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.