Kanro Sugar Free Fruit-flavored Candy

Kanro has made a strong move into sugar free candies with this bag of mixed sweets in four fruit flavors -- green apple, lemon, strawberry, and grape. Candybowl tried the apple candy.

The confection started with a pleasant and realistic green apple flavor. After some sucking, the green apple flavor receded, and odd notes began to develop. Candybowl has been admonished about the frequency with which he describes candies as tasting like cleaning products, and will not do so here. At least it doesn't taste like menthol.

The outer package boasts "Does not contain menthol." This, no doubt, is a response to Candybowl's comments about Kanro's candies tasting like menthol or like Halls Cough Drops. The Kanro flavor meter describes this as below-average sweetness, and above-average sourness. In the words of a great poet, "well, I guess."

The crunch is very nice, similar to sugar free Life Savers. On chewing, the apple flavor reintensifies, but so does that odd note described above. Perhaps because this is a sugar free candy, it left only a small amount of residue on the tooth and even that dissolved quickly.

A nice try, Kanro, but you I know you can do better.

Haitai Crunch Ball Crispy Candy

This peanut candy comes to us from Korean snacks manufacturer Haitai.

Like its compatriot, Lotte, Haitai made its name as a manufacturer of knock-off snacks. But its creativity and skill should not be underestimated; in Candybowl's humble opinion, Haitai also makes some of the best saltine crackers on earth. While this candy does not quite live up to the saltine standard, it is nevertheless a treat.

The confection is rough-hewn and irregularly colored. On sucking, it yields flavor notes of mild peanuts and sugar. In fact, it does not release its flavor until crushed, which is unsurprising for a candy with the words "crunch" and "crispy candy" in its name.

The crunch is, in a word, fantastic. Thanks to the small pieces of peanut embedded in a fragile ball of sugar crystals, it crunches, and then it crunches some more. It leaves a bit of residue on the tooth (and a slight aftertaste on the tongue), but that can be forgiven.

A nice effort, and well worth trying.

Postscript 7/23/08: An apt comparison was made to Butterfinger (not the chocolate, the inside).

Kasugai Cafe au Lait Season

Japanese confectioners' affinity for coffee candies goes back decades. Not content merely to produce "coffee flavor," manufacturers produce a range of flavors , like Blue Mountain and Sumiyaki charcoal roast. Kasugai is no exception although, as here, their reach sometimes exceeds their grasp.

This mixed bag of candies contains four coffee varieties -- Austria, France, Italy, and "Barugi" ( バルギー). Being that sort, Candybowl tried France, with a taste of Barugi to round out the picture.

France started with pleasant notes of cafe au lait, but delivered more complexity neither with the passage of time, nor upon chewing. Barugi tasted almost the same, but sweeter, almost like a sweetened Turkish coffee.

These candies are big, in the same league as Flower's Kiss or the oafish Hirano candies. Candybowl does not say a candy has failed the crunch test lightly, but this one most certainly did. Kasugai should be proud to associate itself with gummy candy, but not this kind of gummy. If you have fillings, eat at your own risk.

The slogan on the bag says "the taste makes me sense the season." Perhaps Candybowl now knows what the season of discontent tastes like.

Ujinotsuyu Kyo-Ame Green Tea

These handmade green tea candies come to us from Japanese tea manufacturer Ujinostsuyu. So they ought to taste like tea, especially since they contain just three ingredients: sugar, millet jelly, and tea. And they do taste more like tea than any candy that has graced the candybowl (althugh the insipid red tea candies came close).

The confections come in four tea varieties, each a popular type of Japanese tea.

Candybowl tried Genmaicha, a blend of tea and roasted rice. Perhaps Candybowl was expecting some variant of the buttery green tea flavor found in green tea ice creams, and in Kasugai's green tea candies. Whatever was expected. this candy delivered something different: a dry, slightly bitter, green tea flavor with distinct leafy notes, along with cereal notes (probably the rice). While the flavor is certainly more reminiscent of real tea leaves than most green tea candies, one might question whether it is a flavor well suited for a confection.

These candies are hand made. The human touch ends only after the candy has been poured and kneaded by hand (see step 3). As a result of all of this loving care, the external appearance is alluring, with a tight ball-of-twine appearance similar to nama ume ame candies.

The crunch is excellent, with each bite fracturing off a piece from the whole without undue effort. It is here, with the sugar fully extended across the palate, that the natural tea flavor finds its purchase. The candy leaves a bit too much residue on the tooth, but that is not a disqualifier.

Altogether an interesting and tasty candy.