Tongue Tied Taster

Meiji Chelsea Yogurt Scotch aka Four Seas Chelsea Yogurt Candy

2008-12-05T13:44:00.000-08:00

"A Taste of Old Scotland" it says on the side of this packet of sweets. Called Chelsea Yogurt Scotch. Made in Japan.
Go figure.

There are 10 pieces of yogurt scotch in the pack, and I was pleased with how tasty they were. The taste is hard to describe, a tart yogurty taste from a translucent sweet that has the texture of butterscotch.Personally I loved these and will be getting more as soon as I can, however a number of people I offered them to were not as impressed as I was.

Also by the same company: Pucca Strawberry Pretzel

Ingredients: Millet jelly, Sugar, Concentrated Yogurt, Cream, Skim milk powder, Acids, Flavourings, Modified Starch, Sodium Chloride, Emulsifiers

Taste: 4/5 tongues

Cocon Puddings with Nata De Coco

2008-11-27T07:16:00.000-08:00

I saw these in an oriental store in Brighton after dining at the noodle bar in the back (I was quite sated by a yummy Pork Pad Thai at the time), and thought - as I often do - "Hell, I'll give it a go!". I'm really glad I did.

These Malaysian puddings are very much like jelly, although a little less "set" than most jellies we generally experience over here. There are four flavours in the pack of 6 puddings: Strawberry, Lychee, Mango, and Passion Fruit. In the puddings there are also chunks of Nata De Coco[wiki], a chewy foodstuffs that is made from fermented coconut water. It can be a little alarming if you're not used to chunky bits in your jelly, but actually it works very well.

The taste of the puddings is exceptional, bursting with taste and not tasting chemical as so many similar products can. This is a dessert that I can see myself serving for visitors. If you want to check them out but haven't got an oriental store close to you, don't worry: you can find them on Amazon.com! (No sign of them on Amazon.co.uk yet though)

Cost: £1.75 for a pack of 6
Taste: 4/5 tongues

WoongJin Honey and Red Ginseng Drink

2008-11-21T12:01:00.000-08:00

Ginseng plays a major part in chinese medicines where it is used to treat a whole host of things including: sexual disfunction, stress, trauma, anxiety, fatigue, and type II diabetes. It is also used as an aphrodisiac, a stimulant in energy drinks, an anti-oxidant and an anti-carcinogen. It's little suprise that the botanical name Panax means "all heal".

This particular drink is made by the Korean company WoongJin, and contains "carefully selected honey and six year-old steamed red ginseung."

I have never tried ginseng as a flavour to itself before, the closest I've got before now was a Malaysian instant coffee that contained ginseng extract and was designed to turn you into an all night sex-god (something it utterly failed to do). So as you can imagine it was with some trepidation that I poured myself a glass of this beverage. The first thing that struck me, obviously after the urine-suggesting colour, was the smell. Make no mistake: this was no aroma, it was a fully qualified Smell. I was nearly put off entirely but having learned from Lapsang Suchong tea (which smells like burnt tyres but is in fact my favourite tea) I decided to brave the flavour.

Surprisingly the taste is no where near as off putting as the smell and is in many ways actually quite pleasant. The honey in this drink is clearly the predominant taste, but not a thick sticky taste as you might expect - more of a diluted but still very sweet honey taste with the ginseng filling out the flavour. Not a drink you could guzzle a lot of, and I'm not convinced on the supposed energy benefits (lets just say I wont be replacing my supply of Relentless any time soon), but tasty enough.

Taste: 3/5 tongues

MaeJin Tom Yam Hot & Sour Soup

2008-11-14T11:44:00.000-08:00

MaeJin is a brand of Thai company Lampang Food Products Co., Ltd. They produce a number of foodstuffs including stir fry sauces and pastes, dipping sauces, and bamboo shoots in water, as well as their selection of canned foods.

The flavour of this chinese soup is not subtle to say the least. In fact both the hot and the sour hit you like an angry glaswegian bodybuilder. Although, being a greedy fat bastard, I usually finish a 410g tin like this myself (despite being labelled as 2 portions), I actually found myself beat halfway through. This was partly due to the strength of the flavour and the spice making my already runny cold-tortured nose drip even more freely, and partly due to the impressive selection of vegetables in the can. Whole baby sweetcorn, whole mushrooms (which i suspect to be oyster mushrooms), bamboo, and slices of what must have been threateningly large carrots; a commendable effort, especially when compared to a lot of UK tinned soup companies that seem to like to cut the vegetables into unrecognisable tiny multicoloured chunks that are reminiscent of fish food flakes.

All in all I was pleased with this soup, and would give it a three chilli rating. Packed with flavour, loaded with real vegetables, and carries an appetising aroma. I was also pleased to find english description and instructions on the back; obviously not necessary for foods in an oriental supermarket but it makes my job easier!

Ingredients: Galangal & Lemon grass extract, onion, baby corn, mushroom, bamboo shoot, carrot, chilli paste, salt, shallot, sugar, coconut milk, sunflower oil, green hot chilli, red chilli, coriander, chilli powder, kaffir lime leaves.

Per 100g: 35kcal, 4.9g carb, 1.3g fat
Taste: 3/5 Tongues

Acecook Super Cup Pork Flavour

2008-11-14T07:27:00.000-08:00

Vietnamese company Acecook are responsible for almost 9% of the instant noodle market in Japan [1]. God knows why.

The pictures on this noodle pot product looked so promising: colourful sweetcorn, circular pork slices, and fresh chives. I didn't really expect the pork slices, having been misled so many times before by other products, but I was pleasantly surprised to find some pork slices in there after all, in a bag with some suspect "vegetable" products. One of the other packages contained what seemed to be a mix of soy sauce and oil, and the final pack contained some very unappealing looking grey powder.

Since there were no english instructions on the pack (or any english at all) I guessed at how to assemble the meal. Not that it could be difficult, all pot snacks work the same: add ingredients, fill to line with hot water, sit for three minutes, eat. Unfortunately after adding the water the pork slices started to look rather sad and wilted, and a less than appetising aroma hit me.

The snack was incredibly watery, and it tasted awful. Nevermind pork, this didn't even taste natural. The smell was described by my partner as "plastic" and the taste was so chemical that I was tempted to buy some Stella to overpower it. I'm afraid to say I simply could not make myself finish this one and ended up feeding it to my giant alligator friend in the sewer. Even he barely touched it and slouched off chewing a mouldy rat instead.

Rating: 1/5 tongues

Yeo's Lychee Drink

2008-11-07T07:04:00.000-08:00

I have a confession to make: I absolutely love lychees. So when I spotted this can of Lychee Drink by Yeo's (more fully know as the Chinese company Yeo Hiap Seng Limited) it was a no-brainer. Yeo's are also involved in foodstuffs, other beverages, and property development.

I was not disappointed by this drink, full of sweet lychee flavour it was everything I hoped it would be. Admittedly it's too sweet and fruity to be drunk alongside a meal or for thirst quenching (and it's not carbonated), but as a stand alone drink for the sake of flavour it hits the spot perfectly. For the health conscious of you it might be a put off to learn that it actually only contains 2.5% lychee juice, the rest of the drink being made up with water, cane sugar, flavourings and colourings. Why is it everything I like is bad for me??

Taste: 4 / 5

Guaraná Antarctica

2008-11-04T13:02:00.000-08:00

Guaraná Antarctica is a Brazilian fizzy soft drink made from the guarana berry[wiki], often popularised due to it's high caffiene content - a guarana berry contains between four and five times the content of a coffee bean. The drink is made by AmBev, a company formed by the merger of the original maker of the drink (Companhia Antarctica Paulista) and it's biggest competitor (Brahma). AmBev currently produce a number of other drinks in Brazil including Leffe beer, Pepsi cola, and Lipton Ice Tea.

I have to say I was immediately hooked on this drink. It's far tastier than I thought it was going to be, and also a lot less sugary. I was expecting something more like something in between cola and lucozade, but Guaraná Antarctica is more like a lightly fizzy apple drink, and it goes down very easy. The whole can was swiftly devoured by my partner and myself, leaving us with a craving for more of this delicious new treat! I can't say how effective it is as an energy drink yet (I'll let you know if I get any sleep tonight) but as a light soft drink that doesn't overpower your tastebuds and cling to your teeth like a lot of the most popular soft drinks in UK, this is definately a great choice!

As a side note I was interested to read that "guaranine" which is sometimes promoted as an ingredient in energy drinks and foods, is actually just a synonym for caffiene. Shame on you marketing companies!

Taste: 5/5 tongues
Official site: http://www.guaranaantarctica.com.br/

Yeo's Ice Green Tea (Brewed with Jasmine)

2008-10-31T12:28:00.000-07:00

Another beverage from Yeo's here. Yeo's are more fully know as the Chinese company Yeo Hiap Seng Limited and are also involved in foodstuffs, other beverages, and property development.

Ingredients: Water, aqueous extract of green tea & jasmine (36%), cane sugar, flavourings, ascorbic acid

I have to admit I'm not a green tea fan and this drink didn't do much to convince me otherwise. The added jasmine makes it a little more likeable for me, but I still wouldn't buy this again myself. However, that's my personal preference and to be honest this is one of the better cold green tea drinks I've tasted so maybe if you like green tea you'll be more keen on this than I am.

Taste: 2/3
Also from same company: Yeo's Lychee Drink

Vietnam Jackfruit Chips

2008-10-24T07:37:00.000-07:00

You've had banana chips right? Well these are a bit like that, only they're made from Chakka Chula (a part of the Jackfruit[wiki])

The texture of the chips is pretty similar to banana chips, if just a little dryer. The taste is harder to explain, for me they're somewhere between banana and roast parsnip (and a hint of pineapple) with an aftertaste of something I can't quite put my finger on. The sweetness of these seems to put off a lot of people who are used to their chips (or crisps as we call the in the UK) being of the savoury variety.

Unfortunately I couldn't find much more about these as one of the websites on the back (http://www.jiuyuegz.com/) has apparently been sold since the packaging was made and the other one (the distributor http://www.interlink-direct.co.uk) didn't seem to list the product on their site.

Cost: £1.98
Amount: 100g
Taste: 3/5

Pocari Sweat

2008-09-22T05:56:00.000-07:00

I had already heard of the Japanese drink called Pocari Sweat from sites such as Engrish.com before I spotted it in the oriental market, but I had never taken the time to find out what it actually was. As it happens this refreshing beverage is marketed as a sports drink (or "ion supply drink" as it says on the can) that replaces all the good stuff lost through sweating, much like Powerade or Active drinks. In fact, according to the wikipedia article, Powerade's Arctic Shatter drink is very similar indeed.

It is manufactured Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. (a company also responsible for developing the Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder treating drug: Abilify. You can find details of their other products on their site). At least you can be sure that this is a drink made by professionals with an interest in health so it won't rot your insides like most UK/US soft drinks. My can also bore the name of the Haitai Beverage Company.

From the can: "Pocari Sweat is a drink which supplies water and electrolytes lost through perspiration. Pocari Sweat is quickly absorbed into the body tissues due to its find osmolality and contains electrolytes for replenishing body fluids. Pocari Sweat is thus highly recommended as a beverage for such activities such as sports, physical labor, after a hot bath, and even as an eye opener in the morning."

The official site has some more information on the uses of Pocari Sweat, including the average amount of perspiration lost during certain activities, and a list of common activities that cause you to lose body water. See if you can guess what these are before looking at the site:

The drink is light and watery, very thirst quenching and not overly sweet. The taste may be too subtle for general popularity in the English markets (lets face it, fanta, cola, red bull: our drinks have the flavour subtlety of a brick through a window) but given the right distributor it could easily gain acceptance as an effective sports drink. Like such drinks, though, I did find it almost too quenching for general consumption; it left me feeling a little like I'd just guzzled a litre of water!

Nutritional Facts per 100 ml:
Calories	26Kcal
Protein	0
Fat	0
Sugar	6.7g
Sodium	49mg
Calcium	2mg
Potassium	20mg
Magnesium	0.6mg

Ingredients: Water, sugar, citric acid, sodium citrate, sodium chloride, potassium chloride, calcium lactate, magnesium carbonate and flavor