It’s been many a moon (a year and a half, to be exact) since I last did a Taste Test post, and since I have a massive haul of nifty treats from my trip to Japan back in June, it’s high time I started writing about them! Today I figured I’d focus on some of the Nameko (Funghi)*-related candies I picked up.
On the left we have cola-flavored Nameko gummies, and on the right are Nameko and Strawberry Nameko Chiroru. While the gummies themselves are pretty self-explanatory, Chiroru Choco (proper name Tirol) are basically small square chocolates that are actually rather popular in Japan though I’ve managed to go nearly 26 years without ever having tried one.
As always, the packaging adorable. I’d ask you to excuse all the gratuitous packaging shots, but hopefully you’re reading this because you like this sort of thing, too!
I love the attention to detail – what a neat design along the bottom of the bag!
The back of the bag has a Nameko assuring you that the Chiroru are delicious.
The packaging on the individually-wrapped chocolates is appropriately cute, as well. The yellow package contains mitarashi dango-flavored Chiroru, which is a type of traditional Japanese sweet, while the red is a basic strawberry. Upon biting into the strawberry Chiroru, however, I was surprised to find a small biscuit in the middle! The mitarashi dango ones, however, had an interesting gooey consistency inside.
Not very exciting, but here’s what the strawberry Chiroru look like. Too bad they couldn’t have printed a Nameko picture on the actual Chiroru themselves! The mitarashi dango has the exact same design, except the chocolate is more of a tannish color. Both were tasty, but I prefer the mitarashi dango flavor just because it’s a tad more “exotic.” It doesn’t really have a strong chocolatey flavor, and the gooey consistency inside makes it resemble the actual candy it’s made to taste like, making it quite the experience! Unfortunately I probably wouldn’t say it tastes a whole lot like actual mitarashi dango, but I don’t eat them very often…
Now the Nameko gummies aren’t something I would normally go after since they’re cola favored… “nfu nfu namekola” flavored, to be exact. Basically I love a good pun and the fact that the gummies were actually shaped like various types of Nameko, so I figured I’d give it a shot even though soda candy is usually not my thing.
If you’re lucky, you might get a rare type of Nameko gummy! (there are six shapes total)
Gotta love the different Nameko on the sides of the bag. I would’ve thought they’d show all the possible gummy shapes, but I only see three different Nameko there…
As for the contents of the bag, I was sorely disappointed! They only give you eight measly gummies! Granted it wasn’t that expensive, but it was a bit of a shock to open a bag the size of my hand only to find it not even a third full.
It’s a bit hard to tell, but it looks like I’ve got three different Nameko gummy variations – the “normal” Nameko, creepy toothy smile Nameko, and the cat Nameko. Isn’t it odd that that’s exactly the types of Nameko pictured on the side of the bag?! I wonder what the other three gummy types are? I guess they went and only put the most common variations on the actual packaging, but I can’t believe anyone would buy more just to see all the different shapes.
The gummies themselves were surprisingly tasty, as the cola flavor wasn’t all that pronounced. I don’t think I’d buy them again, though, as the consistency was a bit harder than I like in a gummy. In the end, I definitely prefer the flavor of the Chiroru, but the actual gummy candies themselves are more interesting to look at. Because clearly candy is meant to be looked at, not eaten…
Stay tuned for more weird Chic Pixel food logic in more upcoming Taste Test posts!
*Every time I write a post about Nameko/Funghi, I can’t decide whether I should use its Japanese name or English name. Funghi may be more well known to English-speaking folks, but I think Nameko sounds better!
