Meiji Gummy Chocolates, Three Flavor Drink Menu 2012

I love candies what are different, sweets of a different drum.  I recently made an order from NapaJapan, and these were one of the highlights in terms of different-ness.   NapaJapan describes them as such: "These round, chocolate covered gummies are a big hit in Japan.  Enjoy Grape Juice, Cola Float, and Strawberry Milk flavors.  Unique product!".

The box is very sweet, the illustrations and colors really put me in a good mood, and upon tasting the candy you'll see that the pastelly, gentle colors match perfectly with the actual taste. They're wee little beans, pinkie finger size, with about 20 in a box, maybe?

The weirdest thing about these is definitely the 'chocolate' coating.  It is only chocolate in the same sense that cake covering or white almond bark is, its got the same buttery and pleasant initial texture of chocolate, but with a vaguely waxy melt and mouthfeel. Also, when you chew, it just sort of flakes and melts in your mouth, there is no 'snap' to it--not that I really expected fine chocolate, it is after all soda flavored coating on a gummy.  The gummy in the center was very springy and soft, reminded me of most all sorts of Asian gummies, which I prefer to Haribo or gummy bear type sweets as these hardly seem to stick to your teeth at all, they're just juicy and springy.

Grape Juice was nice and tangy, not at all sour or over-sweet, definitely my favorite flavor--I love grape candy, and Japan and the USA have it on lockdown.   The Cola Float flavor could've just as easily been a root beer float, it is just creamy, vanilla-y with a spicy cola kick.  The Strawberry Milk is a bit of a let down, it was pretty waxy and more of a 'floral' strawberry than I tend to like. You can really taste the milkiness, however, which is awesome.  I hate when a candy is advertised as milky, and they really just mean white chocolate.  Don't get me wrong, I love white chocolate, but don't sell me a speedboat and then give me a Castaway style twig raft.

I'd definitely get these again, especially if another selection of flavors is released--melon cream soda, Dr. Pepper, and Cherry Coke?  Just throwing it out there, Meiji...

Crusha Milkshake Puds

I am a big fan of Crusha milks, although I refuse to call them milkshakes- they're flavoured milk, a wholly different thing in the Nesquik family. I also like USA style pudding, as made by Jell-o. I thought this Crusha stuff was going to just be a classic plastic pot of an Americana children's dessert. Little did I know at that time that it was super disgusting and that cat on the pot was in the throes of a vomitorious attack. In a word, this is gross.
I tried the vanilla one first, because vanilla is my favorite pudding flavour AND my favorite flavoured milk flavour. Nice regular packaging, foil lid, funny old cat on the front. When opened, there was no smell-not a dealbreaker, but sort of a bad sign. This was, by the way, like 50p at Sainsburys, so I wasn't expecting any kind of bouquet of vanilla orchid. It was a very thin consistency, not much like a "good" pudding, but a lot like the cheap, shelf stable puddings, which seemed to be what the Crusha Pud was modelled off of. So smell and texture was as I expected, and I was anticipating something that aped the very specific taste of crappy vanilla pudding in America. Instead of cheap vanilla pudding it was cheap imitation vanilla extract thickened with...oh, let's say, carrageen. Something tasteless and gross to think about. It also seemed nearly unsweetened, which made it taste more boozy than dessert-y. I bet the sugar was cut so parents could feel better about feeding this to kids, but Crusha Puds are only going to help children build an early tolerance to the burn of alcohol. Next up, Crusha Wobbly Blackcurrant Jello Shots. I'm blowing the lid off this whole operation! I also tried the chocolate, and the experience was much the same, although unsweetened cocoa powder is a lot more edible than imitation vanilla extract, so it won out tastewise...if there can be such a winner. I'm working myself up to the banana flavour--there is no way it is going to improve things. This stuff sucks, make your own pudding or spring for a Jell-o import mix.