Country Ma'am Cookie Assortment

These cookies come from Japan, but they weren't part of my NapaJapan order--more lucky bits from my husband's office! I had three versions to try: vanilla chocolate chip, cocoa chocolate chip and...mysterious pink chocolate chip.

Here they are, all packed in tightly onto my snacking plate. They're about three inches in diameter, and individually wrapped. Cute colour coordination, too! The idea behind these Country Ma'am cookies is that they're soft-baked, like an American style cookie. Funny thing is, traditionally shelf-bought American cookies are crunchy, like Chips Ahoy. I suppose these are meant to emulate a home baked cookie more than a factory made cookie. Apparently you can microwave these or slap them in an oven to warm them up, but I ate them room temperature.

First up is the Chocochip Cookie Cocoa, a chocolate flavored chocolate chip cookie. It smelled like a cookie, buttery and very sugary. The texture of these cookies is crunchy on the outside, and soft on the inside, just like my favorite kind of home baked cookie. It reminds me most of the texture of other soft-baked shelf stable cookies, like these Chips Ahoy as reviewed on Impulsive Buy. It also reminds me a bit of cookies baked with pudding or cake mix, very dense and soft. The flavor of this one was pleasantly chocolatey, with wee little chocolate chips as well. Certainly it isn't a strong chocolate flavor, it reminds me of the flavor of a basic hot chocolate...mostly sugar with a cocoa tone to it, but nothing like a bar of chocolate.

I thought this one looked particularly pretty, a perfect color for a chocolate chip cookie. Chocochip Cookie Vanilla seemed like it would be the plainest of all the cookies, and while that was true, it was also the tastiest one. Just the right blend of sugar and butter, with a fair amount of chocolate chips. The chocolate chips themselves aren't particularly strongly flavored, making this cookie taste mostly like dough. Not that there's anything wrong with that...

This was the only cookie in the bunch that didn't have the flavor translated into English on the packet. It tasted a bit like strawberry or peach, a little tart but mostly sweet. It was definitely some kind of fruit, and it also had chocolate chips in. The mix of tart-sweet fruit and chocolate chips was a bit strange, but it wasn't unpleasant. After a bit of Googling and translating, I figured out that this flavor is Strawberry Parfait. Well, it did taste like strawberries, and it didn't not taste like a parfait. Maybe the chocolate chips are meant to be like a topping? Apparently condensed milk is also included in this cookie, but I didn't really see that, personally. I would need to compare this to a plain strawberry Country Ma'am to make a proper review, clearly...

These were fine little cookies, nowhere near as good as home baked cookies, and not necessarily as good as the easier-to-find American equivalents like Soft Batch Keeblers, et cetera. If I was in Japan I'd want to try a few of the stranger flavors, like Morning Toast, Green Tea, or Red Bean...but I wouldn't bother importing any of the regular flavors, personally.