Senjaku Hokkaido High Concentration Milk Candy

Candybowl remains miffed that when a milk candy last graced the bowl, nobody took it. Things are different this time -- that package featured a cow, but this one does not.

The japanese character on the front of the packages means "dense." As in high-concentration. Not a description of the people who couldn't figure out that a cow signifies milk (not meat) flavor.

There's nothing fancy about this candy. Perhaps reflecting a Hokkaido peasant lineage, this milk candy is rough-hewn and unrefined in appearance.

The only taste is sweet, delicious milk. Looking at the ingredients list, it's clear why: this candy contains milk, whey, condensed milk, and cream. Indeed, if Candybowl reads the package correctly (a big if) it contains 35% milk. The candy loses marks for having corn syrup as its main sweetener, but there's nothing unnatural in the flavor.

The crunch is very nice, with an acceptable amount of gumminess. The flavor intensifies into notes quite reminiscent of vanilla ice cream. Mmm ... ice cream.

Mmmm.....

Kasugai Gokusho Shogi Low Calorie Candy

Here is a low-calorie candy from Kasugai. It comes in two flavors, grape and lemon.

Sugar free candies have vastly improved over the past few years, and this candy certainly follows that trend. It contains a low-calorie sweetener called erythritol. Candybowl is happy to try anything once, and is happy to report this sugar substitute gets it done.

Almost. The first reaction to the grape candy is "very tart." Artificial grape, like Now & Laters. It is clear that "no sugar" means no mercy from the sourness. But since they are just one calorie each Candybowl tried the lemon, which is supposed to be sour, and it was.

The crunch is fantastic. Chips slough off at the slightest contact with a tooth, and pulverize into a clean (and very tart) sand. No residue at all.

Good candy.

Kanro Changing? Candy

Leave it to the candy geniuses at Kanro to come up with such an unconventional boiled sweet. This changing candy offers three flavors -- grape, apple, or soda flavor followed by a plunge into unknown flavor territory.

Starting within the realm of the knowable, the apple candy tasted initially like apple. Not totally realistic apple flavor, but close enough and without some of the chemical notes that can afflict some artificial apple flavorings. Upon sucking, another fruit flavor, slightly more realistic, melted through. Candybowl will not say what it is, for it would then no longer be a surprise.

This morsel has a slightly rough appearance, but is smooth on the tongue. The crunch yielded no surprises, and left an acceptable amount of residue on the tooth. Having waited for the second flavor to come through on the sucking, Candybowl discerned no additional flavors in the center.

A fine offering from Kanro. Try one and see where it leads you.

UHA Matcha and Azuki CuCu Candy

As Candybowl has noted, UHA's Cucu line includes some of the most elegant hard candies around. So it was a pleasant surprise to find this Matcha and Azuki bean candy. Matcha is powdered green tea, and azuki is a red bean often used in Japanese desserts.

Initial flavor notes are very mild green tea and cream. Upon further sucking, slight notes of bean emerge. The crunch is, of course, excellent. This is where the bean flavor really shines, overtaking the tea and forming a delicious, earthy blend.

The package features a dog made out of cubes of candy. Why not?

Another great candy from UHA.

Sakuma Lemon Koritto

This lemon candy is understated, with its unassuming cellophane twist package. However, it ranks among the finest confections Candybowl has encountered.

It has an attractive triangular form, and is adorned with an "S," presumably for Sakuma. According to the diagram on the package, the outside is lemon flavor and the inside is "saku saku milk." (Before the mind starts racing, Candybowl would like to point out that online translation of sakusaku is "crispy.") It is mottled yellow because of its white filling.

This sweet is smooth on the tongue, releasing a pleasant, mild lemon flavor that reminds Candybowl of lemon italian ice. There are no odd notes, just natural lemon. Which is unsurprising, considering that one of the ingredients is lemon juice.

The candy crunches beautifully, releasing a burst of milky flavor. Although crispy milk usually is a sign of problems, in this case it completes a very nice candy. The added flavor note is not fresh milk; perhaps powdered or condensed would be a better analogy. A tiny but very stubborn lump on Candybowl's molar is the only thing keeping this candy from perfection.

An excellent debut from candymaker Sakuma.

UHA Puccho Budo & Ichigo Candy

This whimsical candy comes to us from UHA, makers of the elegant CuCu candies reviewed here. It comes in two flavors, strawberry (ichigo) and grape (budo).

As seen in the photo, out of the package it looks like a piece of cut taffy with jam in the middle. Or a very pale jam-filled cruller. Or a pig in a blanket where the pig is jam and the blanket is taffy.

Initial taste tests failed. This is a soft candy, and there's not much going on until it's chewed. Once chewed, it released flavor notes of sour, artificial grape/strawberry, bologna. and candle wax. And at the end, a piece of harder jelly filling.

Further inspection being needed. Candybowl took a fresh piece and nibbled away the white wrapper to reveal the jam center. Clearly, the wrapper is the source of the wax and bologna flavors. What Candybowl could not have predicted, however, was that the hard jelly filling is not like a sausage at all -- it's a series of small pellets. Those jelly pellets have the texture of a Rowntree Fruit Gum, and account for the burst of fruit flavor at the end.

In sum, an odd candy with some clever engineering, but far too flawed to receive high marks from Candybowl.

Iwasa Amazake Sweet Wine Candy

Although this is not the first time Candybowl has encountered an alcohol-flavored candy (for example, cabernet sauvignon candy), it still comes as a surprise every time a new one shows up. Candy and childhood seem so closely intertwined that adult candy seems wong.

There is very little wrong with this candy. It comes packaged in a relatively stark black and white wrapper -- no snorkeling dogs here. And its appearance is smooth and striated, like the delightful nama ume ame plum candies. It has the slightest point at the end, as though it was twisted off at the end like a sausage. On the tongue, it seems not so much rough (it is not smooth) as coated or frosted. All good, so far.

The initial flavor notes are as follows: sake. No surprise: zake = sake. That's it, like sipping a cold, sweet glass of sake. Maybe cheap sake (e.g., Ozeki), but this is a candy, after all. After a while the sake flavor recedes a bit, so on to the crunch test.

This is one tough candy to get a molar into. After a concerted effort, Candybowl managed to break it into several pieces. And those pieces, once crushed, re-formed into a hard and sticky lump. Loyal readers know how much Candybowl hates crud on his molars.

Elegant packaging, beautiful candy, a refined flavor, and a failed crunch test. So what's the final take? Try it yourself and see.