04.07.07
Milk Chocolate Pocky
Here is the second Pocky I picked up whilst in Massachusetts during the big “Unhealthy Snacks Table Jr.” run. I didn’t have time to review it at the con so I packed it in my checked on luggage and ferried it home. Apparently my bag had some fun between Northampton and Detroit because the Pocky came out wearing a party hat and looking hung over. So yeah, sorry about the beat upness of the package there.
Again, we have the Japanese Pocky made in France (LU!) which still amuses me to pieces. What doesn’t amuse me to pieces is that they packaged all ten bazillion Pocky in one foil packet. People! Listen up: Several packages per Pocky Pack PLEASE! What if the consumer doesn’t have a couple dozen readily available Pocky loving friends on hand when they open the pack? Are we to carry ziplock bags with us now whenever we aren’t planning on running into a few score of our closest friends who can help with the Pocky munching? There are 20 or so Pocky sticks in there and as much as I love Pocky I don’t want to be eating 20 sticks at one sitting. But now I either have to carry some seal fresh container (Pain! In! The! Hinder!) or only open the Pocky when I have enough friends to devour it all in one sitting because WHO WANTS STALE POCKY!!!?!?!!
Half pea point deduction for the all in one bag. Did the Milk Chocolate Hazelnut only have one bag as well? I can’t remember! Have I become so complacent with the growing trend to stuff all the Pocky in one bag that I didn’t even notice one of my pet peeves happening right under my nose? ARRGH! I feel like I have missing time! I’m going to assume that there were at least two packs of Pocky in the Hazelnut because I opened some at Sean Whose Name is Nate’s house and then did a sit down tasting review of it a day later. I would have definitely remembered a single package if that were the case.
OK, back to the Milk Chocolate Pocky. Again, this Pocky isn’t the nice bitter chocolate of the Japanese Pocky but more the smooth creamy sweet chocolaty of a European (and by association, American) made sweet. Not that the European way is better or worse, it’s just that I’m not used to that type of chocolate on Pocky. It’s tasty good chocolate, don’t get me wrong, but to me it is very out of place on Pocky. I’m also sort of wondering if the Japanese have a lighter, less bitter chocolate which is more akin to the European milk chocolate or if the chocolate on the original Pocky is their milk chocolate. After all, they do have Men’s Pocky which is a much darker and less sweet chocolate so…maybe? (OoooOOoooo. Check this out! While searching for Men’s Pocky I stumbled on this site. So! Much! Pocky!) No pea points deducted for not having the Japanese chocolate, just a note about how odd it is to taste western chocolate on Pocky.
The stick is the stick and this stick was crunchy and tasty, just like every other Pocky stick I’ve ever reviewed so if you are still confused about the stick, feel free to take this opportunity to browse the JSFR archives. And thus, I have covered all that there is to cover for Milk Chocolate Pocky. Nice, tasty (but bizarre) western milk chocolate on the standard crunchity Pocky stick all glomed together (grrr!) in a single package. I’d say that’s a solid 3.5 pea rating for taste and Pockiness.
Usually I like to have a couple Guinea Pigs to help out with the review but alas, I didn’t have anybody around when I was doing my reviewing. Then, moments before writing this, I happened upon a Diag squirrel that was rooting around looking for eats while eyeballing me for possible free hand outs. It was his lucky day since I still had my (opened) Pocky on me and I needed a Guinea Pig reviewer for a second opinion. I offered him a stick, which he enthusiastically grabbed up and began nibbling at. One out of one Diag squirrels are in favor of free Milk Chocolate Pocky hand outs and don’t seem to mind that the package were opened last night. Also, the proper Diag Squirrel Way to eat Pocky is to nibble all the chocolate coating off the stick first. Hmmm, maybe he was making a statement about the stale stick? Well even if he wasn’t, I am so half a pea point less for that and a total
Rating of 3 wasabi peas out of 5.