09.10.05
Lotte Inryo Mix 5 Candy
We went out for Japanese at the restaurant which just happens to be right next to my favorite little Asian grocery store and lo! They had some cool new stuff that I absolutely had to get (I can stop at any time. Really I can). This meant that the other stuff that I absolutely had to get last time we ate Japanese at the restaurant right next to my favorite little Asian grocery store needed to get reviewed already before I was up to my nostrils in unreviewed JSF. So like a good little reviewer, and because TheMan does point out that I have a stock pile of snacks when I do, I came home with the new stuff and dragged out the older stuff and had a go with it.
Incidentally, TheMan and I are real time reviewing this. Just incase you wanted to know. Don’t worry, I’ll spell check for you before I post this.
This is the five pack of hard candy made by the Lotte company. Hence the sort of strange JSFR title there but what can you do? According to the bag, there is Latte Latte, C.C. Lemon, natchan!, Dakara and Dekavita. I’ll review them with TheMan commentary as well from left to right as they appear on the package. Ready? Let’s go!
This fella looks a little like horehound candy but a tad more milky and a bit more opaque. Can you add milk to horehound? How about root beer barrels? It also has a very strong coffee flavor and a creamy flavor too. And a sweet flavor. TheMan says “Mmmmm. Mmmmm. Mmmmm! This is good!” He also noted that it was very coffee and creamy and sweet but then he sort of went off into his happy place and is now just making various Mmmm noises. My take is that they have got Latte down very pat, but I am much more a cappuccino or a coffee no cream drinker. Still, tasty. Watch out for the hard candy though, it’s a tad bitey on the tongue. Onward!
C.C.Lemon? Is anyone else singing in their head, “C.C. my playmate, come out and play with me. Will be forever friends la la la laaaaa la! (or other words I have forgotten)”? No? Huh. Anyway, I sort of wonder what the C.C. is about since I’d have guessed vitamin C but there already appears to be a vitamin C thing going down on the packaging. Extra vitamin C? Double extra? And does anyone else think these look like stunted little honey-lemon Halls cough drops?
Wow. OK, lemon. Lemony lemon. Have you ever eaten Pledge? I imagine this is how a squirt of lemony Pledge might taste. I’ve certainly tasted better lemon flavoring in candy so I can’t say Wow for the great natural lemony flavor reproduction. TheMan hasn’t said anything yet…oh wait, I forgot I told him to pause a minute. There we go. He says they are clear lemony yellow, are very tart, and oh damn. He also wants you to know that they are a tad pineapply and if you suck on them too hard they will slip right the hell down your throat. OK! I don’t think he’s going to contribute much more than that. The candy base is also a tad bitey so watch out for it.
This live review will take a slight pause while I get TheMan a glass of water to wash down a lump he has in his throat. It’s almost like he has a candy lodged in there. Back to our regularly scheduled JSFR.
This candy is much less orange colored than I expected it to be. I’d expect it to be a more tangerine with the almost pastel orange coloring but no. We have orange. TheMan says, “Very orange”. He also wants you to know he’s liked all three of these candies so far. I think I might taste a little grape or possibly pineapple in there making it less ORANGE and more Orange (withassortedotherfruitflavors). This other added fruit flavor tames the orange down to a very tasty rounder orange. I like it! I give it two orangey thumbs up. Next!
What is Dakara? I’m getting it confused with Drakar, the men’s cologne and that can’t be good. On the other hand, I expected it to be a whitish candy and wala! Whitish candy. And also…Life Partner?
Woah! OK, pineapple. Lots of pineapple. I guess a dakara is a pineapple? I’m running with that because pineapple is running all over my taste buds. Why is a pineapple my Life Partner though? Maybe the Life Partner is the tad of artificial taste I get after sucking on these a while. Pineapple lifesavers these aren’t. Cubyrop did pineapple better (and cuter). TheMan seems to also like this one, although he told me his tongue is getting a little sugar burned. Hang on TheMan, just one more to go.
First impressions: I totally expected this to be a clearish brown, like a root beer barrel. Mango yellow was not even a possibility but there you have it. I’m almost a bit worried. Hmmm. Well, down the hatch! (or rather In the hatch.) Oooo. Hey. It’s…well, tasty. Also a little effervescent tasting. Orange? It’s citrus for sure (and also very rough, like sucking on fine sand paper – albeit tasty fizzy fine sand paper). TheMan says it’s lemony and, OK. I’ll buy that. I think it’s a better lemony than the C.C. Lemon, I’d happily eat these until I cut my tongue to ribbons.
All five of these are at least a 3.5 pea tasty, although I don’t recommend eating all five flavors in one sitting. Personally, I’d stick to a flavor and enjoy that one flavor for a while. Maybe take a break or come back the next day and pick up another flavor and resume the enjoyment. I think it would make these candies a much more pleasing experience. As far as a rating, TheMan is all about a 4.5 while I’m leaning towards a straight 4. On one hand, for Japanese candy they totally rock and even the flavors I’m less pleased about beat some of the other hard candy we’ve tried. On the other hand, there were at least two flavors I’d rate 3.5 (C.C. Lemon and Dakara), two at 4.0 (Latte Latte and natchan!) and one at 4.5 (Dekavita) which doesn’t quite make a 4.5 for the whole batch. Also, the candy base tends to have hole inclusions which lead to cut and bleedy mouths if the eater isn’t careful (and Dekavita is texturally rough to begin with). I think I’m going to go with my gut reaction and give a disclaimer rating (the disclaimer rating being that the candy would be much better enjoyed in runs of the same flavor) of
4 Wasabi Peas out of a possible 5.
