Hi-Chew – Mammy Mix

This collaboration or crossover, whatever you want to call it, seems much less odd when you consider that the same company behind Hi-Chew is the same one that created the Mammy line of drinks. Morinaga actually does a whole bunch of different products in the milk industry, but the one today is focused on kids, with cute playful mascots, and flavours added to try and get the kids hooked on milk. When I think about milk drinks, I think of Yakult and other somewhat dairy related products that are touted as healthy or good for you. To me it’s just marketing, and kids love the drunks because of how they taste.

I imagine that the Mammy drinks are similar in that they are touted as a great way to get kids to drink their milk, but it’s really just selling sugary drinks to them. I’m not going to get into the whole debate about that, but what I will say is that it is precisely for that reason that I think these would make a great Hi-Chew flavour. I’m always down for Calpis or Yakult type flavours. This particular bag has the standard milk flavour, along with the peach and grape flavoured drinks.

There’s an even number of 18 pieces, 6 for each of the flavours. Each one also has a different mascot printed on the wrapper, so that’s a nice, cute little touch. I personally feel a kinship with the giraffe. Not quite sure why, but there you have it.

Let’s start with the OG, the classic, the one that started it all. This one basically tastes like Calpis or Yakult. It has the same tangy sweet taste of dairy as those drinks and a bit of a lemon zest to it as well. It’s basically the typical asian yogurt drink, whether it’s Calpis, Yakult, Milkis or what have you. Unsurprisingly, it’s tasty, nostalgic, and to this day I love the flavour profile.

Next up is the peach with the pink wrapper – peach in general is a fairly balanced and often times mild flavour compared to some other other fruits. This is why I feel like this flavour works well with the somewhat stronger and distinct yogurt flavour. The peach is a slightly floral feature to compliment the tangy, almost bright flavour of the yogurt. These two flavours on their own are great, but the two come together to be greater than the sum of its parts, and for that I give it top points.

Finally, we have grape in the green wrapper. This one is interesting because it combines the yogurt flavour base of the original with the green grape flavour that Hi-Chew is famous for. The combination tastes like a mash up of the two which both works and doesn’t. What I mean is, each of the flavours on their own are very distinct and strong, and when you combine them, the taste kind of wavers between grape and yogurt, so you end up with a piece that seems to be fighting amongst itself, switching back and forth between the two. Normally that would be a bad thing if the flavours clashed in a bad way, but it doesn’t exactly happen here. It works, but they don’t exactly compliment each other the same way the peach does. I also feel like a red grape flavour would be a better combo, much like my favourite Calpis drinks.

Texture is no different for these pieces from any other Hi-Chew. At this point I shouldn’t need to say much more otherwise I might get charged with gushing all over the place. I’m still on the lookout for something to rival this bouncy, chewy taffy like texture. The search for a worthy opponent continues.

While I enjoy all of these flavours, I still feel the need to rank them:

1. Original
2. Peach
3. Grape

I know, I know, it’s blasphemous that grape isn’t near the top. But this is one of the rare cases where while I still really enjoy the flavour, I feel like what they’re going for just doesn’t gel as well as the other. Unless the drink itself tastes like that too, in which case I could feel like kids could get real confused.