Morinaga Mini Caramel 4 Flavor Mix
Before Morinaga made Hi-Chews, they were actually pretty famous for other snacks like their caramels. The caramels are basically what you’d get here in the west, those chewy, sweet little cubes of diary and sugar. Obviously, you can’t just rely on the same flavour to stick around for over 50 years. They’ve gone into all sorts of flavours including fruits like melon and strawberry.
When you run out of flavour ideas, what else do you do then go into different shapes and sizes? What can I say, I’m a sucker for mini things. An added benefit of this format is that they have a candy coating to the outside, which helps them from being sticky to the touch and keeps them from clumping together when it gets hot. This box has four flavours, milk, chocolate, strawberry and melon. An interesting flavour variety, with something for everyone. I myself am I bit more inclined to the fruity flavours.
These little spheres of caramel remind me a lot of ice cream bars. There’s an unmistakable taste of dairy and milk, along with the flavour of the piece. The flavour of the melon reminds me of a Melona bar, and the strawberry reminds me of strawberry ice cream. The milk flavour tastes like the standard caramel flavour, while the chocolate is like a chewy chocolate candy, like a Tootsie roll. If you took out the melon flavour, you could probably sell this as a Neapolitan caramel mix. Out of the four flavours I’d say the melon is my favourite – while all the flavours have a creamy, caramel like finish to them, it seems to work best with the melon for some reason.
The texture is pretty standard to anyone who has had a caramel before – the real difference is the candy shell on the outside adds a little bit of crunch before you get the chewy centre where the caramel is. The caramel itself is quite soft, and melts away after a few chews to leave a bit of a graininess in the mouth, like most caramels. Thinking about it now, it kind of reminds me of a softer, less sweet and creamier version of a skittle.
Big bonus about these is that unlike actual caramels, these don’t tend to get stuck in between your teeth nearly as easily. If your not careful, some might fall between the cracks like dropping a spoon or fork in between the drawers. Or a child from a broken home. But for normal use it should be pretty easy to avoid.
Verdict? I would do these again. I’m not much for caramels, but these are done in such a clean, convenient format that I can’t help but like it. Being tiny bite sizes makes it easy to share, and the candy shell makes it so they don’t tend to stick together even in hot weather. All round, well executed and nice when you want a nice quick pick up of sugar. I recommend trying these if you can find them.
