One of the iconic candies in Japan are caramels. There are oodles of caramels available, most in the classic style of a hard, short caramel (meaning it’s rather chewy but dry).
Often they come in different flavors, but the classic caramel has endured for nearly 100 years. One line is the Meiji Dice, which are little caramels that come in pairs inside cube boxes that also double as dice. More recently, as Meiji has acquired the Pokka Coffee company, they introduced the Pokka Coffee Caramel.
The cute packages feature half with icons of the Pokka coffee brand with their logo & seal. The other half are the dice - in this case using little coffee beans on each side to mark the numbers.
The caramels are bigger than the Morinaga ones I’ve had before, or the other, similar Meiji cubes.
They’re about 5/8 of an inch square with a distinct checkerboard texture on them. Each pair is wrapped in waxed paper and tucked into a box. So there are eight caramels total.
They smell very sweet and a lot like dark roasted coffee or espresso. There’s very little milk taste to it, though milk is a major ingredient. It’s definitely a sweet black coffee flavor. (Some coffee caramels taste like coffee ice cream.) I liked it much better than the grainy & gone texture of the Chewy Coffee Rio.
The dark, rich flavor and the soft, ample chew was really appealing to me. I found I ate three of the boxes before I was even ready to do this review. They were a bit on the expensive side for a mass-manufactured candy ... and the overpackaging is sweet for the first day or so, but silly and wasteful after that. I’ll likely stick with the Morinaga Caramels I know and love so well, or perhaps try the Meiji Chelsea Coffee if I can find them.
Related Candies
- Beechies Force Chewy Candy
- Coffee Nips
- Japanese Black Sugar & Tropical Chews
- The Candy Dump 2008
- Coffee Beat
- Green and Black Caramels
Name: |
Pokka Coffee Caramel (Dice) |
RATING:
- SUPERB
- YUMMY
- TASTY
- WORTH IT
- TEMPTING
- PLEASANT
- BENIGN
- UNAPPEALING
- APPALLING
- INEDIBLE
|
Brand: |
Meiji |
Place Purchased: |
Nijiya Market (Little Tokyo Plaza) |
Price: |
$1.59 |
Size: |
1.58 ounces |
Calories per ounce: |
132 |
Categories: |
Caramel, Coffee, Japan, Meiji |
I am a caramel fanatic and I love coffee as well, so this review grabbed my attention. I’m envious of the interesting candies and flavors that are produce overseas but deemed less appetizing for the U.S. I would love to purchase these because they look so yummy. Thanks for another wonderful review
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