Peeps Marshmallow Pumpkins

Hi everybody! we have yet another Halloween themed treat, Peeps Marshmallow Pumpkins! :D

Peeps tends to have some form of festive mallow come whatever season, especially Easter, Halloween and Christmas. I'm quite a fan of their minty Christmas mallows but I decided to give these a go this time because well, why not.

They were going for RM 3.99, arguably the cheapest treat available this year at Cold Storage.

There was another variant available going for RM 12.99 that had the more iconic peep chicks that also had a milk chocolate coating. I gave it a pass because they looked too big plus 12+ Ringgit for just three birds was just too expensive for my liking.

I have to admit they do look fairly festive with their milk chocolate jack-o-lantern faces, orange colour and slightly-pumpkin-esque shape. Could have done better with the shapes but what can you do when they're all stuck together.

You get eight pieces so that's relative bang for buck in terms of quantity.

As far as taste goes, the mallows tasted like very soft marshmallows that weren't too sweet which I liked. Not too fond of the coloured sugar coating though, as it just made it feel weird and crunchy without contributing to the flavour whatsoever. The mallows are also relatively sticky so when I attempted to pull them apart they distorted a lot, and they tend to stick to things so I probably would eat them straight out of the box or toss one in a cup of hot chocolate or something.

They look more like disgruntled hearts than pumpkins

Spire sez: Considering they're just marshmallows dusted in coloured sugar, they're none too special everything considered. They barely look like pumpkins or jack-o-lanterns and taste wise they're a little on the boring side but it doesn't deviate too far from what a regular Peep tastes like. They make reasonably cheap treats though.

Spire's Ratings

Flavor: 3/5

Price: 4/5

DIY level: Nonexistant

Fun: Nonexistant

Cadbury Screame Egg

Hi everyone, Spire here with the obligatory Halloween candy posting ^_^

Around Halloween, we do get a lot of imported candies for the holiday, though we don't exactly celebrate it in it's essence. As usual I went hunting around but since I was on a budget I only picked up a couple of items as opposed to the bigger range of stuff I get to try year after year. Here's the rather famous Cadbury Screme egg. It was going for RM 5.99 a piece (yikes!) but this is a very popular treat (so I hear) so I had to give it a go.

This is what it looks like after you peel off the crinkly metal shell. Because I was worried that it would get too melty to handle due to the hot weather, I had popped it in the fridge for an hour before cracking it open.

Wrapper off, it looks pretty much the same as any regular Cadbury creme egg.

When you get inside however is where you get the fun green festive 'goo' that makes this quite a Halloween treat. The taste and consistency is the same as any regular old Creme egg but it's a nice tie in to the holiday.

As far as the taste goes, you can't go wrong with the chocolate and the filling while tasty, I find it crazy sweet. Like I'll go into a diabetic coma level of sweet. It looks cool as hell though.

Spire sez: It's really cool that you get greenish goo spilling out of it but I have to say it was entirely too sweet for me to eat in one sitting. It wasn't too bad cold (because I'm a freak who likes cold chocolate) but I think I'll stick to just having this twice a year at Easter and at Halloween ^^;

Spire's Ratings

Flavor: 4/5

Price: 2/5

DIY level: Nonexistant

Fun: Ugh, too sweet x_x

Magnum GOLD?! ice cream

Spire here, and this a quick one this time.

Because ice cream waits for no one!

Magnum Gold is pretty much a limited edition flavour as far as Magnum goes, and while the event period is on you can basically find it at any 7-11 and participating grocery store.

Aside from the weird(ish) outer coating and associated contest, this is a deviancy from the usual classy Magnum branding for the ice cream company. The contests are still going on today if you're interested in checking them out.

Out of the wrapper, the outer shell is a canary yellow and is a tad crispier than normal.

On it's own, it pretty much tasted the same as a regular 'original' Magnum but with lashings of caramel (which I barely tasted and aren't really that visible to be honest) and a crispy candy shell outside the chocolate that snaps as you bite into it. Makes me think of a softer M&M coating on a Magnum.

It melted so fast I barely had time to enjoy it T_T

Pricing isn't cheap either at RM 4.50 a pop which is considered very premium as far as ice cream goes.

It is however exceptionally melty, even more so than a regular Magnum I fee. Isn't too different in taste but the outer shell is pretty novel. Can't go wrong with the chocolate and vanilla but I was expecting more out of this.

Spire sez: I feel it's more of a novelty thing rather than a proper new flavour for the brand. I don't know if it'll continue to be in production after the event time but it's not bad but not fantastic either.

Spire's Ratings

Flavor: 4/5

Price: 3/5

DIY level: Nonexistant

Fun: Crunchy!

Crispy Mint M&Ms

Hi again!

Since it's now Summertime lets talk about another summer treat I got from Japan when I last visited. 

Mint treats are quite a hit during the summer time, with lots of different candies and treats featuring mint and their other cooling derivative flavours. I can't entirely remember the price but it's somewhere between 100-200 yen.

Of course you can find these year around in some countries, but I've yet to find this combination around here and that makes me sad. Because I love any and all things mint. But I have been seeing more M&M flavours pop up around these parts so maybe we will actually get some mint flavoured ones eventually ;)

The M&Ms themselves look like your bog standard crispy M&Ms, significantly larger than the regular chocolate ones and comes in shades of white, dark and light green. These unfortunately cracked because we're experiencing a heat wave and my candy took a bit of damage =\

They're nice and crunchy (but not like a malteaser, those are much tougher) but with a strong cool mint flavour from the moment it hits your tongue. The crisp is very slightly salty, the middle of it is green.

The chocolate however is not unlike what you get in a regular M&M, though they taste less sweet. The cooling effect is restricted to mainly the shell alone so it doesn't permeate the entire candy.

Spire sez: It's a cool candy (pun intended) which I wouldn't mind getting again (imagine it as an ice cream topping!) but I've yet to see it a 2^nd time.

Spire's Ratings

Flavor: 4/5

Price: 4/5

DIY level: Nonexistant

Fun: Damn that's tasty!

Malteasers "MaltEaster" bunny

Hello everybody!
This time we've got a little treat in line with the Easter season (yeah I know it's technically over but who cares, excuses to eat chocolate bunnies!) so here we have Malteaser's MaltEaster bunny. It's to my understanding that everytime a major holiday pops up the bigger brands that produce stuff like Jelly Belly and Snickers tend to have seasonal treats, but this is the first time I've seen Malteasers in on the action.

This set me back RM 4.90 from Cold Storage. Not too bad all things considered.

The packaging is kinda cute, with cute butterflies and the occasional heart on their iconic Malteaser's red. Flip it over for a cute 'Easter egg' ;)

It looks like what's on the cover and that's never a bad thing.

It's basically a large bunny shaped chocolate candy with crunchy Malteaser bits mixed in a rather creamy center. The chocolate itself was quite creamy and well, generally tasted like a huge Malteaser. It had a rather nice crunch to it, but not nearly as crunchy as I would have expected it to be.

Spire sez: I loved it, but sadly Easter is over and it's been pulled from the shelves :( it's certainly one of those seasonal treats I would have seconds of if I did come across it. Maybe I'll have better luck next year!

Spire's Ratings

Flavor: 5/5

Price: 4/5

DIY level: Nonexistant

Fun:  Yum!

Kabaya Saku Pan Choco Monaka Panda Wafer

Hi again!

Spire here, and this time we have something much simpler than our usual fare :)

The panda shaped snack is apparently pretty popular, to the point that it even has it's own DIY kit. The kit has since been pushed out of production but you can still find it in some speciality stores as part of it's last run.

I got this from Shojikiya for RM 3.90, making it one of the cheaper things you could buy there. The snack comes in two flavours, strawberry and chocolate. I decided to get the chocolate one because I have little faith in strawberry flavoured cream snacks ^^;

What I find rather amusing about this snack is that the back portion actually shows you how to eat it. So you can apparently either start eating it as is, or you can easily snap it in half to share with a friend (or save it for later) I suspect its just a Japanese thing to include helpful  instructions on everything :)

Opening up the package, I was hit by quite a strong whiff of chocolate. Then I was greeted by some very obviously heat damaged panda :(

At least it still vaguely looks like a panda.

The back looks happier than the front

Simply put, the snack can be roughly described as a wafer with cream filling in cream and chocolate flavours. The cream is firm and stays in place pretty well but is still fluffy to the touch. True to the instructions at the back, the wafter is quite crispy and snaps in half very easily too.

Now for a taste.

*crunch*

In terms of taste, the panda snack is very milky creamy with the darker bits having a mild chocolate flavour. It's not particularly strong tasting or sweet, and it's rather light and airy despite you actually sinking your teeth into a large dollop of cream filling. It's also not very sweet either so that's definitely a good thing.

Spire sez: Generally I didn't find it all that enjoyable because I'm not a fan of cream filling and the texture didn't entirely agree with me. Yes, it was tasty but it's not something I see myself trying again in the near future. But if you like tons of cream on your crackers you would probably find this much more enjoyable than I did.

Spire's Ratings

Flavor: 3/5

Price: 5/5

DIY level: Nonexistant

Fun: Nonexistant

Meiji 'Feel Mint' Kinoko no Yama Mushroom Cookie

Hello again!

As Summer draws near (for those of you who have seasons, I have horrible amounts of sun all year around :P) lets take a look at some cooling goodies as the temperature goes up.

Kinoko no Yama is a sort of cookie (I don't know what to call it, it's quite literally half chocolate candy and half biscuit D:)  with a chocolate mushroom 'cap' and comes in a variety of flavours with the most popular ones being chocolate, strawberry creme and banana. 

They've also got a DIY kit to make your own mushroom treats but I couldn't locate one before heading off from Tokyo. The box has an inverse design where it can be displayed in either horizontally or vertically depending on which face of the box is showing.

This is a special 'Feel Mint' edition of the candy for the Summer season, where you will find a lot of mint themed candies and chocolates on the shelves in Japan. I think it was somewhere around 200 yen at Lawsons. Not too expensive :)

I've heard reports of the chocolate melting together into a congealed mess when the temperature gets too hot but luckily it didn't happen to me despite hauling it all the way back in my luggage. Once opened you'll find maybe twenty-odd little cookies inside the bag.

The cookies themselves are pretty adorable, looking like little stylized bell mushrooms.

On to the tasting!

The mint was delicious, not overpowering but creamy too, pretty much the same way the Feel Mint chocolate candies taste like and the chocolate stems further complimented the taste. They taste fantastic when chilled too, and would look absolutely adorable adorning the top of an ice cream sundae.

Spire sez: Overall I really enjoyed them! I wish there were more cookies in the box. I'm definitely trying out more flavours when I can get my hands on them! :D

Spire's Ratings

Flavor: 4/5

Price: 5/5

DIY level: Nonexistant

Fun: Damn that's tasty!

Tokyo Banana Caramel

Hello again!

We unexpectedly got to try another flavour of Tokyo Banana when a friend brought back some from Japan ^_^ bless her for remembering we have a sweets blog!

The packaging pretty much looks the same,with the exception that it has a splash of brown and it sports a slightly different label with the word Caramel on it.

Lookin' good!

It does look a tad darker brown than the original flavour of Tokyo Banana, and it also smells significantly sweeter out of the bag. It's also supposed to have some caramel filling on top of being overall sweeter, but in terms of looks, I'm a bit surprised that it doesn't have the distinctive patches or stripes that I mentioned in a previous review, but it apparently does taste the same.

The filling is still that distinct custardy-textured banana, but with a small layer of caramel surrounding it. It's kinda hard to see but trust me you'll taste it. As far as the flavour goes you still get sweet without being crazy sweet, and the sponge cake is divinely fluffy despite being slightly flatter than it's paler brethren.

However it IS sweeter than the original Tokyo Banana flavour so if you're not into sweet stuff it might be a bit of a turn off.

Spire sez: Honestly I like this just as much as the original! It's just a bit sweeter with a hint of caramel goodness. Man, I really need to make it a point to get more flavours if I visit Tokyo again.

Silvy says: Great if you utterly adore caramel. It was good, but I don't think I'd take any more; mostly because me and caramel aren't a good mix haha

Spire's Ratings

Flavor: 5/5

Price: 4/5

DIY level: Nonexistant

Fun: Damn that's tasty

Silvy's Ratings

Flavor: 3/5

Price: 4/5

DIY level: As high as imagination goes ;P

Fun: Just pop it open and nom!

Pfanner Erdbeer Saft (Strawberry juice)

Hello again and welcome to Sugarnoms!

Today's posting is our very first drink review. Drinks are more of Silvy's domain but I wanted to get the ball rolling first ;)

Anyway, tiny pack of juice caught my eye in Jarons; I think you can get it at Cold Storage too considering I've been seeing more Pfanner products popping up of late. Especially their iced tea! It costs RM 2.99, and looks deceptively small. Don't let the 'erdbeer' fool you, there's no alcohol in this one! Just good old juice.

I'd have to say the packaging is incredibly compact because it holds a very generous 200ml of juice. There's also this really cute teeny tiny straw that folds out the same way the ones on Yakult bottles do, albeit a bit thicker.

The juice itself is primarily strawberry juice with strawberry and apple pulp as well, but it doesn't come out pulpy the way some juices do. And as far as taste is concerned, it's one of those drinks which I feel you just can't hate. Its definitely strawberry with a hint of apple and a little bit of tang to it, though when poured out it looks like a large glass of muddy blood (Halloween party drink potential?) it's certainly a nice deviation from the usual apple-orange-tea drink packs we are so prone to drinking.

Spire sez: I definitely enjoyed this. It doesn't taste artificial nor hideously sour or sweet. I can foresee myself carrying maybe a couple of these in my backpack while I'm on the road. They're just so compact!

Spire's Ratings

Flavor: 5/5

Price: 4/5

Thirst quenching : Yes!

Best drank: Cold

KitKat Blueberry Cheesecake

Of all the loot I brought back from Japan, this one was probably the most oddly shaped thing I had to cram in my suitcase. I've always heard of 'strange KitKat flavours' being available in Japan so I decided to hunt about Narita airport a bit before my flight for anything of interest. This one certainly caught my eye. From what I found out is each prefecture in Japan has it's own unique flavour, ranging from the more benign Strawberry and Blueberry Cheesecake flavours as well as the ever popular Green Tea (Macha) flavour to scarier ones like Soy Sauce (Shoyu) and Wasabi.

For the whole box I think it was priced at 820 yen (about RM 25, ouch!). I may not be remembering exactly but these are generally sold around the 800 yen price bracket. The box which was shaped like a towering Mount Fuji held 9 pieces inside,  in a ball of clear plastic. 

The individual pieces themselves are heavily stylised with Mount Fuji and an image of it's indicated flavour in the front as well as a cute nameplate at the back which you can write on if it's meant as a gift. 

Sorry for the drop in picture quality. My camera died halfway and I had to resort to using my phone's horrible camera.

Out of the wrapper, it's pretty apparent that these special KitKats are a lot smaller than their bog standard chocolate brothers.

Regardless, they still look like KitKat and features their logo emblazoned on the top. It's not very visible because I think the Malaysian heat melted them a little in transit.

As far as flavour is concerned, it's white chocolate and exceptionally creamy, a little cheesy-milky with a hint of sweet blueberry as you chomp into the wafer. Its not too sweet but it's fairly rich so I couldn't handle too many at a go. Maybe that's why they're packaged so teeny?

Spire sez: I'm not a huge fan of large quantities of white chocolate but it's a nice change if you're tired of regular ol' KitKat or are just feeling adventurous. Most of the people I gave this to absolutely loved the flavour!

Spire's Ratings

Flavor: 4/5

Price: 3/5

DIY level: Nonexistant

Fun: Nonexistant

Tokyo Banana

Hi again! It's been a long while since we had a posting ;) that's because Spire went to Japan and brought back a whole bunch of goodies that you'll soon see here, so lets get the ball rolling!

This here is Tokyo Banana, a speciality treat from Japan, Tokyo. Generally it resembles a banana (hence the name) and is a spongy confection that has banana creme filling inside. At first glance it's best described as a twinkie with banana in it! Before visiting Japan, I practically got swamped with people asking me to bring this stuff back. It's apparently *that* legendary.

They generally come in packages of 470 yen, 1000 yen and a bigger one at 1500 yen, with 4, 8 and 12 pieces respectively. The price is slightly different depending on the flavour, I got the classic one so it was the cheapest.

The stuff is practically sold everywhere touristy, you can get it at train stations in Tokyo and there's a variety of flavours and designs featuring leopard spots, tiger stripes and giraffe spots with each 'design' having it's own distinctive flavour. I wasn't able to try all the different flavours but they go like this: tiger stripes were caramel flavoured, giraffe was banana pudding, leopard is chocolate. The company makes a whole slew of tasty treats (mostly banana themed!) you can check them out here.

Sure enough, it was delicately spongy and roughly banana shaped. It did smell nice and rather banana-ish too; I'd describe the entire experience as gently banana, if that made any sense. Time to take a bite!

Mmph. That was delicious. The spongecake was very soft and fluffy, and the inner creme had the consistency and texture of banana mixed with custard. Not too sweet but distinct, I think I'm insulting Tokyo banana by comparing it to twinkies.

Spire sez: I.cannot.get.enough.of.the.stuff. If you go to Japan, this is a must try, even if you don't like sweets. Seriously, it's a right shame if you don't.. My only complaint: dammit I should have bought a bigger box =_=;

Silvy says: First of all, THANK YOU SPIRE FOR THE TOKYO BANANAS!! ^____^v Being extremely particular about the sweets that I consume, I am totally in love with Tokyo Bananas! The sweetness of the banana is not compromised by a truckload of sugar, which is probably the reason why I adore this dessert (I go bananas over bananas). Try it if you can! :D

Spire's Ratings

Flavor: 5/5

Price: 4/5

DIY level: Nonexistant

Fun: Damn that's tasty

Silvy's Ratings

Flavor: 5/5

Price: 3/5

DIY level: Nonexistant

Fun: OMNOMNOMNOM

Coris Wakuwaku Doubutsu Soft Animal Candy

I wasn't entirely sure what these were at a glance, based on the packaging alone I thought these were some kind of chilled candies. But no, they're actually soft candy lollies which looks like one of those Kutsuwa eraser kits gone wrong. I got it for RM 7.70 at Isetan KLCC. Their selection has gotten very good as of late so I strongly recommend looking around there if you want to try out any of their Japanese candies.

The flavours that you're given are pretty apparent from the packaging; strawberry and lemon. And this is one of those kits where the contents are blind packed too. The wrapper shows a panda and a lion, but I got a bunny and an elephant instead.

There are four different molds you can possibly draw, with the giraffe and bear looking like the cutest.

Inside you'll get the pair of aforementioned press-molds, the soft candy and four lollipop sticks to use.

On opening the candy I was hit by some great smells. The candy is soft and the lemon smells tangy while the strawberry smelled a bit sweet but not too artificial. It was looking great so far. How it works is you have to pluck off the desired bits of soft candy and press them into different sections of the press, since both flavours go pretty well together it doesn't matter where you place them either.

When you're satisfied with the placement of things, stick the stick in the middle and press it down as far as it'll go. Pop it off and what you get? adorably cute lollies!

The candy itself is soft and easy to manipulate, though it gets sticky if you handle it for too long. You've got enough material to make 4 sticks worth but I somehow ended up with extra. The molds are a breeze to use too, nothing got stuck! which is pretty neat in itself because mold kits tend to tell you to either spray the molds with water or oil them.

Spire sez: This is definitely a fun kit that's meant to be shared. They even give a little extra candy so there's room for error. The candy is not too sweet, its just right in my opinion. Both the lemon and strawberry taste true to their flavours without artificialness, though I also find the kit requires crazy levels of manual dexterity to get candy into the tiny parts of the mold else the candies can end up looking pretty creepy with holes and stuff. Overall I think it'll be a hit with slightly  older kids.

Spire's Ratings

Flavor: 4/5

Price: 5/5

DIY level:  Easy

Fun: 3/5

Kracie Naru Naru Gumi Candy Kit (Soda)

Hey everyone, we're back after another (very busy) hiatus :D

Just a note, I went to Isetan KLCC recently and they've stocked up with an entire shelf full of new candy kits (price range RM 7-RM19) so here's your chance to bag yourself some!

What we have here is a very simple yet popular candy kit that allows you to make your own gummy 'grapes' in a rather unique way. I got this for RM9.90. I think it was a promo price because I've seen it being sold for RM12 elsewere before. I got it at one of those Japan snack faires. There's a grape flavour too, which I imagine would have been sweeter than the soda one.

Inside the bag you have the makings of a grape 'stem' made of plastic as well as three bags of sugary substance, namely a bag of fizzy sprinkles, a bag of the gummy powder and one more bag of powder you mix into a liquid to dip the 'stem' into.

 

How this works is you assemble the stem after cutting them out of the lattice (that tree shaped thing) and repeatedly dip it into the liquid, into the powder and then back into the liquid to build up the 'grapes' as you go along. It pretty much looks like this once assembled. It fits in a wee bit loose so make sure you snap it all in as tight as you can.

If you're not entirely sure how it fits together, there's some very easy to understand instructions on the back of the packet.

The kit is pretty straightforward. After you piece the stem together just pour in packet number 1 into compartment 1 and fill it up to the water line. This pack had a very strong ramune smell when I opened it up. Stir it till it dissolves and you're good to go to package 2!

Package 2 simply goes into the next compartment. It kinda looked like soap powder out of the bag, but it distinctively smelled of ramune too.

Just stick the stem in compartment one, rotate once and you're ready to start!

You just keep going back and forth between the powder and the liquid and watch as 'grapes' start to form on the stem. Our advice to get the most out of your powder is to even it out once grooves start to form so you get more even coverage.

 You'll eventually end up with this (or bigger!)

The last package has a bunch of fizzy sour lemon sprinkles in it that happilly fizz away when they hit the grapes. Personally I don't like the sprinkles all that much but they're quite nice to look at.

As far as taste goes, I was a bit surprised it didn't taste AS strong as I expected. The grapes have a gooey gummy texture of sorts and they aren't too sweet. If you made them too large they do have a tendency of randomly dropping off but generally speaking there's enough material in the packets to make almost two full stems worth of 'grapes'.

Spire sez: It was relatively fun though I probably wouldn't eat it again on pretext of not really enjoying the texture and flavour all that much.Overall this kit's end result wasn't too impressive and it can turn into a giant mess but it'll keep the kiddles entertained while you untangle the confusion about how grapes really are made :P

Spire's Ratings

Flavor: 3/5

Price: 3/5

DIY level: Easy

Fun: 4/5