Pocky: Kiwi Fruit

I love the seemingly endless flavors Glico pumps Pocky out in. No matter how many of them I try, there is always something new and different. I came across these kiwi Pockys on my last trip to New York City. I had seen them on J-List that same day, and was lucky enough that they pretty much fell into my lap while walking through Kam Man Foods on Canal Street.



These Pocky have the classic biscuit coated in what I am assuming is white chocolate (the label is in Japanese, so I can't be sure). The chocolate coating is a greenish shade that is indeed the perfect color match to an actual kiwi. The chocolate is also studded with little darker green bits -- bits of kiwi, I would assume.

The smell was a little off-putting. It smells like sour melon -- or maybe kiwi left out in the sun too long. It's the kind of smell that makes you wonder if it's something you shouldn't eat. But then a weird thing happens...that same smell starts to smell good. Not sure how that happens, but it does.



The Pocky in the box are divided into four individual pouches of five sticks each. Nice lunch box or Bento sized portion! I like when Pocky is packaged like this because it not only helps control portion size (OK, my self control is often not that strong, but it sounded good, right?) but it keeps the Pocky that you don't eat right away nice and fresh.



We now know what it smells like and that it's fresh...so what does it taste like?

Believe it or not, it tastes like real kiwi! I have never dipped pieces of actual kiwi in chocolate, but I have a feeling that if I did, it would taste pretty darn close to this. The fruit has that nice sweet, yet tart edge that kiwi has. (Yes, it does sort of taste like a cross between a strawberry and a banana -- just as kiwi does.). The white chocolate adds a nice milky contrast. The biscuit balances everything by keeping the sweetness of the fruit from being too much, and keeps the chocolate from overpowering the kiwi. It also adds a nice crunch.

This may just be my favorite fruit flavored Pocky yet!

Be sure to check out Jim's review of them here.



PURCHASED FROM:
I purchased mine from Kam Man Foods in New York City, but my friends at J-List also carry it... so be sure to check them out!

Pom Wonderful: Pomegranate Kiwi Juice

It's nice to know that the good people at Pom like me enough to give me the inside track on the newest Pom flavors! Woohoo!

The first of the two flavors up is Pomegranate/Kiwi.

I love kiwi. But sadly, you next to never see things flavored or made with kiwi. I actually tried to make kiwi ice cream a few months ago...because doesn't that sound good? Yeah, that's just it. It sounded good, but in reality it was a really dumb thing to do. The kiwi actually curdled the cream and...well, the less said, the better. It was quite a traumatic experience.



Kiwi, of course, has a great taste that is best described as a strawberry/banana hybrid. And happily, that combo paired perfectly with the strong tartness of the pomegranate juice.

When you first sip the drink, what you notice the most is the sweetness. It's strong on the banana side...but at the same time, it's definitely not banana. It never gets so sweet that you think you're drinking something that was purposely made super-sweet -- like, say, Hawaiian Punch. (Actually, that's an unfair comparison, because Hawaiian Punch -- while delicious in its own right -- is not 100% juice, and is intended to be super sweet, but you get the idea.)

The pom flavor comes in at the end of the sip. Probably because of the sweetness of the kiwi, the pom doesn't seem as tart as it does on its own; nor as in some of the other flavors available (such as the Pom Blueberry or Pom Cherry). Normally, I would have been disappointed by that fact, because I happen to really like the strong flavor of pom -- but it just tastes so good along with the kiwi that I don't care.

Because this flavor is so mild, I think this would be a great flavor for first-time Pom drinkers or for kids.

Really, really good!




PURCHASED FROM:
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