Lotte Crunky Chocolate

Lotte is the Nestlé of South Korea and their Crunky Chocolate bar is their equivalent to Nestlé’s Crunch. It’s very thin and light, comes wrapped in a gold foil, and is sectioned off in a 6×4 grid which makes it easy to cleanly divide. Like the Crunch bar, it combines milk chocolate and puffed rice with the majority of the milk chocolate on the surface and the malt puff bleeding off the bottom. The chocolate is very smooth and the mild crunch is very pleasant, but I found the Crunky bar to be no better than Nestle’s or Mar’s standard consumer fare. It’s a decent chocolate bar, but not worth going out of your way to try.

Crunky bars are usually sold in South Korea and Japan and may be stocked in local Korean Markets. I found mines at the local H-Mart. They usually retail for about $1-2 per 60 gram bar, but can be had in South Korea for a measly 500KRW ($0.40USD).

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Morinaga Choco Ball

Morinaga Choco Balls is a popular Japanese candy that comes in a number of varieties. The ones that I know of are peanut, caramel, strawberry and white chocolate. I have only tried the peanut and caramel, both are made with milk chocolate coverings. Overall, they are no different than your average American chocolate candy. They come in small 1.02oz packages (they may make larger packages) and are perfectly-sized for popping in your mouth, smaller than Whoppers and larger than M&Ms. The peanut Choco Ball unlike the caramel has a wafer wrapping between the outer and inner cores, making them quite additive, this coming from a person who is not all that fond of chocolate.

Choco Balls in the 1.02oz packaging retail for around $1USD and can be found at your locate Japanese Market or online at AsianFoodGrocer.com

Botan Rice Candy

Years back when I was still in grade school my mom gave me a pack of Botan Rice Candy and I remember being fond of it, not so much for the candy but because of the sticker that came with it. Over the years that fondness has subsided and today I enjoy picking up a pack of Botan solely for the candy.

Botan is a traditional Japanese candy made of sweet rice, but I didn’t taste any rice at all in it and it’s not very sweet. It does however, have a soft chewy texture with a nice citrus flavor. It also has an unusual double wrapping, one that you throw away and one that is edible. It looks like plastic when it’s dry, but melts when wet. Each box comes with six pieces and a free sticker. It can purchased at most local asian markets and online. Prices range from $0.75 to 2.00 for 3/4OZ box.

Hapi Gummi Candies – Fun Burger

Hapi’s line of Fun Burger gummies are produced by the Gold Seven Food Group in Hong Kong. It’s loaded with sugar, artificial flavors and colors; but which gummy isn’t? Okay, there are a couple that aren’t, but the majority are. It’s a hard gummy that’s a bit more chewy than the average fruit snack and the flavoring is mix between cherry, lime and sugar. It’s definitely not healthy, but being a fan of gummies I wouldn’t mind having it once in awhile. It can be found in most asian markets, I found it in the Hong Kong Supermarket on Hester in Chinatown, NYC. It cost me $2 for a 4.2oz/120g bag.