10 Japanese Sweets

Published on Wednesday, April 22, 2009, by Aida Mollenkamp / Edit Post

10 Japanese Sweets

Venture beyond M&M’s

By Aida Mollenkamp

Hello Panda
Hello Panda

Kiwifruit Gummy Candy

Kiwifruit Gummy Candy

Ramune Candy

Ramune Candy

Ume Fruity & Sweet

Ume Fruity & Sweet

They had us from Pocky. Those delicate little crunchy sticks are the gateway drug for Japanese candy addicts. From there you get everything from chewy to gummy to hard candies and flavors that live well outside the peppermint-cherry-chocolate axis of boring old American sweets. Here are our favorites, well worth seeking out at Japanese markets or online.

1. Pocky. More a snack than a candy, but a classic. There are other flavored coatings (the strawberry is good), but the simple combination of chocolate and sweet biscuit makes the original the best.

2. Milky. There are many knockoffs of this chewy candy, but none compares to the original, with its delicate malted flavor.

3. Hello Panda. These have all the cuteness of Teddy Grahams and all the unease of biting into little smiling panda heads. But the crisp biscuits with milk chocolate cream inside help you forget the implications, if there are any. Other flavors include strawberry and vanilla.

4. Kiwifruit Gummy Candy. All the flavors of Kasugai gummy candies are great (particularly the muskmelon, lychee, and grape), but the kiwi is exceptional—possibly the perfect blend of sweet and tart.

5. Hi-Chew Grape. This fruit-flavored taffy candy has the best chewiness factor: neither too hard nor too soft. Though there are numerous flavors, the grape is perfectly grapelike without being over the top in that Bubble Yum way.

6. Flower’s Kiss. These hard candies are supposed to make your breath as fresh as a flower to prepare you for kissing, a claim that has yet to be road-tested by us.

7. Botan Rice Candy. With an edible rice-paper wrapper around chewy candy, this sweet is a multifaceted experience. The soft chew has a delicate citrus flavor, and the supercute box comes with a supercute sticker.

8. Ramune Candy. I was hooked on Ramune soda when I was younger partly because of its lemon-lime flavor and partly due to the awesome bottle it comes in. Now the company makes this tongue-tingling candy with the same great flavor.

9. Coffeebeat. The name seems more fitting for a coffee-related zine, and the packaging looks like it hasn’t been updated in 30 years, but that’s part of the charm of these bean-shaped, coffee-flavored candies dipped in chocolate.

10. Ume Fruity & Sweet. We may be crossing the line from candy to chewing gum here, but this product is a delicious treat with a sweet-sour plum flavor that lasts a good long time: Watch out, Juicy Fruit.

CHOW’s The Ten column appears every Tuesday.
Aida Mollenkamp is a food editor at CHOW.

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POST A COMMENT |22 Comments

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  • @budca-i DEFINITELY agree, if anyone is into Japanese sweets you must explore the crazy amount of flavors available in Japan. there are kitkats of green tea flavor, strawberry, edamame. Also they sell tim tams of weirder flavors than available in Australia, including with different colors and striped designs!!
    i would recommend the Meiji green tea chocolate #1
    also someone mentioned Ramune-you...+READ

    @budca-i DEFINITELY agree, if anyone is into Japanese sweets you must explore the crazy amount of flavors available in Japan. there are kitkats of green tea flavor, strawberry, edamame. Also they sell tim tams of weirder flavors than available in Australia, including with different colors and striped designs!!
    i would recommend the Meiji green tea chocolate #1
    also someone mentioned Ramune-you have to try the ramune in a bottle..its like flavored water kind of, but very yummy! just be careful cuz to open it it kind of explodes..;)-COLLAPSE

  • Meiji's Kinoko No Yama - chocolate covered biscuit mushrooms. I had them for the first time last night, and they were absolutely delicious. If you like chomping panda heads, you'll like these too.

  • Grape Hi-Chews are almost impossible to find, for the past 6 months or so- in both LA and Las Vegas Japanese food stores. Marukai in Little Tokyo, or Gardena, nada. I've gone on a rampant quest for them, they are so fantastic! The other great floavors are mango, and green apple. The ultra-rare red apple are almost better than the grape Hi-Chews, if that's even possible!

  • totally addicted to hello panda. it's the only packaged cookie-type thingie i've eaten for years,

  • You Kasugai gummy fans are completely missing out on one of the best, true-to-life flavors...pineapple! It's juicy, tangy, and sweet. Seriously. It's amazing. The apple is good, too, more like apple juice than the sour apple we see here.

  • Went back to the Asian market and they had 1 package of Milky. It definitely had a better, softer consistency than the knockoff I initially bought. I wish the malt flavor was a little stronger. I picked up the Botan which looks like a carton of cigs, but incredibly tasty. I also tried the kiwi, muscat (thanks Caitlin) and lychee gummies. They were pronounced "interesting" by my kids who are in...+READ

    Went back to the Asian market and they had 1 package of Milky. It definitely had a better, softer consistency than the knockoff I initially bought. I wish the malt flavor was a little stronger. I picked up the Botan which looks like a carton of cigs, but incredibly tasty. I also tried the kiwi, muscat (thanks Caitlin) and lychee gummies. They were pronounced "interesting" by my kids who are in the process of inhaling my new found candy collection.

    I didn't see the links to Amazon for these the first time. Thanks for the update.-COLLAPSE

  • For my money, muscat is far and away the best Kasugai gummy flavor (and has the best package prose, as noted above). Peach, melon, and lychee are also particularly true to their fruit flavors.

  • What about Japanese Kit Kats. They come really different flavors. Sweet potato sesame.

  • One that I recently found and love is Xylish Hyper Cool chewing gum. It is extremely minty. We're talking half a box of Altoids distilled into a single piece of gum. Certainly not for the faint of heart. They do have a milder one (Crystal Mint), but there ain't nothing like a Hyper Cool. Another fun gum is Extra Rose Menthol. It is rose flavored gum. It's a pleasant level of rose; the sensation...+READ

    One that I recently found and love is Xylish Hyper Cool chewing gum. It is extremely minty. We're talking half a box of Altoids distilled into a single piece of gum. Certainly not for the faint of heart. They do have a milder one (Crystal Mint), but there ain't nothing like a Hyper Cool. Another fun gum is Extra Rose Menthol. It is rose flavored gum. It's a pleasant level of rose; the sensation is closer to tasting the way a rose smells than it is to tasting rose perfume. The fun part about it is that it's made to be chewed on a hot day... the rose scent gets carried out your sweat glands. I played a game of Dance Dance Revolution about 20 minutes after chewing a piece and the rose scent was unmistakable.-COLLAPSE

  • never had Hello Panda, though i think it's available. i ate a lot of the Koalas (same concept as the panda). will have to try and buy both to compare.

    an above poster mentioned super lemons. growing up, i had friends who placed 'orders' with me as they didn't live close to asian supermarkets or couldn't persuade their parents to go there.

    kasugai grape gummies are yummy!

  • Botan Rice Candy - My favorite when I was a kid. At first, I didn't know the inner wrapper was edible - And it was harder than heck to peel! Things got much better when I learned the truth...

    Tommy
    Tommyskitchen.com

  • Lotte Blueberry gum is amazing. I slightly prefer it to the ume flavour.

  • I love Kasugai gummies, especially the grape flavour! I also love the fantastic "lost in translation" product descriptions on the bags. Example (muscat gummy): 'Its translucent color so alluring and taste and aroma so gentle and mellow offer admiring feelings of a graceful lady. Enjoy soft and juicy Kasugai Muscat Gummy.'

    Candy reminiscent of a graceful lady? Sold! :)

  • JohnE O - I believe these are the ones they're talking about. The description lists malt as an ingredient.

    http://www.veryasia.com/fumica.html

  • I love pocky! Especially the giant ones!! Has anyone ever tried them? Just the box itself is a collectors item!

  • Roshi, I was bottle fed so I can't comment.

    As a huge malt addict (I've eaten spoonfuls of plain powder) I was really hoping to find the Milky candy. I went to the CAM Asian Supermarket and they have a whole aisle of candy. I saw several packages called "Milk Candy" (with one claiming to be a high colonic) and another called "Milky" that was strawberry flavored, but no malt was listed. I finally...+READ

    Roshi, I was bottle fed so I can't comment.

    As a huge malt addict (I've eaten spoonfuls of plain powder) I was really hoping to find the Milky candy. I went to the CAM Asian Supermarket and they have a whole aisle of candy. I saw several packages called "Milk Candy" (with one claiming to be a high colonic) and another called "Milky" that was strawberry flavored, but no malt was listed. I finally found something called Milk Land Candy that had malt as its first ingredient so I bought that. While it is pretty tasty (a hard, slightly sweet lozenge) I'm not sure if this is the right thing. Can anyone point me to the exact product? (Yes I tried Googling but nothing seemed to fit).

    Thanks in advance.-COLLAPSE

  • I fell in love with Japanese sweets after my first trip to an Asian market. I especially love Hello Panda, but the big Asian market around here doesn't always have them. Sometimes I'll buy the little cookies shaped like tree stumps dipped in chocolate (can't remember the name!) as a panda stand in.

  • What about Super Lemons? Crazy sour on the outside, lemony sweet on the inside. I've loved Super Lemons since third grade, along with the similar-in-concept but tastier and harder to find Super Colas (if anyone knows where I can find those, please let me know.)

  • Milky's old slogan used to be: "Tastes like Mom."

    Draw your own conclusions...

  • Ooo, I think my brother brought me Hi-Chew when he came back from Japan. It was sooo yummy, like way better Starbursts.

  • I'd also recommend the jelly candies made with agar agar in Japan. They're full of fiber, not too sweet, and the really good ones are full of good deep flavor. I had some incredibly good peach ones awhile ago, but you can get them in variety packs in most supermarkets in Japan.

    The ones I had are reviewed here: http://japanesesnackreviews.blogspot.com/2009/02/hakuto-kanten-jelly-candy-peach.html

  • i love being from Hawaii b/c all of these little goodies are readily available at the store..... yum!