Lotte Let's Be Mild Coffee

While at one of a local Asian markets, I was in the mood for canned coffee. Suntory Black Boss coffee was available, but it was about $2.50. Since that seemed a bit excessive for a tiny can of coffee, I went for a $0.99 Korean coffee called Let's Be. Lotte is a giant conglomerate with a presence in just about every industry in East Asia, including food and beverage.

I am a bit of a coffee fanatic (though not quite at the Gilmore level). My husband and sister are both sensitive to it, but if I don't mind staying up late, I can drink several cups with no indigestion (so long as the creamer is lactose-free).

Let's Be mild is not the best choice for coffee fans. It smelled mostly of sugar and not very much like coffee. The taste was also extremely sweet, and a bit milkier than it looked. To its credit, it tasted very fresh for a canned drink. The bitterness and much of the acidity were muted by the sweetness.

Let's Be mild just wasn't suited to my tastes at all, but coffee is a rather personal thing. There was nothing wrong with the drink itself, I just wouldn't recommend it to those who like stronger coffee. Then again, it was labelled "mild coffee," so I doubt it would attract those types anyhow. There are bitter and black versions of Let's Be, and I would definitely try them if I found them in the future.

C+

Lotte Chilsung Beverage website

Sour Patch Jelly Beans

Just last weekend, I was searching for fizzy Skittles at my local Target store. I didn't find them, but I did find Sour Patch jelly beans. This really helped me contain my disappointment.

Jelly Beans have always been a favorite of mine at Easter and year round. Not so much the classic jelly beans, but Jelly Belly or Starburst jelly beans. My all time favorite movie candy is Sour Patch Kids, so everything fell into place when I saw this bag of beans.


The jelly beans looked a lot like Sour Patch Kids - same colors, same bumpy texture. All four of the original flavors were there: lime, orange, lemon, and redberry, whatever that is. There were no loose sour crystals on the beans, though, just a solid sour coating.

Yellow was a sour, citrusy lemon that falls in the middle of the fake---slice of lemon spectrum. Orange was a sweet, tart, orangeade kind of flavor, but I really enjoyed it. Green tasted just a bit more floral and sweet than the original lime flavor. It's my favorite of the original Kids, but somehow wasn't here. Red simply tasted red, and was my least favorite of the four.

If you like Sour Patch Kids, you'll like these jelly beans. I had a hard time resisting them, as did most of my "helpers." Though Starburst jelly beans have a larger variety of flavors, Sour Patch jelly beans are definitely one of my favorite candy spinoff beans.

A-

Sour Patch Kids website

Tirol Peach - Chestnut - Persimmon

I was a little confused by the name of this Tirol variety pack, as my knowledge of Japanese proverbs is rather limited. The full Japanese is 桃栗三年柿八年 (momo kuri sannen kaki hachinen), which roughly translates to "it takes time for one's actions to bear fruit." More literally, it means "peaches and chestnuts in 3 years, persimmons in 8." Please correct me if my translation is bad.


I loved the cute characters on the bag and chocolate wrappers, although the peach is a little creepy. I'm pretty familiar with peaches and chestnuts, but I have never tried persimmon (even though I do see them at the supermarket occasionally). According to Wikipedia, the taste is similar to plums and dates. However, I'm not sure it matters for this review - I'll get into that in a minute.


First, I tried the creepy peach. It smelled like peach, and had a gooey gummy center. The gummy did have the texture of peach flesh, but the flavor was nearly overpowered by the taste of sugar. It seemed like most of the fruit flavor was in the chocolate. This was too sweet for me, and something about the peach flavor felt a little fake.


Chestnut smelled toasted, and had a strong, nutty flavor with hints of coffee. It wasn't as overwhelmingly sweet as the peach, but the white chocolate could have been a little richer. The glaze in the middle was nice, though, and overall, I was satisfied.


Last up was persimmon, but as you can see in the picture, this one was actually more like chocolate coated senbei. I'm not sure where the persimmon comes in, and am hoping that one of my readers can help me understand. Still, this was my favorite of the three. The milk chocolate (which seemed a little waxy here) went so well with the mild soy sauce flavor of the crunchy cracker center. It was very well balanced, and I would love to have a bag of just this variety (maybe with a few chestnut thrown in). Forget the peach.

On their own, I would say peach is a C+, chestnut is a B+, and persimmon is an A-. Overall, that averages to a B!

Check out another review of this pack at Tasty Japan!

Tirol website

Mars 3 Musketeers Truffle Crisp

Outlet malls are never as good as they seem. It sounds great, decent products at discount rates, but anything that's actually cheap tends to be damaged or defective. When I shop at clothing outlets, good stuff never seems as cheap as it should be.

Oddly enough, this candy bar was purchased at an outlet mall candy store. As you can see in the next picture, it was $1.25 US, which is a little pricey for a candy bar. Since it was an outlet mall, I figured the bar was discontinued, but it's actually rather new to the market. Rosa at ZOMG, Candy blogged about how Truffle Crisp is actually a re-brand of a poorly marketed bar called Fling, and it's an interesting read. The original Fling slogan was colossally bad.


I was expecting the Truffle Crisp bar to be like a Twix, with a cookie layer under nougat, so it was a bit of a nasty surprise when the bottom layer was more like meringue. It was chalky and sweet, and I really wished it was a cookie instead. I only like meringue on pies - things like meringue cookies really don't do it for me.

The candy bar was pretty much doomed for me after that. The melt was nice, but the nougat was so very sweet (especially atop all that crunchy sugar/fat). My husband didn't really care for it either, but one of my friends liked it. I suppose it comes down to your feelings on meringue. Still, it was nice to see something different.

C-

3 Musketeers website

Nikkou Panache

I try to keep a candy dish out for guests, and usually, I try to put good candy in it. Some things do tend to get left behind (like some rather strong matcha candies even I have to be in the right mood to enjoy). There's always lots of leftover candy from reviewing, so I think it works out well for me and anyone who comes to our house.

These Panache chocolates were purchased specifically for that candy dish. I don't usually go for obscure Japanese brands (they often don't even make it to the US), but these chocolates were so cute and pretty that I couldn't resist. They are made by Nikkou, a company that also makes KitKat and Tirol clones. Orchid64 reviewed one of their Tirol clones a while back.


The chocolates were adorable, with a cute little heart stamped on each pink and white face. They smelled very faintly of strawberry, but the actual strawberry chocolate had a bit of a sour punch. The milk chocolate was of average quality and it did a good job of keeping the sourness in check.

One of my friends thought they tasted more like raspberry than strawberry, but that might just mean the flavor wasn't terribly authentic. These were average tasting crowd pleasers, but for me, the only thing that really stood out was the cute design.

B-

Nikkou website