Archive for May, 2009

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Mountain Dew Max Air 3

May 25, 2009

What good timing. I was starting to get jealous of everyone back in the U.S., because I’ve heard nothing but good things about Pepsi and Mountain Dew Throwback. I’m also interested in how Pepsi Natural tastes. Things were looking pretty lonely on the drink front. NOT ANYMORE!

Max Air 3

Max Air 3

For the third year in a row, there’s a new Mountain Dew “Max Air”. The first one tasted like Mountain Dew, but a little more “crisp”. Max Air 2 was so “crisp”, that it pretty much lost its flavor. You can watch my video review of Max Air 2 here.

As for Max Air 3, it definately has its flavor back. It’s been too long for me to remember what the first Max Air tasted like, but this seems like regular Mountain Dew to me. It doesn’t seem as carbinated as Max Air 2 was, which is what I felt its main problem was. When I make a video, I’ll compare it to the regular Mountain Dew that you can still find in vending machines, and see which tastes better.

The gang's all here.

The gang's all here.

In anything else, you can bet that there will be a Max Air 4 coming out around this time next year. Pity I won’t be in Japan to get some right away.

Posted in New Releases, news, Reviews | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments »

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Marathon eating session: complete.

May 24, 2009

*Whew*

I just got finished filming video reviews for everything I still needed to do, so I have lots of things to keep me busy with this week. In the meantime, here are some short little reviews to keep you satisfied until the videos go up:

Lots of eating going on.

Lots of eating going on.

KitKat:

Yuzu Pepper – Tastes like dark chocolate and citrus with a pleasant pepper aftertaste.

Cayenne Pepper – Very little flavor and almost no spice. Disappointing.

Uji Green Tea – “Green Tea Light”. Less bitter than previous versions.

Apple Vinegar – Read about it here.

Lemon Vinegar – Didn’t taste the vinegar. Not too different from other lemon versions.

Kinako – Tastes like peanut butter.

Cheetos:

BBQ/Chili Sauce Combo – Like the standard BBQ ones with a little extra spice.

Garlic Soy Sauce – Pleasant garlic taste with salt added in.

Yokohama Shuumai – Very odd and hard to describe, but interesting and tasty nonetheless.

Doritos:

Men’s Chili – Not much flavor but very spicy as you keep eating them.

Men’s 7-spices – VERY GOOD! A fantastic blend.

Stick (Taco sauce) – Secretly Fritos. Nice flavor though.

Teriyaki – Good flavor, but it fades almost immediately. There are better teriyaki alternatives.

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Lemon Vinegar KitKats. Finally!

May 24, 2009

It only took a couple weeks to track them down, but I finally found a few bags of the lemon vinegar Kitkats.

Lemon Vinegar KitKat

Lemon Vinegar KitKat

I’d like to get this reviewed, as well as the ten or so flavors of chips that I have yet to get taken care of in the last couple of weeks.

Posted in New Releases | Tagged , , | 1 Comment »

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Cayenne Pepper KitKats and Teriyaki Doritos

May 17, 2009

Another friend of mine, Nickola, went traveling recently, and she also brought me back a region-exculsive flavor of KitKats.

Cayenne Pepper Powder KitKat

Cayenne Pepper Powder KitKat

The brand name is 八幡屋礒五郎 or Yawataya Isogorou which is a temple in Nagano City that has been making a special “Seven Spices” pepper blend since the Edo period. There are many different kinds that they sell, and these KitKats are based on the spiciest (大辛) kind of cayenne pepper powder that they sell. I only have two of these, so I’m going to hold of on eating them until I make a video review.

While shopping today, I found these:

Teriyaki Doritos

Teriyaki Doritos

I tried these right away. They taste like regular plain doritos corn chips with a hint of teriyaki flavor. You can recognize the flavor right away, but it fades once you start chewing, and there’s no real lasting teriyaki flavor or aftertaste. There’s a teriyaki burger pictured on the left, but don’t let that fool you. These don’t taste like a teriyaki burger by any means. There is a certain brand of potato chips that have a “Teriyaki Mayo” flavor, and those taste exactly like a teriyaki burger. These do not. They just taste like corn chips with a hint of teriyaki at the beginning. Kind of surprising, seeing how a lot of Doritos flavors usually load up on the flavor powder to try and force the flavor on you. Good nonetheless.

Posted in General Info, New Releases, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

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The creepiest snacks in Japan.

May 17, 2009

I bought a bag of these curry flavored puffed Cheetos (basically), because the bag is just so damn creepy. Look at this:

*shudder*

*shudder*

Apparently, these are snacks based on the Oriental Instant Curry brand. Curry flavored snacks? Nothing new here. What first caught my eye was this guy:

Albino racist tribal chef?

Albino racist tribal chef?

What is this? It looks like the classic black racist caricature, still easy to find in Japan, with big hooker hoop earrings and, of course, a chef’s hat. As confusing as this is, it’s still not as bad as…

"I'm coming to kill you."

"I'm coming to kill you."

Look at those cold, dead, eyes. He’s looking at you, but not your face. He’s eyeing you up and trying to think of the best way to prepare your flesh in a way that would best compliment his (or the albino chef’s) latest curry recipe. His spoon is ready and waiting, and he’s already drooling at the thought of knocking you out and stuffing you in his giant pot. It’s already simmering and ready for the secret ingredient: YOU!

Posted in General Info | Tagged , | 4 Comments »

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New KitKat, Doritos, and Cheetos

May 13, 2009

It seems that the best place to check for up to date info on what new KitKats have gone on sale is Nestle’s nutritional information page. Even if stuff has been on sale with no mention on their homepage, they still add the nutritional facts online.

I was coming back from getting some ice cream, when I decided on a whim to stop into a Family Mart to see if they had some lemon vinegar KitKats. They didn’t, but they had three things I had never seen before instead, and they are:

"Uji" Green Tea

"Uji" Green Tea

This is the same “Uji-macha” flavor that was earlier released in the ripoff combo packs, but apparently you could also just buy these separately if you wanted to only try the green tea flavor. This is the first time I’ve seen these since they’ve apparently been on sale.

Garlic Soy Sauce Cheetos

Garlic Soy Sauce Cheetos

$5 says that these Garlic Soy Sauce Cheetos are guaranteed to give you bad breath. I almost didn’t recognize them, because the Cheetos logo was hidden in the upper left and was hard to see it on the shelves. It says that is uses garlic from Aomori Prefecture, and might have been a special Aomori exclusive, but that’s apparently over and done with, because I just walked into a convenience store in Gunma and found them.

Sweet/Spicy Chili Doritos "stick"

Sweet/Spicy Chili Doritos "stick"

YET ANOTHER new shape for Doritos, and this time, the shape is a “stick”. It’s called Sweet/spicy Chili flavored, but there’s a picture of a taco right there on the bag, so I’m wondering how these compare to the taco Doritos that you can always find here. That will have to wait until tomorrow.

Ugh, these are piling up faster than I can review them.

Posted in General Info, New Releases | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

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Apple Vinegar KitKats are Here

May 12, 2009

I was mistaken in my earlier post about the apple and lemon vinegar KitKats when I said they were coming out last week. It was stated clearly that they went on sale on the 11th. I haven’t been able to find the lemon vinegar ones yet, but I did get some apple ones today.

Apple Vinegar

Apple Vinegar

I was expecting these to be really sour, just because of the vinegar in the name, but that, surprisingly, wasn’t the case. They pretty much smell the same as the Nagano apple KitKats, but the scent isn’t as strong.Thankfully, they also pretty much taste the same as the Nagano apple KitKats. There was a slight sourness to the taste, obviously the vinegar part of the flavor, but it certainly didn’t taste like vinegar. In fact, my first reaction was that this tasted more like a green apple than the red apple on the front of the box, and if they had called it that, I’m sure they would meet expectations without having to change a thing.

The whole package.

The whole package.

I have to say that I’m relieved and disappointed at the same time. I’m glad that there wasn’t a horrible kick of vingary sourness, but at the same time, I’m left feeling that this is little more than just another apple KitKat. Expectations were low for these, so naturally, I’m pleased with the results. Maybe I’m just offput by the mere mention of vinegar thanks to having had the pleasure of tasting some of the many “healthy” vinegar drinks they have here in Japan. Either way, I’m sure they would have a hard time marketing these is the west as they are now, but, like I said earlier, they could easily get away with calling these “Granny Smith Apple KitKats” and avoid the whole “Ewww, vinegar?” kneejerk reaction I’m sure lots of people have had.

Also, for those wondering where the video review is, don’t worry, I haven’t stopped doing them. It’s just much easier to take a bite and write this up, especially when I’ve been busy lately. I’ll still work to keep the videos up to date, even if it means that I’ll be eating and reviewing everything twice and repeating myself. Some people just don’t like to read and vice versa.

Posted in New Releases, Reviews | Tagged , , | 1 Comment »

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Crush & Marble Pocky Video Reviews

May 11, 2009

Here’s the review of the “Crush Pocky”:

I’m not sure why Coconut Pocky isn’t allowed to fall under the Crush brand name, because it follow the same formula as these two: Crush something up, sprinkle it over a breadstick, and then cover with chocolate. Presto! The cookies that they chose to use in the Bitter Crunch ones are some of the blandest cookies I’ve ever tasted, and therefore, they add little to no flavor to the final product. The almonds, on the other hand, are very tasty and taste just like you would expect them to. If it were up to me, I’d swap out the Bitter Crunch for the coconut, because that’s a much better tasting snack, and, unless I’m missing something, it will fit right in the with the rest of the Crush line.

On to the Marble Pocky:

It seems like a bit of a waste to have both of these flavors centered around berries, but they are both good, so it doesn’t really matter. It was just a thought that I had. I assume that the “marble” refers to the design made in the frosting itself, which is thick enough to make these as chewy as they are crunchy. They could have cut the amount of frosting used, and sold these are other flavors of regualar pocky, because the only thing setting them apart from the rest is the amount of frosting on the stick. There are no special additions aside from that.

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Choco Banana & Coconut Pocky

May 9, 2009

I’m a fan of coconuts, so I really liked the coconut Pocky.

The choco banana was still tasty, but I don’t think it will be winning any awards anytime soon. Nobody has ever gotten the “banana” flavor right, or at least I don’t think so. It’s as if someone got kinda close, and everyone else decided that it was god enough. Maybe that’s why there’s not too many banana-flavored things aside from Laffy Taffy and everything else is usually “strawberry banana”. The chocolate is what saves the Choco Banana, and I probably would not have liked them if it wasn’t there.

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Strawberry & Crushed Strawberry Pocky

May 9, 2009

This review focuses on the two strawberry-themed flavors:

The strawberry (いちご) ones were nothing new, as I’ve had them plenty of times before. If I have tried the crushed strawberry (つぶつぶいちご) ones before, I don’t remember it.

The strawberry ones aren’t anything special, really. If you’ve had anything remotely strawberry flavored, you’ve probably tasted something similar to a strawberry Pocky.

The “crushed” ones were unique in that they actually tasted somewhat like real strawberries do. They had that certain kind of tartness that you get when biting into one. I’m not sure what exactly has been crushed and sprinkled on the stick, but I’m assuming it’s dried strawberries of some kind. If I had to choose, I would choose these over the standard ones.

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