Morinaga – Omochi-Chi Kinako Chewy Candy
Some companies have a tendency to throw certain words that trigger our purchase impulse when it comes to new gimmicks or fads. Take ghost peppers as an example – when it came into vogue, every company and it’s competitor was stumbling over itself to throw ghost pepper into any and everything, whether it was actually spicy or tasty or not. I bring this up because I thought about this when I see products that are called mochi or marketed as having it in some form or fashion. Not as relevant for this particular product as I’ve tried a different flavour, but something I thought of.
Morinaga has a long track record of doing chewy candy well. Beyond just the obvious fact that they have Hi-Chew under their belt, they also have more traditional caramel candies, and I’m really hoping this catches on and becomes another of their product lines.
Similar to the matcha flavour I tried before, these are very soft, slightly squishy and have the same mochi like bounce in their chew. It’s kind of like chewing a very soft bubble gum. These are kind of fun to play with, and are soft enough you can pull them and stretch them apart. It’s interesting to see that even when you stretch them apart they try to revert back to their original shape. That should give you an idea of how soft and chewy these are. I honestly can’t stop eating these.
The flavour is that of a very tasty soybean flavour. Kinako is roasted soybean powder, and is often used as a topping for mochi. The flavour of this candy reminds me of that, both in texture and flavour, but it works really well in this case, since you won’t get any powder all over your body. For those who haven’t had kinako, it’s got a very nutty, almost peanut butter flavour to it. It really is the perfect accompaniment to mochi, and in I find it fits this candy texture more so than the matcha flavour.
The major downside of these isn’t the snack itself, but that they come in such small pouches and are so hard to find. If I could, I would buy these in bulk because I love the texture so much. While the candy itself can be a bit sticky, they’re dusted with enough starch that they don’t stick to your hands or anything like that. All things considered, I would do this again and I kind of wish there was more or that it was a main product for them.
