08.02.08
Marble Pocky (chocolate rum-raisin)
So! Do you know what special thing I’m doing for the August JSFR Blogaversary? NOT UPDATING! Wheee! Although that’s not exactly novel because the JSFR has been known to be a tad tardy. Not a whole month tardy (HAPPY BLOGAVERSARY!) but I like to try new things out here at the JSFR.
Speaking of new things, I was (and still am) so impressed by The Candy Blog’s photo set up that I thought I’d do something like that for the JSFR blogaversary this year. Buuut that didn’t quite pan out so instead I cooked up another fun idea: Where does it come from? From now until I run out of places that I get snack food from, every month will feature one of my local haunts.
For the month of August, the snacks were purchased at My Second Favorite Asian Grocery Store: Hua Xing. Man I love that place and I may have over bought on the snacks. There are a lot of snacks. In fact, we’ve tasted a good number of them and I’ve even photographed half of the stash so all that is holding up the review is…reviewing. Which we might as well start.
What better thing to start the blogaversary off with than Pocky? Because there’s always Pocky. This one is a new to me form of Pocky called “Marble” because, I assume, it’s marbled. Glico is krazy with the Pocky marketing, always adding new stuff so we don’t get bored of Pocky. As if!
Do you know what I like about this Pocky, besides the flavor choice (rum raisin!)? I love the way it looks. There is something really pleasing about the white and dark contrast and the swoopy dark hashes are mighty dashing. And it’s all integrated into the smooth stick coating so there’s no “Look at how fanCAY I am with my two separate contrasting coatings!” (I’m looking at you, Decorer Pocky). I think I’m going to give the marbling a half pea point because it really appealed to my sense of Pocky aesthetic. They’ve even got it on the darker chocoa-y stick too so more fractional pea points for good contrast.
Next I want to talk about the smell because this Pocky came out strong with the rum raisin-y. You can tell right off that you will be getting some sort of alcohol-ish flavor (rum!) plus a raisin-y companion to go with it. That would pretty much be rum raisin right there and the smell backs that claim up.
The taste though…eh. I’ve had tasty rum flavored things before so I know it is possible to do a good artificial rum. Sadly, Glico didn’t manage to pull off rum without also pulling off “artificially made”. The raisin is decent (if a bit astringent around the edges) but my Guinea Pigs and I were a little put off by the not so stellar rum. That’ll cost a half pea for the manufactured taste. I also wouldn’t get excited by the chocolate part of the ‘chocolate rum-raisin’ because I can’t figure out exactly where it is. Chocolate swoop rum raisin? Chocolate stick rum raisin? Random chocolate molecule rum raisin? The chocolate isn’t really a contender compared to the rum or the raisin. *shrug*
I’d say that this is a middle of the road tasting Pocky with an unfortunate half pea artificial rum flavored deduction. Fortunately they will get that half pea point back for the pleasing aesthetics but that might not be enough for you to want to buy them again. Especially since they’ll probably make another new, interesting and possibly tastier Pocky three months down the road.
Rating of 3 wasabi peas out of a possible 5 wasabi peas.
Sparkina said,
September 26, 2011 at 3:50 pm
Looks like something one would serve at a wedding
Boo said,
September 27, 2011 at 5:58 pm
I’d hope the couple to be might pick a tastier flavor but yes, I could see these as place setting favors.