Push Pops! When I was a kid in England we had these. To have a Push Pop was a total status symbol. Adults may have walked around with ivory gilt gold-headed canes and peacock feathers in their caps, but for kids the only thing that mattered was the Push Pop.
Youtei Yusui Political Water
Lots of things get politicized in life. Rock has been political for a long time- Band Aid, Live Aid, U2 are heavy into politics. Food got political with Freedom Fries vs. French Fries for a while. Environmental concerns politicize a lot of regular products, as they switch their packaging and production methods to more eco-friendly ones. This is the first time I’ve seen water politicized though, especially for such a short term duration. This water is from Mt. Youtei in Hokkaido, where the 2008 eco-summit will be held for 3 days next week.
Meiji’s Acerola and Lemon
Acerola and lemon, yum yum. It’s so delicious that stars will come out of your mouth. When I first came to Japan, I had no idea what an acerola was. Now, thanks to drinking plenty of acerola juice, and also thanks to Wikipedia, I know.
Kit Kat Triple Berry
Kit Kat in Japan exemplify the gad-fly product life-cycle model that rules the confectionery business here, in that they constantly release colorful new but very short-lived product variants. To see a wide range of past Kit Kat flavors- check out my friend Mike’s website, including white, peach, strawberry, bitter, orange, cherry, and cherry blossom.
Blue Pepsi, Brazilian Pocky
After my review of Bean and Beer Pretz last week I decided the snack-cocktail combo-review should continue, so this week I bring you: Pepsi Blue Hawaii and Brazilian Pudding Pocky! This snack-cocktail should be aided by the fact that Blue Hawaii actually IS a cocktail, or takes the name of a cocktail. Pepsi, I salute you. There’s been kids beer, dogs beer, now let’s soft-drink-ize the cocktails.
Beer and Bean Pretz
Beer and beans go hand in hand in Japan. In bean season (spring) you can’t go to an izakaya (bar/restaurant) without having eidamame (spring beans) thrust upon you along with your nama beeru (fresh beer). It’s no burden however, because chilled half-boiled lightly salted beans go very well with beer, the one complementing the other. So why not make snacks that equally complement each other, available not only in the spring, but year round? Or at least for as long as the product life-cycle in Japan’s fast-paced novelty foods market. With that in mind, Glico brings us Beer Pretz (els)-
Walky Walky!
I know when I take my hippo for a walk I entice it along with chocolate. My buddy Canadian Mike does a great line in posts about Kooky Japan- it’s fun, people like to read about it, and it drives traffic (come ye millions with your ad-traffic!), so I figured I’d give it a shot.