Thursday, December 26, 2013

Morinaga HiCHEW Mini

Morinaga’s has created a morsel version of their popular HiCHEW candies. They’re called HiCHEW Mini and feature four flavors to the cute little 1.4 ounce box.

Morinaga HiCHEW Mini

There are four flavors: pineapple, green apple, grape and strawberry. The box is a great design, it’s overwrapped with cellophane to keep the contents fresh, once opened there’s a little perforated tab that opens a dispenser to get one candy at a time. The pieces are chunky, a little larger than Skittles, and kind of drum shaped.

The green apple is like most of the apple candies from Japan. It’s more about the flavor of apple juice than the artificial thing typified by Jolly Ranchers in the United States. These are sweet and tangy, the chew lasts a long time and doesn’t descend into a grainy mess.

The pineapple is the star, partly because there are no regularly found pineapple Skittles. It’s immediately floral and tangy with that deep honey note. It’s quite intense.

The candy shell, though, is lacking something. There’s no crunch, there’s no boost of texture from the shell. Instead the shell becomes tacky and kind of waxy, like it’s just shellac (though it is a little tangy and does seem to have the same flavor as the chew).

The grape is lovely and reminiscent of concord grapes. It has those skin flavors of a concord grape and the green fruity note of the juice.

The strawberry was the least impressive of the set. It’s not floral or jammy, just kind of tangy but lacking any different levels.

I wanted to love these. I wanted them to be everything that Skittles aren’t: naturally flavored, more intense chew with great packaging. Instead they’re expensive and leave a weird waxy residue in my molars. I still might buy them again if I see them in another flavor assortment. I like the assortment notion, as most HiCHEW are single flavor packages (unless you get the bagged candies) and the fact that there’s less packaging overall.

Note: I ordered these from JBox.com (or JList.com, as they’re also known) and found the experience to be unsatisfactory in enough different ways (payment is taken immediately even if the items aren’t shipped for a month, lack of communication via email and their twitter account, slow & conflicting information and unilateral cancellation of one of the items I’d ordered) that I do not plan on shopping with them again.

Related Candies

  1. Airheads Bites
  2. Starburst Minis (Original)
  3. Skittles replace Lime with Green Apple
  4. Morinaga HiCHEW Fanta: Grape & Orange plus Cola
  5. HiCHEW Japan vs HiCHEW Taiwan
  6. HiCHEW World Fruit: Dragonfruit, CamuCamu, Durian & White Peach
  7. Festival HiCHEW: Candied Apple & Cotton Candy


Name: HiCHEW Mini
    RATING:
  • SUPERB
  • YUMMY
  • TASTY
  • WORTH IT
  • TEMPTING
  • PLEASANT
  • BENIGN
  • UNAPPEALING
  • APPALLING
  • INEDIBLE
Brand: Morinaga
Place Purchased: JBox.com
Price: $2.00 + shipping
Size: 1.41 ounces
Calories per ounce: 115
Categories: Candy, HiCHEW, Morinaga, Chews, 7-Worth It, Japan

POSTED BY Cybele AT 11:13 am Tracker Pixel for Entry     CandyHiCHEWMorselizationReviewMorinagaChews7-Worth ItJapan

Comments
  1. I have ordered from napajapan.com several times and never had a problem. smile

    Comment by Lauren on 12/27/13 at 7:08 am #
  2. Cybele's avatar

    Lauren - thanks for the confirmation on napajapan. I ordered from them once last year, about 50 cents more per item which kind of adds up when you get 10 items. But at least I got what I paid for.

    Comment by Cybele on 12/27/13 at 12:48 pm #
  3. I first ordered from JList on your recommendation, years ago. They emailed me back promptly when I asked a question about ingredients, sourced me an item that wasn’t even listed in their store, and were otherwise terrific. A few months ago I emailed them again and they didn’t even respond. They definitely have slipped in execution.

    Comment by armis on 12/28/13 at 12:40 am #
  4. I just recently ordered from both napajapan and Jlist.  Napajapan is really really expensive.  Most items are almost $1.00 more than anyone else, and the shipping is outrageous as well.  However, they have products listed that nobody else seems to be offering :-( 

    Jlist has been great on the other hand.  they aren’t as expensive, and they ship really fast.  They did randomly cancel items they said were in stock both times, but I can forgive that. 

    Comment by andrea on 12/28/13 at 4:30 am #
  5. I’ve ordered from asianfoodgrocer.com several times and never had any problems with them.

    Comment by Mousey on 12/29/13 at 11:00 am #
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