Hi-Chew – Tohoku Cherry
Back when I was traveling around Japan, I noticed a series of regional limited editions of Hi-Chew flavours. They were usually sold in local store fronts as sort of a souvenir, similar to how you would find key chains, keepsakes and other memorabilia that bring flavour to that area and help set them apart. While I didn’t traverse the area that had the Tohoku Cherry flavour, I did see other ones, like the Shinshu apple. They typically came in a small box that had a row of the standard single stick, so you’d end up with something that you can split apart and give away as souvenirs when you brought them home. I liked they idea and probably would have gotten some, were space and weight limits not a constraint.
Since I can’t exactly do that, I’ve resorted to the internet, as I often do when it comes to Japanese snacks. This flavour is interesting to me for a few reasons. First off, cherry doesn’t seem as common a flavour in Japan as it is in the West. Over here, cherry is sort of a love or hate flavour. The typical cherry flavour has a very distinct, sweet flavour to it that is often compared to cough drops, and for whatever reason is one of the easiest flavours to identify. Something about it is easy to artificially recreate I guess. While Japan does have cherry flavour, it doesn’t seem quite as common as say, strawberry or grape. I wonder if it’s just an availability thing, and grapes and strawberries are just more easily accessible.
Whatever the case may be, this piqued my interest. Part of me kind of has an expectation of what it will taste like, after decades of cherry flavour brainwashing. But I’ve been surprised before, and I’m hoping that’s the case here. I should probably give a bit of context on what exactly makes these special. Tohoku is a region known for it’s cherry blossoms, or sakura trees. It shouldn’t be any stretch to the imagination then, that the region apparently accounts for 70% of the cherry production in Japan (don’t quote me on that). If you’ve never seen sakura trees in blossom, it really is a sight to behold. I have a cherry tree in my backyard, but it’s just not quite the same, ya know?
Much to my surprise, or maybe not, this is indeed very different from what I was expecting. So from the smell, it’s kind of like a cherry but it has a very floral scent to it. The flavour is very complex, and there’s a lot going on but I’ll try to break it down. The flavour starts off kind of similar to what you’d expect standard cherry to be, but it very quickly hits you with a very floral almost rose like taste, but it’s faint enough to mix and mingle with the cherry, making conversation and having a good laugh. As those two are getting to know each other, a tart flavour that is reminiscent of green apple, comes along and joins in on the fun. It’s a little drunk, but not “6-drinks-rowdy” just yet. It’s there, but not yet overpowering. Yet. All this comes together, the sweet notes, tart notes and floral notes, to keep my palette guessing the whole time. It’s distinctly cherry, and yet, not quite the variety I’m used to. I’m still trying to wrap my head around this. But in a good way.
The only downside is I’m fairly certain green apple flavouring is used at some point, as the aftertaste it leaves is very similar, and I’m not crazy about green apple. I’m still going to enjoy these though. Actually now that I think about it, it has a peach quality to it. Somewhere between a peach and an apple. A peapple. Or an appeach.
Texture is fairly standard for Hi-Chews – that is it say, awesome and probably one of the best chewy, taffy like experiences you can have. There’s a reason Hi-Chews blew up in North America. Even if the ones produced here are inferior to the Japanese ones, they’re still good. That’s how good these are.
