Wednesday, September 17, 2008

HiCHEW Aloe Yogurt

Morinaga has created a huge array of flavors of their popular Japanese HiCHEW candies. Most of their standard flavors can be found easily in the United States and Canada. I’ve spotted them in convenience stores, Target, Cost Plus World Market and of course specialty grocers.  The most recent one I picked up was Aloe Yogurt on a trip to Little Tokyo.

Aloe Yogurt HiCHEW

Depending on where I pick up my Japanese candy, sometimes the label has a translation on it (a sticker applied by the importer). In this case it went like this:

Morinaga HiCHEW Aroe Yogurt. Ingredients: corn syrup, sugar, palm oil, dried aloe, gelatin, concentrated yogurt, milk sauce, citric acid, soybean lecithin, artificial flavor.

As an American, I have very little experience with aloe as a flavor. I’ve had prickly pear but eating aloe isn’t really something I’ve considered. It’s for soothing sunburn. While I’ve seen aloe vera juice at health food stores, I’ve certainly never seen Aloe Yogurt.

Most HiCHEW have a white chew outside and a lightly colored chew in the center. In this case it was all the same color, or so subtle I couldn’t tell.

The chew is smooth and latexy - a little bouncy and not the least bit sticky. It’s kind of like chewing gum except that it slowly dissolves. It’s a bit creamier than some of the straight fruit flavors. I credit the milk sauce for that.

The flavor is mild, a little citrusy and tangy, it reminds me more of Ramune (lemon soda) than yogurt or aloe. It’s fresh but that fresh taste also reminds me of bathroom cleaner - it’s a little too much like it’s covering something up than actually cleaning anything.

Overall, not my favorite HiCHEW. I think I’ll stick to the fruit flavors. I enjoy real yogurt, but I’m finding that I’m not that keen on yogurt inspired candy. (Including those “yogurt covered dried fruit” things from the bulk bins at health food stores.) But your mileage may vary.

Related Candies

  1. Strawberry Yoghurt Mentos
  2. Meiji Gummy Choco
  3. Welch’s Fruit ‘n Yogurt Snacks
  4. Katjes Tropical Gummis & Yogurt Gums
  5. HiCHEW Assortment
  6. Ritter Sport Assortment
Name: Aloe Yogurt Hi-CHEW
    RATING:
  • 10 SUPERB
  • 9 YUMMY
  • 8 TASTY
  • 7 WORTH IT
  • 6 TEMPTING
  • 5 PLEASANT
  • 4 BENIGN
  • 3 UNAPPEALING
  • 2 APPALLING
  • 1 INEDIBLE
Brand: Morinaga
Place Purchased: Mitsuwa (Little Tokyo, LA)
Price: $.99
Size: 2.0 ounces
Calories per ounce: 115
Categories: Chew, Japan, Morinaga

POSTED BY Cybele AT 10:35 am Tracker Pixel for Entry    

Comments
  1. FWIW, the Japanese don’t eat that much aloe flavored stuff either except for yogurt. Occasionally, it’s also in certain beverages, but it’s really not all that common. This is just another of the multitude of short-lived one-off flavors that comes down the pike to generate a little interest only to vanish forever.

    Comment by Orchid64 on 9/17/08 at 1:29 pm #
  2. Nobody should eat much aloe.  If taken internally, aloe has a strong laxative effect and only fairly small amounts would give someone diarrhea.

    Comment by Dave on 9/17/08 at 2:26 pm #
  3. HiChew is the best! This sounds like a pretty weird flavor though. My favorite HiChews have been blood orange, mango and kiwi (which has little black dots in it making it like a cute little kiwi cube… maybe I mostly like it for the dots), hopefully you’ll get to try those if you haven’t already.

    PS: I just started reading your blog and it’s very exciting to see so many things I’ve wanted to try being reviewed (mainly the fancy chocolate bars). Thanks for eating all this candy and writing about it!

    Comment by odessa on 9/17/08 at 6:51 pm #
  4. When I lived in the Czech Republic (just this past year), an aloe drink was becoming more and more popular. It was quite thick, with little pieces of what I assumed were aloe plant in it. It wasn’t bad.

    Comment by Crystal on 9/18/08 at 2:14 am #
  5. Morinaga is celebrating their 25th Anniversary this year with a HICHEW Mystery Bag. It’s a bag of HICHEW candies individually wrapped in 4 different colors, each numbered. On the back of the bag is a list of what each number’s flavor could be.

    Sugoku Umaiyo

    Comment by Dan on 9/19/08 at 7:49 am #
  6. Cybele's avatar

    Dan - that sounds like great fun!

    Crystal - I’ve seen the drinks at health food stores, but never really thought about trying it.

    Odessa - thanks for visiting!

    Dave - whoa! that is very important news to me. Maybe that’s why they have those drinks at the health food stores then?

    Orchid - that’s an interesting thought about it being a passing fad. Maybe it’s like Pinkberry.

    Comment by Cybele on 9/19/08 at 8:44 pm #
  7. Oh my gosh! I haven’t had a HiChew in ages. We discovered them when we got to visit Japan when I was in the 6th grade and they fast became our favorite candy there. It was that and the super sour lemon hard candy things (can’t remember their name). It seems weird that they sell them here in the states but I have seen them at the asian stores.

    By the way I just discovered your blog and it rocks! smile

    Comment by castocreations on 9/25/08 at 6:50 am #
  8. Hmmm…I’ve never seen Hi-Chews as regular stores here on the East Coast (I’m in Massachusetts) but I do see them regularly in Asian stores (Chinese and Japanese). The Japanese packs are bigger than the Chinese packs- there’s about a half a pack difference between them. I pay 100 yen (about $1.00US) a pack at the Tokyo Narita airport, and 10 NTD (about $0.30US) for the smaller Chinese version pack. You can also buy a three pack for around one US dollar in Taiwan. Now you see why I don’t buy Hi-Chew in the States often.

    I always keep a lookout for new and unique flavors whenever I’m in Taiwan (which used to be yearly for family visits and later for an internship but promises to be far less now that I’m graduated and bound to be starting work once I find a job) and in the Japan Yokyo Narita for the now required layover since I can usually only find the basic flavors here.

    This time around I tried Lychee, Cantaloupe, and…Golden Kiwi. The Lychee was tasty- a good fresh lychee flavor. Lychee is a good candy flavor to pull off because of its strong distinct flavor. I like asian Cantaloupe flavored candy because it’s such a fragrant flavor- Hi-Chew was no exception. Nice and fragrant and just like the real thing- you could even taste the part near the rind. Note: try Wrigley’s Extra Cantaloupe flavored gum next time you find it in an Asian store or are in Taiwan/China (not sure if Japan has it). Delicious.

    I found golden kiwi in the Tokyo Narita Airport. I also saw the Tropical Fruit flavor but didn’t get because the Kiwi flavor was more unique. I hear some chatter here about a Kiwi flavor with black dots in it to simulate seeds- this is not it. I suspect that’s the original green flavor. The most notable difference between green and yellow (golden) kiwis other than color is that green kiwis are usually tart while yellow kiwis are sweet and mild. This version is solid yellow on the inside and get this- the wrapper is a nice shiny gold as advertised on the wrapper, though in Japanese. Very tasty flavor, good kiwi notes.

    Comment by Temperance on 10/06/08 at 4:17 am #
  9. Hi,
    In november Morinaga took all the current hi-chew off their shelves because they are contaminated with remnants of rubber gloves, even exported hi-chew are affected, it was on NHK nightly news. So until they are back to normal again i wouldn’t be eating any more of them lest you get a stray piece of rubber…

    Comment by Kelly on 11/29/08 at 5:57 pm #
  10. Looks not so bad! I’ll try to get my hands on it soon, new experiences can’t be so bad!

    Comment by French in Japan on 12/22/08 at 1:22 am #
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