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