Kasugai Tsubu Gummies – Halloween
Kasugai is known primarily for their gummy candies. They have a wide range of gummy products that have been around since forever. The name might not ring a bell, but I assure you if you’ve been in any sort of Asian grocer or specialty store, you’ve seen their packaging. What with the plentiful fruit in the backgrounds and the distinct individual packaging they use for their gummies.
These gummy candies come in a hard-ish shell and resemble jelly beans in everything except name. They remind me a lot of Poiful, basically another brand of gummy candies in a firm candy shell that also resembles super chewy jelly beans. I loved Poiful as a kid, but they were always super expensive so I never ended up getting them. Similar situation here, but as an adult I now earn enough income that it’s not as big of a hit to my allowance for snacks.
These come in five flavours, strawberry, orange, pineapple, green apple and grape. This assortment is likely their standard one, and the Halloween branding is just sort of a shoe in to cash in on the holiday craze. Not that I mind.
The texture is very firm gummy. You would be mistaken if you were expecting something soft and sticky like a jelly bean. You would be forgiven for thinking that though, since that’s how they look in appearance. The bounce of these reminds me a lot of Poiful, and I find this style of jelly bean far superior than the classic one where the insides are sticky and get stuck everywhere. There’s likely a lot of gelatin content in these, so instead of sticking it has a nice bouncy chew. I love the texture.
Strawberry is like a very sweet soda with only hints on strawberry flavour, and none of the floral taste. It’s more like a strawberry cinnamon flavour, with a weird hint of what reminds me of carbonation. I can’t tell if that’s intentional, or it’s just very sweet. I sincerely hope it’s intentional.
Pineapple is straight up sweet pineapple. I have nothing much more to say about it other than that it’s like a sweet pineapple juice, and there’s no mistaking it for anything else. Despite being super sweet, I kind of enjoy it. For the first piece or so. After a while the sweet becomes a cloying sweet and hurts a bit.
Orange is also super sweet, and doesn’t have much tartness to it. It reminds me of drinking an orange soda, like an orange Crush or C-Plus. It’s not bad if you enjoy sodas, but it’s a bit too sweet for me. If you like tart or zesty kick, this has very little of it, unfortunately.
The green apple is like a sweet apple flavour without any tart or sourness, and has a weird floral after taste to it. I’m generally not a fan of green apple, and this just kind of reinforces that. This reminds me of when I accidentally get soap splash in my mouth, or dish detergent gets stuck on a dish and isn’t rinsed out properly. It’s got a weird overly fragrant feel to it that makes me have a strong aversion to it.
The grape is probably the only flavour out of the lot that I actually kind of enjoy. Make no mistake, it’s also sweet, but it has an almost currant like flavour to it as well, which makes this the standout flavour for me. It’s sweetness is balanced out with an actual flavour profile that has a bit of tart, but not too much.
I can’t read Japanese so I can’t be sure, but I’m also tempted to think these are the fruit flavoured soda versions, as each of the flavours has an almost fizzy quality to them that reminds me of a soda. Regardless of whether that’s the case or not, overall these are very sweet and I feel the sugar content or sweetness level could be dialed down from a 9 to a 6 or 7. I’d wager a guess that it’s intentional to try and mask the artificial flavours, kind of like people who wear fancy clothes to hide their inner shame or insecurity. Not that I would know…
All in all, I’d say these are a tad too sweet for my liking. The texture is awesome, but the candy shell is way too sweet that I can’t have more than a few of these before I feel kinda sick. Maybe I’m just getting old. I can see these being a big hit with kids, especially jelly bean lovers. I’d maybe consider making use of that resealable pouch and portioning it off though. These things are sugar highs waiting to happen.
