Hi-Chew – Salty Fruit Mix
Back again with another Hi-Chew mix. This one is a bit weird for me, but I’m sure it’s a cultural thing. If you haven’t guessed from the title, these pieces have an extra dose of salt added to them. It’s marketed as helping to enhance their flavour and provide some much needed electrolytes from all the sweating in summer. I’m not too sure about this, but I’m willing to try everything at least once.
One thing I quickly noticed on my trip to Japan was the general lack of fresh veggies and fruits when eating out. After going to some of the grocery stores I soon discovered why. Fresh fruits and veggies are super expensive in Japan, at least when compared to what we have on offer in the North. Don’t get me wrong, their fruits are absolutely worth it (especially the grapes that taste exactly like Hi-Chews…or is it the other way around?!), but they are expensive enough that they are more of a treat than something you would do everyday. Most of the veggies we had were in the form of pickled veggies, which makes sense since Japan isn’t exactly known for having an abundance of fresh fruits, like other countries.
I guess a salty fruit mix isn’t as big of a stretch for someone who is used to the pickled veggies and fruits being in their daily diet. Having said that, I am kind of excited to try these out. The bag comes in four flavours, and like other bags has 18 total pieces. There are four pieces each for the watermelon, lychee and ume (plum) flavours, and six for lemon. Unlike the other variety bags I’ve had so far, there’s no ambiguity on what the flavours are. Each one has a distinct colour, and fruit on it, and as someone who is Japanese illiterate, I really appreciate that. Plus, who doesn’t love a colourful wrapper?
Let’s start with the most “safe” one – watermelon. So appearance wise, everything looks normal. Smell wise, I can’t tell that there’s any salt on it. It isn’t until I put it in my mouth that I realize that something is different about this piece. It’s a combination of the fact that it’s not as sweet as the watermelon piece I’ve had before, but also that there’s a slight saltiness to it which cuts the sweetness. The salt is pervasive, and it’s presence can be felt through the chewing process. You keep thinking it will give way to the sweetness, like a sour patch kid. But it sticks with you, and its there throughout the life cycle of the candy. It’s a bit weird, but it’s not exactly bad either. I’m still trying to figure out what to think about this. We should move on…
Moving on to the most abundant piece in the mix – lemon. This one smells of lemon, but not the usually fake lemon cleaner that you may be used to. The salt is hard to detect at first, since the hit of lemon flavour is strong, but quickly it becomes apparent that along with the acidic flavour of the lemon, there is some salt. I actually think salt and lemon works together surprisingly well, and this isn’t as much of a brain scrambler as the watermelon flavour. It seems like this flavour is the real “safe” choice in the variety so far. Now we move on to the more interesting flavours.
Ume, or plum is a very common thing in Japan cuisine. Pickled plums are a staple of snacking and food. They even make great wine out of pickled plums. It stands to reason that this piece should make the most sense, given it’s long, rich history. If you haven’t had ume, it’s a bit hard to explain exactly what it’s going to taste like. I think the best way to think of it is as a slightly sour and salty plum. That’s exactly how this piece tastes like, and it’s quite magnificent. I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this flavour as much as I do, but it captured the essence of ume very well without being salty. I almost didn’t notice the salt, but that’s probably because good ume isn’t all that salty. Bad ume on the other hand, can be very medicinal tasting. Hi-Chew nailed this one.
And we come to our final piece, lychee. I’m not sure what else to say about this piece, other than I love the regular lychee flavour. This one smells a lot like it, and flavour wise, it’s almost as good as the original. The salt helps to cut down on the sweet sensation of the original piece a little, but it also kind of mutes the floral flavour of lychee that I love so much. This one is not quite as good as the original, but it’s still not as jarring as the watermelon. That being said, I still like this more than the lemon.
And a quick summary for those of you who like to know how I feel about this mix:
- Ume
- Lychee
- Lemon
- Watermelon
As I mentioned before, ume is a clear winner in my books. It also doesn’t help that ume doesn’t appear to be a very common flavour, or one I’ve seen being sold individually, as far as I can remember. Lychee is not as good as the original, unsalted one, but its still quite enjoyable. Lemon is the “safe” choice, and is relatively unoffensive. That being said it’s also nothing special so it lags behind lychee for that reason. Watermelon is not bad, per se. It’s just too jarring for me to enjoy as a stand alone piece, especially since the original, unsalty version was so delightful. All this is to say, I would still recommend trying this mix out, if for no other reason than the ume. I almost don’t want to share the ume flavour, because I like it so much. My precious…
