UHA CuCu Watermelon Salt Vanilla Candy

When Candybowl was young, he went to a summer day camp run by hippies.  Not hula-hoop-twirling, dirty-dredlock-wearing hippies, but just good snaggle-toothed, granola-eating folk into whose hands we were placed for a chain of hot summer days.

There was some weirdness, like the belief that powdered milk was healthier than fresh, or the picking up and inspecting of insects, or the grunge at the bottom of the swimming pool.  But most of it we just accepted as normal.  Like cutting the white parts off of the watermelon rinds other kids had sucked clean earlier in the day and tossing them into an aquarium so we could pickle them.

Of course, there was nothing normal about making watermelon pickles in an aquarium.  For good reason.   First, aquariums are nasty places in which fish and reptiles do terrible things.  Second, aquarium glass breaks easily.  So when we were all supposed to be eating yummy pickled watermelon rind, instead we were picking pieces of broken glass out of the broken aquarium and rinsing the rind, and hoping to god that the pieces we were eating wouldn't kill us.

Which is why the new Japanese fad for watermelon salt candies evokes a sense of longing in Candybowl.

This morsel is part of UHA's CuCu line.   Like all of UHA's candies the texture is flawless.  On sucking, one gets mild and very pleasant watermelon notes with just a hint of vanilla.

The crunch is delightful, releasing a burst of saltiness and just a little caramel.  The watermelon flavor intensifies, but only slightly, more like an increase in sourness without additional fruitiness.

And no broken glass.  An odd and pleasant treat from CuCu.  Try them as soon as you possibly can.

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.

UHA Cucu Jiyugaoka Pudding Candy

This candy, has two names. In English, it's "Cucu Pudding". In Japanese, it's自由か丘 which, according to online translation, means "Freedom Hill." (Candybowl can say for sure that "自由" means freedom.)

The package promises the flavors of "custard pudding and bitter caramel" and it delivers. The first taste will be familiar to those who fondly recall Hunt's Pudding Cup. But no hint of artificial flavor, or any of the play-doh notes that can afflict even confections made with real milk.

The excellent fracture reveals the slight bitterness promised by the package. The cube is slightly smaller than other candies but, since this is part of UHA's Cucu line, the rest of the crunch test basically writes itself. A bit of gum on the tooth, but otherwise this is a very refined candy.

One more thing. This candy contains caffeine extract.

Which all leads to the question, why "freedom hill"? Anyone?

Postscript 6/25/09

Jiyugaoka is a neighborhood in Tokyo's Meguro district. There is a theme park called the Jigukayoka Sweets Forest, from the people who brought you the Curry Museum, Osaka Noodles City and Gyoza Stadium. Sweet.

Cucu CaffeLatte

What? Another review of a Cucu candy? Yes, Candybowl is nuts about Cucu candy and wants you to be too.

The initial taste is caramel, possibly even caramel corn. Yes, there's also milk flavor, but the overall taste impression is not of coffee.

That changes when we get to the crunch. Each bite off the cube (and yes, dear readers, this candy fractures like Blondie's heart of glass, in the sense that what I find is pleasing) yields a burst of milk coffee flavor. Not exactly Starbucks -- more like a cup of coffee that is laden with condensed milk -- but coffee nonetheless.

Still not convinced? Then you haven't, to use the patois of Chicago's Mayor Daley, gone Cucu.

Kyoto Brown Sugar Candy

Followers of this blog know that Candybowl is a big fan of the Cucu candies produced by Japan's UHA Candy company. This candy, while apparently not part of the Cucu line, will be familiar to anyone who has eaten one of those candies.

The flavor notes are intense caramel throughout. Although Candybowl rarely eats molasses, this candy tastes like what Candybowl believes molasses tastes like. The burnt sugar flavor is a little off-putting, but the overall effect is quite impressive.

As seen in the photo, this candy is a marbled cube. The bite is just what one would expect from UHA -- a nice fracture, with an impressively clean finish.

If you want a really nice candy, eat a Cucu butter caramel. If you want something special, eat one of these.

Cucu Green Tea

Cucu is a green tea milk candy.

This selection has, in my humble opinion, received inadequate attention from the candy eaters. If you've ever had green tea ice cream, the flavor will be a familiar one. The texture is exquisite -- a hard morsel that fractures like an ice cube when you bite into it. As close to a perfect hard candy as exists in this world.

Clearly, I am smitten.