seem to be because there is a fluffy layer of goo with a smooth layer of goo over it. Midi aren’t fat, they are fluffy! They are also just slightly bigger than half the size of regular Pocky or just a bit longer than my fingers. They are certainly the stubbiest Pocky I’ve seen, which includes the surprisingly short Chocolate Crush Pocky. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? You do get much more goo so if you are a fan of the stick, the crunch to goo ratio may be off. Personally, I’m good with short Pocky. It seems to be able to cover for its lack of length with a solid and thick coating of goo.
As for the taste, I’d say Midi Pocky (strawberry) is every bit as good as full sized strawberry Pocky except I’ve never officially reviewed strawberry Pocky. Oops (also, note to self: Buy full sized strawberry Pocky for JSFR). That said, the strawberry coating is sweet (perhaps edging towards a little too sweet but I don’t think it is quite there yet) with a little delicious Crunchberry artificial flavor and a hint of tart actual berry flavor which sneaks up at the end. I do like this strawberry even though it’s not the best strawberry flavor I’ve ever reviewed.
Despite their small stature, these are solid strawberry Pocky. I’d be happy for them to walk off with a 3.75 but the half pea rule applies. So give them a little extra love when you read the
rating of 3.5 Wasabi Peas out of a possible 5.
