05.26.07

Fuwarinka

Posted in 1.5 Wasabi Pea Rating, Gum, Savory, Sweet at 8:16 am by Boo

Welcome to a special Memorial Day issue of the JSFR. In celebration (and also because I thought it’d be kinda neat) I’ve decided to do a red, white and blue thing for this holiday weekend. Three days, three colors, one giant ball of happiness for you JSF junkies.

I’m going to start today with red and also something Bubbles gave me to review. I’m not exactly sure where she picked this up (rumor has it…J store? J pop? J list? Well J something) but pick it up she did so I feel obliged to review it. Besides…rose gum? Wrock! How could I not be obliged to review that?

Helping me out this time around was Rob, who also did some translation work on the second thing Bubbles picked up for me, and TheMan. I also inflicted Fuwarinka on a couple coworkers because my original two Guinea pigs had a much stronger reaction to the gum than I did. See, Fuwarinka wasn’t a great hit because it started off smelling like an upscale lady’s john and didn’t get much better. Seriously, this stuff is obnoxiously floral to the point that everyone who tried it commented on how perfume-y it is. That’s the one constant of all the reviews; the not to be missed floral scent.

The gum starts out pretty bland for having such an overwhelming pungency and then after a while the mintholated creeps in. You know, because roses are part of the mint family. Am I right or am I…oh. Well anyway, the first flavor after blandly nothing is a wash of mintholation. I think all the Guinea pigs are in agreement up to this point but then there seems to be a divergence. Those who would agree with TheMan and Rob would tell you that after the minty, the rosy floral pops in and distressingly hogs the spotlight stage moment. “It’s like chewing on someone’s grandma” was one comment while “This is some of the nastiest-assed shit I’ve tasted in a while” was another.

Also, if you happened to like this sort of thing, I have it on good authority that Fuwarinka would make an excellent sachet for your underware drawer.

I and a couple other Guinea pigs, on the other hand, didn’t really taste the floral as much as the mintholation. We must all not mind mintholation with a faint rose presence so much because we all thought Fuwarinka was alright. Sorta. Well, chewable if not memorable. Ergo, since half my Guinea pig crew was so adverse to giving Fuwarinka any peas and the other half (which, incidentally included another guy so it’s not a girls like, guys hate thing) was not overly impressed, I think I’ll give Fuwarinka an underwhelming

Rating of 1.5 wasabi peas out of 5.

Permalink