Choux de Bruxelles: Daiso Candy Review

We all know Japanese fruit-flavoured sweets taste fucking amazing and are addictive as. We also know the Japanese love interesting, sometimes questionable flavour combinations. Anyone who watches Iron Chef knows fish ice cream exists to win brownie points.

Here, I review some of the weirder candies stocked at Daiso. This is only part one. I hope you enjoy it!


BUTTER AND SALT CANDY

Nothing says “EAT ME NOW” like this butter and salt candy. Declaring “I am sorry that I cannot tell this deliciousness in a single word”, I was really excited to try this one.

When I rip open the wrapper, instead of a shiny pebble of pastel yellow, the candy resembles a streaky, hard-boiled lolly, possibly lemon in flavour.

This one smells amazingly like microwave popcorn. I was expecting explosions of cream, salt and sugar in unusual ratios. I was expecting a goddamn revelation in my mouth, but it was underwhelming.

It tastes more like a sweet candy with a hint of saltiness than actual butter. It also leaves an artificial aftertaste.

It’s weird what butter flavour tastes like. This one has notes of coconut, which the salt helps brings out. If I wasn’t told this was butter flavoured, I would have assumes it was coconut flavoured.

SEA SALT CANDY

After the disappointment of the previous one, I wanted this one to seduce me. I’m an avid fan of the whole salty/sweet combination (HELLO SALTED CARAMEL). Its bright packaging was screaming at my eyes. Daiso’s sign helpfully informs me that this candy uses sea salt from a Japanese town that’s famous for its sea salt.

It has cloudy/milky appearance, hinting it might be a lemonade-flavour. At first it tastes just like sugar. Then it starts to become saltier, but not in an interesting way.

It reminds me of the salty, preserved plums and olives my mother used to buy from the Asian grocers. However this candy lacks the sour/salty kick that makes the preserved plums simultaneously so foul and addictive.

I do like this one though. It's just I was expecting to suck on pellets of ... salt.

I am a salt fiend, so this candy might taste quite salty to someone who doesn't eat much salt.

BEKKO CANDY

Bekko seduced me at Daiso. It had me at “pure caramel”. Its packaging is a lot more modest than the other ones, contained in a clear pouch. Each candy resembles an amber crystal wrapped in plastic with the words ‘CANDY’ stamped across it in red.

Made from 87% super fine sugar, 10% coarse sugar and starch syrup, I could hear my pancreas threatening to cease insulin production.

Obviously not for excessive consumption, Bekko tastes exactly like the crunchy, caramelised lid on a creme brulee. Other than plain old caramelised sugar, Bekko also has hints of maize, which I’m going to assume is from the starch syrup.

Bekko is sweeter than the other ones, probably not one you'd like to OD on for your pancreas' sake.

There you go.

Now excuse me while I go brush and floss my teeth three times.