Calbee Jagariko Salad Potato Sticks: These cylindrical potato sticks are a staple in convenient stores in Japan, typically packaged in small bucket-shaped containers for single serving snacking, but they are also available in multiple-servings pouches from supermarkets. The salad flavor incorporates flecks of orange and green, potentially to signal that carrots, celery, and other seemingly heathier things have been added, but the main taste is of fried potato and oil. They have a satisfying, substantial crunch yet hold their s... (read more) 3.5/5.0
recommended japanese coop calbee jagariko salad potato sticks 3.5Toppo Caramel and Butter Sticks: Toppo is sort of like Lotte's response to Pocky, with a very similar stick-like form factor but with the flavoring on the inside. The exterior is a sort of pretzel / cracker hybrid, and this particular one has a strong buttery flavor and a salted caramel-flavored filling inside. Sweet and savory, like chicken and waffles, this snack could have been good in theory but is somehow both too sweet and too savory at the same time; in other words, not well balanced. This standard size you can fi... (read more) 2.0/5.0
familymart japanese toppo caramel butter sticks 2.0Pocky Strawberry Cream Covered Biscuit Sticks: In a special (what I presume to be) Valentine's Day edition, Pocky tweaks its round biscuit shape to produce a heart-shaped cross section. The heart is most visible on the biscuit end, though it looks more like a 45-degree bracket than a heart. On the strawberry-coating end, the heart is nearly impossible to make out. With an impressively long list of ingredients (largely to do with the coating), these Pocky biscuits actually taste no different than the normal strawberry ones. The coatin... (read more) 3.0/5.0
heart pocky strawberry cream covered biscuit sticks 3.0 japanese