Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Morinaga Watagashi Hi-chew

Watagashi Hi-Chew

This candy was sent to me by the lovely Kelly of Tasty Japan! I participated in and won a contest that she held in October, winning this pack of Hi-chew. It got a little bumped around during its long journey from Australia to the US, but arrived in good shape.

This summer, Morinaga put out a line of seasonal Hi-chew flavors, showcasing treats commonly sold in Japanese festivals. This flavor is called watagashi in Japanese, which is pretty much the same thing as cotton candy or candy floss. Here is a review (by Kelly) of another festival flavor Hi-chew, toffee apple.

Watagashi Hi-Chew

Cotton candy flavored treats in the US often have a very distinctive sugary and slightly fruity taste. I was a bit surprised when the Hi-chew didn't smell or taste at all like that. Instead, the flavor was more like mild butterscotch with a just a hint of molasses. It was surprisingly rich and caramel-like!

The small sugar crystals inside the chew were crunchy and gave the feeling of spun sugar. The texture of the chew itself seemed a bit softer than normal Hi-chew. It's been a long time since I've had cotton candy, so I'm not sure if it's made differently in Japan or if this candy is just a better approximation of the flavor than I normally experience.

CandyBlog and Pocky Watch also reviewed (and enjoyed) this flavor.

Thank you again, Kelly!

A-

Morinaga website

4 comments:

cybele said...

I love those!

I wish they were a regular flavor.

Kelly said...

Nice to see the review! Sorry for the bumping around, I'm glad it arrived in one piece though. :)
What did you think of the bits in the middle? Do you like them or do you prefer hichew without?

ebidebby said...

Cybele - Me too! Hopefully they will have something similar this summer.

Kelly - I liked the little sugar bits! They made it more like cotton candy for me.

Nicole Rates It said...

This is my absolute favorite HiChew flavor! I bough every package in the store when I found them a few months ago. Yum!