Weird candy: ASIA

People say that necessity is the mother of invention, but if you examine the family tree carefully, it's actually Japan. Those crazy kids down Asia way leave no stone unturned in their search for a new product. Rubber sushi? You got it. Schoolgirl underwear vending machines? No problem. Self-inflating digital vasectomy booths? Would you like cream with that? (I made that last one up)

So with the design skills of a whole host of angels and the consumer focus of a robot geisha on a coke binge, what can Japan come up with for the sweet toothed? I'll tell you what - and it involves collagen marshmallows, jelly-filled pillows and explosions …

Grape popping candy floss

Watapachi Grape is, OMG, like, the best candy ever.

It's all about texture and taste variety for me. This artificial grape flavoured (I say artificial because of course it's a totally different flavour to real grape) Japanese cotton candy comes in a small rectangular wad. Tear some off and the teeny cloud of floss melts immediately in a fruit/sugar/chemical mess on the tongue. And then? Little sour nuggets like sherbet to give it some tangy punch.

And that's when the giant rocks of grape popping candy kick in - more explosive than regular moon dust, these sizeable pebbles actually hurt. It’s like being caressed and mugged at the same time. I could eat this 20 times over. Serves me right for offering it round the office. 5/5

Angry Fruit kendo sticks

These sweets come in a small Mikado-like packet with angry fruit on the front – they’re so furious they’re attacking each other with big sticks. Just look at that lemon go! Boy is he mad. Inside the box are seven mini-packs of 2 kendo sticks each, which is a fine number for the £1-something pricetag.

The purple sticks’ flavour indicates that the incensed blackberry on the box front is probably a bunch of grapes. The yellow is lemon. And the single white pack is strawberry. However, the dominant flavour is bicarbonate of soda, which leads it to fizz slightly, like refreshers. 

It’s hard candy, so sucking can reduce it to a dangerous point, like cigarette sweets. Unfortunately, holding it is sticky (ha ha) so it has to be downed in one. Overall, they’re ok, but the bicarb ruins the party. 2/5

Grape mochi

This tiny pillow of a sweetmeat is even softer and squdgier than a regular red bean mochi (what’s the singular of mochi, people?), so much so that it's difficult to grip. Unusually, in the place of sweetened pulse, it's filled with a kind of grape jelly.

The outside dough is as oddly soft yet elastic as mochi should be, though the slight fruitiness of the filling is an odd fit with the mild rice casing, and my favourite artificial flavour has sadly been toned down to fit in leaving an underwhelming whole.

And don’t smell it – it’s weird. 3/5

Collagen marshmallows

The manufacturers recommend eating a pack a day. Have they checked this with Gillian McKeith? These ‘Eat yourself beautiful’ sweets come in a girly pink pack which squeals excitedly about supposed health benefits.

Styling itself a ‘food supplement’ with ‘3000mg of collagen a packet!’, it nevertheless confesses on the back: ‘Collagen does not claim to treat, cure or heal.’ Well (bad grammar aside), quite. The name and the ‘health’ styling are pure window dressing.

But the marshmallows are ok – and the slight pink grapefruit flavour surprisingly decent, if bland. These are made in Birmingham. What? 3/5

Comments

[Puma Shoes]

Beautiful picture of your blog! Picture is also very beautiful! And the combination of good articles and background @ I love your style of this style

[Craig]

mochi is singular and plural...japanese nouns don't distinguish between the two.

eg. kani = crab/crabs

[kidney stone treatment]

Most first-time victims are between 30 and 40 years old and are otherwise in very good health.