04.14.07
Meltyblend (strawberry)
TheMan and I had a discussion about these when I told him I had purchased more JSF (because the ton and a half I haven’t reviewed just didn’t seem like enough). He was sure that I had done Meltyblends before and I was pretty sure I hadn’t. Oh, I’ve wanted to for quite some time but the only place I’d seen them was at Wizzywig and for whatever reason I hadn’t picked them up. It was probably because they have the most wonderful wall of candy and I was dazed by the shiny! Anyway, while shopping at Hillers (hungry and tired, which apparently means I buy JSF) I found Meltyblends in assorted flavors and decided to pick them all up once and for all.
Take a look at the parent candy company: Meiji. If you cast your JSFR mind way back to February ’04 you might remember Meiji bringing you Creamy Strawberry Porte and honestly, I wasn’t sure that Porte hadn’t been repackaged as Meltyblend. That didn’t stop me from buying one or three of them but I sort of wondered what the difference was going to be.
First off, Meltyblend leads with the same strong strawberry smell that the Porte did and that’s perfectly OK. It’s a nice, vibrant, mouth watering strawberry whiff and if Meltyblend wants to tell the world how strawberrilicious it is by announcing it olfactorily then by all means, don’t let me harsh that strawberry buzz. Meltyblend also has that light cocoa dusting that Porte had and the delicious somewhat bitter melt in your mouth chocolate coating. MmmmMmmmm! However, unlike Porte, Meltyblend has no cookie bit and is also about a cubic centimeter in volume. Kawaii!
The inner strawberry filling is different as well. For one, it’s less gooey and more stiff chocolate truffle in texture (but still strawberry). For another, I’d say that of all the strawberry things I’ve reviewed, Meltyblend has managed to actually hit real strawberry taste dead on. They even have that sour/tart of real strawberries as well as a delicious natural strawberry flavor. Fantastic! It’s exactly like how the real fruit tastes, at least to me. I’ve never been able to taste anything other than sour/tart along with the basic strawberriness of a real berry and Meltyblend has just that.
I taste tested Meltyblend (strawberry) at TheMan’s work place and they were all very pleased with them. One fella said, “You know, Japanese snack food is kind of a crapshoot, but this is really good.” (that cracked me up) and TheMan was all about these being good enough to sit in a fancy shmancy chocolatier and demand top dollar. Although I sort of miss the cookie crunch of Porte, the strawberry is fantastic and the size is so cuuuuuuute! I’d say Meltyblend (strawberry) were every bit as good as the Porte and should get every bit as much of a rating as they did. Fair enough, I think a
Rating of 4.5 wasabi peas out of 5 ought to do quite nicely.
Christine said,
January 28, 2010 at 2:41 pm
Thank you for the review. I’ve always liked strawberry chocolates, but they either seem to be tasteless or extremely hard to get a hold of. I’ll have to try these out.