Yoku Moku Rolled Cigares: In Japan, there is a very strong culture of giving gifts to people you work with. There were several times when I found myself purchasing gift boxes from depachika, the underground food courts in Japanese malls, where you can find everything from boxed chocolates, rice crackers, cookies, and candies in beautifully ornate boxes. I would usually browse all the stalls before picking a few I thought looked the most delicious (which was both very hard, because there were so many options, and qu... (read more) 4.0/5.0
exception cookies japanese uwajimaya yokumoku rolled cigares 4.0Legally Addictive Surprise Party Cookies: Another item from my snack box was a set of "cookies made from crackers," which were biscuit-based crackers loaded with a kitchen sink of ingredients some may crave (half dipped in chocolate and covered in sprinkles, toffee coated on the other side). As someone who has always felt sprinkles are both frivolous and awful tasting, these sprinkles were fairly neutral – at the very least a largely tasteless (flavor-wise) version of a tasteless (aesthetically) decoration. The best part was the t... (read more) 3.5/5.0
recommended legallyaddictive surprise party cookies 3.5Trader Joe's Lemon Baton Wafer Cookies: One of the better cookie options from TJ's, these Pirouline-like wafers are thinner and crispier, with a pale crispy coating and sweet, slightly floral lemon filling. Would purchase again (something I'd only say for about ~25% of the snacks I've tried from TJs). 3.5/5.0
recommended traderjoes lemon baton wafer cookies 3.5Trader Joe's Chocolate & Peanut Butter Joe Joe's Sandwich Cookies: I'm not sure if there's anything more American than these single-cookie serving size sandwich cookies from Trader Joe's, with alternating peanut butter and chocolate layers (essentially an Oreo with peanut butter filling, covered in a peanut butter frosting-like exterior drizzled with more chocolate). On a hot day, the waxy outer coating can melt quickly in your hand. It tastes a bit like a better quality Reese's cup, but with a cookie base (the quality of the chocolate, in particular, is ... (read more) 3.0/5.0
cookies tjs traderjoes chocolate peanut butter joe joe's sandwich 3.0Morinaga Marie Lemon Tea Cookies: Lemon tea is a common drink you can find in grocery stores in Japan, basically like iced tea in the US but generally less sweet. Marie is normally a very plain circular biscuit from Japanese food giant Morinaga (hockey puck shaped and the type you'd see labeled as "digestives") but this box contained lemon-tea flavored sandwich cookies that had a surprisingly solid herbal black tea flavor with a bit of sweet lemon acidity. The biscuits themselves are crumbly and much more like cookies than... (read more) 3.5/5.0
recommended japanese coop morinaga marie lemon tea 3.5 cookiesYBC Noir Cocoa Cookies: These are the Japanese equivalent of Oreo cookies, which I tend to have about once a year at the MIT Mystery Hunt competition. Since Mystery Hunt was completely remote this year, I wasn't able to partake in the normal consumption of college-dorm junk food normally shared in person to fuel late-night puzzling, but I still wanted to capture the spirit, which led me to purchase this snack. The YBC snack packs are ubiquitous and can be found at basically all convenience and grocery stores. Ov... (read more) 3.5/5.0
recommended cookies japanese coop ybc noir cocoa 3.5