One of the candies I brought back from Hawaii was Coconut M&Ms. I actually discovered them by accident at the cashier at the ABC store. A local caught me staring at it, and convinced me that they’re good. Actually I didn’t need any convincing, the package sold me at Coconut.

The Coconut M&Ms came in 3 colours. White, Brown and Green. I don’t buy M&Ms usually, but if my memory is right, they are slight bigger than the regular M&Ms. All of the M&M has the signature ‘M’ stamp on it. A few of them have custom designs. Some of them have a coconut tree on besides the ‘M’, some of them has a beach umbrella, and some of them has a sun above the ‘M’.

These chocolates have a very light coconut taste, a lot lighter than I thought it would have. The coconut flavor was just enough for you to notice after a few bites. It’s very very good, very addicting. I liked more it than the regular M&Ms.

Like I mentioned, I found these coconut M&Ms at the ABC store in Hawaii, and surprisingly, the ABC store was the only store that carried them. I tried Wal-mart and Target and Hawaii and had no luck of finding them there. I guess these are not mainstream enough, which kind of makes them special.

After a quick search online, other than Hawaii, you can buy them online, or at a M&M store in the states.

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

Coconut M&Ms
http://www.mms.com/us/about/products/coconutmms/

Royce Fruit Bar Chocolate was one of the new candies I picked up in Japan. I picked this up because I wanted to try something new. There were 2 kinds of these bar chocolates at the store, Nutty Chocolate, and Fruit Bar Chocolate. The Nutty Chocolate was hazelnut, almond, and milk chocolate. It sounded tasty, but it was also a bit too normal. I mean, just looking at the ingredients list, I could already imagine how it’d taste in my mind. the Fruit Bar Chocolate on the other hand, was a bit more interesting.

Apparently, Royce Chocolates is a big deal in Tokyo, or so my Japanese friend says after I brought her some. Score! on my choice. There were 18 chocolate bars in the box, each individually wrapped. The quality of the paper on these pink wrappings were quite nice. A couple of my friend pointed out on the wrappings and I kind of have to admit, yah, they look like tampons.

The fruit bar chocolate was white chocolate, with dried strawberries, mango, cranberry, and almonds. There was one ingredient they didn’t list on the box, which was rice crispy. The rice crispy was a surprise to me when I first bit on it. The chocolate itself was not too sweet, and the dried fruits were still a little chewy. It doesn’t really taste anything chocolate, because it was flavored with mostly strawberry.

Overall, I thought the bar was yummy, but not amazing. It still makes a great snack. Now knowing that Royce is a good chocolate maker in Japan, I should have picked up the Nutty Chocolate too because the fruit bar didn’t really justify their chocolates. Something to get on the next trip to Japan I guess.

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

Continuing on from my candy shopping at the Tokyo Narita Airport, along with the Green Tea Kit Kat I also brought home Wasabi Kit Kat. Wasabi! How can you see Wasabi flavored kit kat and not bring a box home?

The Wasabi Kit Kats came in a box of 12. Opening the box was fun, because I always liked Japanese packaging, but I didn’t really know what to expect of the taste. The combination of wasabi and chocolates, just doesn’t seem like it would work together. I just imaged it was probably going to be as weird as other spicy chocolates such as chilli chocolates.

When I opened it, it didn’t have much wasabi smell, but I’ve had a lot of experience with wasabi in sushi rolls, they look harmless until you bite into one. I was prepared to have my sinus cleared from the wasabi. My first big bite… sweet.. where’s the wasabi?

The kit kat bars were in light green, coated in white chocolate and green colouring like the Green Tea Kit Kats. And the wasabi flavors were layered in between the wafers in side. The wasabi flavor was actually really light. It tasted like wasabi without the spiciness. The wasabi flavor only comes out after the sweetness of the chocolate, very very subtle, very nice in fact.

I can’t say if I’m happy that the wasabi flavor was so subtle. I liked it a lot, but I also would like to prank some people with these if the wasabi flavor was more intense than that. If you were ever dared to eat this, don’t be afraid, because it’s actually a nice treat.

Bring some of these home if you are visiting Japan soon, they taste good, and they make really popular gifts!

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

Wasabi Kit Kat

During my trip I had 2 hours of flight lay over in Tokyo Japan. What did that mean? Shopping for Japanese candies! Giving yourself 2 hours in Tokyo Narita Airport is a very dangerous thing, there was just too many weird and unique foods to buy. Luckily, I had self control, and one of the few candies I brought back home was Green Tea KitKat.

These Green Tea Kit Kat came in little boxes, and each box contains 2 packages of kit kats. The kit kat bars are green, and when you bite into it, you will taste the green tea or matcha (green tea powder) flavor right away.

The outer coating is sweet, I don’t believe it has any green tea flavoring there, even though it looks green. I think it is just white chocolate with green colouring. The green tea favoring is from the matcha and it is layered in between the wafers, and the matcha layers are dark green.

I’m normally not a green tea dessert fan, but I liked these a lot. The green tea kit kats doesn’t taste as heavy as regular chocolates and they are not as sweet. I could eat a 2 or 3 packs of these at a time and not get sick of the taste.

The next time you have a chance to stop by Japan, bring some of these home, they make great gifts.

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

Green Tea Kit Kat

I was on a Hawaiian souvenir shopping mission in Kailua, Kona’s Walmart when my eyes caught Hershey Macadamia Kisses. Macadamia kisses? A Hershey kiss with a whole Macadamia nut inside, wow! I grabbed 2 bags and put them in my basket without a question.

These kisses have blue wrappings, with the white slip printed with ‘Aloha‘ on it. Each piece is milk chocolate with a Macadamia nut inside. These things are very addicting. The combination of chocolate and macadamia nut is as good as chocolate and nutella. I was never a big kiss fan, but I really like these. I wish I bought more than a couple bags.

You can get these at almost any store in Hawaii; Walmart, Target, the ABC store, etc. If you are going or know anyone who is visiting Hawaii soon, definitely ask them to bring some of these back. Otherwise, you can order them online at the official Mauna Loa website for a slightly higher price.

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

Hershey Macadamia Kisses
http://www.hersheysstore.com/

I usually just eat a granola or cereal bar for breakfast because I usually don’t have much of an appetite until I’m at work. I got this big 3 flavour box at Costco, and it has Vanilla, Strawberry and Blueberry bars – 1o of each.

I’m reviewing the Vanilla one this time. I’ll start with the nutritional values first. Each individually wrapped 35 g Yogourt bar is 150 calories. 4.5 g coming from fat, 26 g of carbohydrates, and 2 g of protein. There actually isn’t much nutritional value in these bars now that I look down the list, but it has 6% of your daily Calcium, and 2% of your daily Iron. I guess the 6% of calcium allows them to put the “a source of calcium” seal on it.

Now the vanilla bar is pretty plain. It has your standard granola ingredients in it: rolled oats, whole wheat, brown sugar, and dried coconut. It’s pretty good, but pretty dry. It’s not hard or crispy, but not really soft and chewy – I’d say it’s in the middle. The bottom of the bar is the yogourt coating, which I think is where most of the vanilla flavour comes from. Overall it has a pretty good taste, but I get sick of it easily. I also find that after eating one, I do need to drink water as it dries out my mouth.

Actually, maybe I don’t really need to review all three, because the only difference between the three flavours is that the strawberry one has dried strawberry chunks mixed with the granola, and the blueberry one has dried blueberry mixed with the granola. They do change the flavour, but other than that, it’s pretty much the same. There are some slight variances in the nutritional value too. From what I remember, I think the blueberry vanilla one is my favourite.

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

I have been eating these Special K Fruit Crisps for about 2 weeks now. I didn’t know about these until they caught my eye while I was grocery shopping. They have become one of my favorite cereal bars.

These fruit crisps are delicious. The texture is actually similar to a pop tart, but with thinner crusts. The crusts are laced with a a swirl of vanilla icing, and they are really thin and really crispy. The filling is soft and not too sweet, together with the crust it gave the bar a little bit of chewiness.

There are 2 flavors you can choose from: Strawberry and Blueberry. Strawberry was my favorite because to me it had a little bit more flavor than the blueberry. One pack contains 2 fruit crisps, with a totally of 100 calories. Yep, TWO fairly regular sized bars have only 100 calories. That’s pretty good.

Special K did a good job on these, because they don’t taste artificial like most of the weight watch foods. It would pass taste tests easily even on kids. You can eat these to satisfy your sweet tooth without feeling too guilty about it.

Looks: 4.5/5
Taste: 4.5/5

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

Special K Fruit Crisps
http://www.specialk.com/fruit-crisps

These are my new favorite crackers, err.. ‘chips’. I’m not sure why these are called chips when they look and taste like crackers, so I’m going to call them crackers.

These Wheat Thins Toasted Chips has 3 flavors: Great Plains Multigrain, Garden Valley Veggie, and Garlic and Rosemary. I bought the Garlic and Rosemary.

These crackers were very flavorful and not dry at all. When I first opened them, I could got a immediate smell of rosemary rushing out of the bag. Mmm! They are crunchy, and they come in nice bite size pieces. But if you eat too much of these, they will get really salty.

The packaging of these chips is excellent. It has a reusable adhesive tab, so you can keep them fresh until the next time you’re going to eat them. It’s something I think all chips bags should have.

These crackers have 50% less fat than leading potato chips (I wonder what that is). It is whole wheat, so it’s a really good alternative to eating regular chips if you’re looking for something to snack on.

Looks: 4/5
Taste: 4/5

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

Wheat Thins Toasted Chips
Various Supermarkets

I am a fan of cereal bars. They are awesome for snacks, for breakfasts, and for something to chew on when you’re bored. Today I had a Nutri-Grain Sweet and Salty bar.

This bar was very chocolaty, as half of the bar was coated with chocolate. My first couple bites of it were really sweet, all I could taste was chocolate and not much of anything else. There were 2 types of Sweet and Salty bars, Chocolate and Peanuts and Chocolate and Almonds. The one that I was eating was chocolate and almonds, I couldn’t taste the almond at all.

Just as I was wondering just where the ‘salty’ part comes in, I finally got a taste of if half way through my bar, but it was still a very light hint of saltiness. I think this bar would go really well with coffee or tea, but a little too sweet on it’s own. Texture wise, it is not dry, and pretty chewy. The almond chucks were pretty big, even though they are a little tasteless.

Also, it does have 60 calories per bar, and that it is around 20-40 more calories than regular cereal bars.

Looks: 4/5
Taste: 3/5

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

Nutri-Grain Sweet and Salty
Various Supermarkets

A few days ago I got baked… cheetos! These baked cheetos looks identical to the real cheetos except it is lighter in weight, and has less cheese powders on them. Unlike the regular cheetos, your fingers won’t turn orange after eating like 2 of these. It is less salty, and a little dryer than regular cheetos. But they don’t taste artificial, they actaully taste good! For what it is, being baked duplicates of the original version and all, Frito-Lay did a good job on these. This would be closest to the real thing than a lot of the other reduced fat chips.

Baked cheetos claim that they have 45% less fat than the leading cheese flavored snack (I wonder what that is). But is it really better for you? Well, all junk foods are bad for you, but with 45% less fat, and with its taste, this is a pretty good alternative to the real thing. Just eat in moderation.

Looks: 4/5
Taste: 4/5

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

Baked Cheetos
Various Supermarkets