Kaju Juicy Gummy Candy – Peach

I’ve always had a strong nostalgic connection to Japanese candies and brands, largely because those are what I was exposed to most as a kid. Back in the day, when our family was still poor, we didn’t have the luxury of going to expensive grocery stores like Loblaws, and could only afford to go to cheaper, local asian ones. They usually had much cheaper groceries for your basic things like fruits and veggies. They also sold selections of non-essentials like drinks and snacks, but the snacks were usually more expensive. If they weren’t expensive, it was usually because they were expired. Thinking back on it, I wonder how much of that was just lack of distributors. You see, back then before globalization took full swing, a lot of those Japanese snacks were quite expensive because distribution wasn’t full scale yet, and a lot of it was small scale importing. Most of it was memorable because variety was relatively limited. Things that I can still remember like it was yesterday, was the decent selection of Pretz and the selection of Kasugai Gummies.

I bring all this up because the Kasugai Gummies in general, were not exactly a bulk candy that you could buy in large quantities for cheap. They were available in bulk yes, but they tended to be more expensive than say, no-name gummy bears or worms. I remember my first one, and how it made me feel. My first instinct was to find more, and do almost anything necessary to get one, be it stealing or begging for one. In that sense, I was like a crack addict. You may be wondering at this point why I bring up my potential addiction problem up. Really, I don’t have a solid connection other than to tell you that these gummies remind me somehow of those childhood experiences.

Packaging aside, these gummies also “feel” a lot like the gummies I had as a kid. If you’ve ever gotten a pack of anything, and noticed one of the pieces looks squished or crushed based on human intervention, there’s a greater than 0% chance that was my fault. What can I say, I’m all about that feel. Anyways, these things have a similar touchfeel to the gummies I had as a kid, so that’s how I conjured up those memories. Unlike the gummies from my childhood, these come in a resealable package, as opposed to individual packages. Better for the environment, I reckon.

The smell is interesting. It doesn’t remind me of a peach fruit exactly. It reminds me more of a peach drink – like a soda or a cider with peach flavour in it. It doesn’t smell too sweet, but has that edge to it that leads me to believe it has some sort of carbonation to it.

These things look very much like the peach fruit on the packaging. That is to say, it looks like a peach butt. There’s nothing too fancy going on with these visually, just a butt shaped gummy that’s translucent. According to the label, there is 2800mg of collagen shoved into this 51g bag. I know it’s a marketing thing, but it’s nice to know my skin will potentially feel younger after shoving all that sugar down my gullet. Beauty comes at a cost, as I never say.

So as I mentioned before the texture upon touching one of these is kinda soft and squishy, but that belies the true firmness of the gummy. As I’ve mentioned before I like my gummies to be of the firm, chewy type. I don’t like soft gummies or gummies that melt – I like them to be firm so I can get a nice chew and mouth feel in. I like to work for my gummies, and feel like I put in effort to really get the most out of it. In that sense, these things are a win.

A common theme I notice with a lot of gummies is that they tend to have a wax or oil coating that leaves residue on the fingers and paper. This has that problem. I get why they do it; preventing clumping and trying to keep the gummy from drying out is important. I just don’t like having that greasy feeling on my hands.

Apart from the greasy fingers, I can’t really find much else wrong with these. The flavour is on point, and despite smelling more like a peach spritzer, it has a solid flavour overall. Nothing too complex to be sure, but also not too artificial. The chew is also great, and while it is firm it’s not going to hurt your jaw like Haribo will after a few handfuls.

These come in a nice resealable pouch as well, and are a decent size so you don’t have to worry about not finishing it in one go – though to be honest with these you should be happy that the bag isn’t too big so that you don’t finish too many at once. I would recommend giving these a go for sure. Did I mention that there’s 2800mg of collagen in this? You’re skin AND you’re gut will thank you for this treat.