Hi-Chew – Umai-Chew Pineapple

Umai is the Japanese term used to denote a lot of things, like skillful, good, or in this case, delicious. Umai-Chew is basically the term that Hi-Chew uses for certain flavours that have the added benefit of a supposedly tastier flavour. To me though, the main difference is that there are additional sugar crystals that are thrown in to enhance the experience.

While I haven’t tried this flavour, I recognize the style of packaging. Many years back I had a similar looking Hi-Chew flavour that was apparently popular enough to become a staple on most shelves. That flavour was lemon, and the most intriguing thing about it was the fact that the lemon flavour had little bits of sugar or hard candy in the centre and the texture was certainly unique enough that I purchased it more than once. Despite not being a huge fan of lemon in general. That should give you an idea of how I feel about the texture.

The flavour is very similar to the standard pineapple flavour. I feel like when it comes to candies, pineapple is one of the easiest fruits to translate well, and this is clearly no exception. That distinct tropical sweetness you expect from a pineapple is here and it’s tasty as you’d expect. Something interesting about this though, apart from the texture is that there’s a bit of tartness to it. It’s noticeable enough that I found myself salivating a little, and I’m not sure if it’s the taffy itself that has a bit of tartness to it, or the little sugar crystals are just sweeter so the taffy feels tart. Either way it’s an interesting touch and I don’t mind it.

Hi-Chew refer to them as sugar crystals, but to me the texture reads more like a hard candy that was crushed into smaller pieces. I was reminded of pop rocks at first, but then the key difference is these don’t dissolve with a popping sensation. I say hard candy, but the pieces are still small, and soft enough that they basically just add a little bit of crunch, without adding any extra jagged edges or sharp corners that might cut your mouth up. So perhaps sugar crystals is indeed the better description. Who am I to argue with the experts on this?

The only con I can think of is that if you want that smooth, straight forward chewy taffy texture of a regular Hi-Chew, this may not do it for you since the crunch does change things up, and not everyone is down for change. I think it’s a refreshing change, but I would probably find myself only having this once in a while to change up the uniformity of Hi-Chew’s texture. They have the texture down pat for sure, but sometimes you just want something a little different, ya know?

All that to say is, if you see these on a shelf somewhere, go on and give them a try. You might be pleasantly surprised. Or not since I just spoiled it for you…