11.18.07

Crown Mychew (strawberry)

Posted in 3.5 Wasabi Pea Rating, Caramel/Taffy, Sweet at 9:30 am by Boo

I was shopping at the most Korean of Asian Grocery stores and came across what I was pretty sure was the Korean equivalent to Morinaga Hi-Chew. I still don’t read any of the Asian languages so I debated the wisdom of getting said thing until I found Crown’s URL on the package. That’s enough for me to snatch up a snack because I can clicky like a mad thing and surely Crown will have product information right? Oh…so right and even an English section. Crown, I love you!

I also love that this candy is called “Mychew” because that’s nothing like “Hi-chew” and no one’s ever going to think that maybe Crown is jumping on the similar name scheme. Not that I’m saying that’s a bad thing, just amusing. Also amusing is Crown’s own descriptive blurb:

Sticky chewing candy that young generations can enjoy like a gum

– Gum type chewing soft candy
– The best quality product made of natural fruit juice
– Reasonable price range that no one may hesitate to buy
– Modern design and easy carry handy package type

Oh the hee. To start off with…what about old generations? What? Like “You kids with your gum type chewing candy [and also heh], back in my day we didn’t have any fancy gum type chewing candy. If we wanted gum type chewing candy we had to paint a gum tree with maple syrup and then gnaw on that. And we liked it!” I also have to ask if there is a better quality product made of artificial fruit juice. Maybe so, but it’s probably really expensive which will most likely make someone hesitate to buy it. Lastly…modern design? How is a sleeve of individually wrapped taffy like things modernly designed? I bet if I go back to the 50s I’ll find exactly the same design for candy but whatever.

The candy itself, now that I’ve gotten the other fun out of the way, is similarly sized to Hi-chew but is a solid pink color rather than a pink center wrapped in a white outer layer. Sigh. I liked that aesthetic aspect of Hi-chew. Buuuuut I won’t deduct any points from Mychew for not totally ripping off Hi-chew. Mychew does have a similar wonderful strawberry fruity whiff that we found in Hi-chew though so yay.

The taste is also wonderfully strawberry…dare I say perhaps even a bit better strawberry than Hi-chew? I think I might dare indeed. It’s close to that perfect berry fresh taste and not even a hinting of any chemicalness about the edges. As for the gummy chew, I found that Mychew is less springy than Hi-chew which, to my American trained palate, is a less disturbing texture. If you are looking for bubblegum taffy, then you ought to pick up some Hi-chew but if you are more comfortable with a slightly springy Starburst like entity, Mychew is your chew. To that end, I think Mychew falls slightly behind Hi-chew for the springy gummy taffy experience but I’m OK with that. I’m really OK with that because the bubblegum taffy was a bit weird.

I think to a Japanese taster, Mychew falls shorter from the “Gum type chewing soft candy” goal and probably would rate a tad lower than Hi-chew. However, I think Mychew’s lesser bubblegumness actually makes it a more familiar textured candy to the American taster. On a personal note, I’ll be heading for the Mychew sooner than the Hi-chew. I think this is another instance where my rating system fails the product because this isn’t quite 4 pea material but I think it’s slightly better than Hi-chew’s 3.5 pea rating. If I could, I’d go with a 3.75 pea rating but I don’t so Mychew will have to settle for a very high

Rating of 3.5 wasabi peas out of a possible 5 wasabi peas.

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