I am a huge fan of the whole Japanese snack experience. The packaging's fun and colorful, the snacks come in cool shapes and sizes, and they're just plain tasty. Lots of them have flavor combinations we Westerners wouldn't normally think of, but which are quite clever and delicious when you try them.
American snacks can seem pretty boring in comparison. Take the lowly KitKat for example -- we can't get green tea or lemon cheesecake flavors in regular grocery stores in the US. And we should be able to, shouldn't we?
Japanese Candy Pictures from the Folks at Flickr
Current Featured Snack - Meiji Chelsea Vanilla Mix
Milk, Caramel and Coffee Candies
These are tasty candies in Vanilla Milk, Vanilla Caramel and Vanilla Coffee flavors. If you love flavored coffees, you'll like these, too. They may be a little hard to track down, but they're worth finding just for the Milk flavor alone! Japanese Snack News from Google
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byOkashi Company Links
- Glico
- Makers of Pocky, Caplico and lots of other delicious treats
- Kameda Seika
- These are *the* rice cracker people
- Kasugai
- Mostly gummy candy, bean and nut snacks. Their wasabi peas and squid peanuts (yup, squid peanuts) are some of my favorites!
- Meiji
- Meiji makes too many tasty things to list them all. Try Karl corn puffs, KinoKonoYama chocolate mushrooms, Apollo chocolates and fancy Cho-Pans for starters.
Pretz Pictures from the Folks at Flickr
Okashi Info Links
- Japanese Snacks.com
- Site has an online database of 100+ snacks and links to online places to buy snacks, plus the latest snacking news and even ECards for you to send.
Great Okashi on Amazon
Glico - Caramel Pocky 1.41 Oz.
Amazon Price: (as of 10/06/2008)
Meiji Chocolate Candy - CaCao Style, Berry Mix
Amazon Price: (as of 10/06/2008)
Glico - Giant Chocolate Pocky 10.83 Oz
Amazon Price: $12.99 (as of 10/06/2008)
Glico - Men's Chocolate Pocky 3.52 Oz.
Amazon Price: (as of 10/06/2008)
Glico - Marble Pocky Rum Raisin Marble Chocolate Stick - 1.86 Oz
Amazon Price: $3.49 (as of 10/06/2008)
Meiji - Fran Original Chocolate Pack - 2 Boxes (2x2.2 Oz)
Amazon Price: (as of 10/06/2008)
Glico - Pocky Decorer - Purely White (2.1 Oz)
Amazon Price: (as of 10/06/2008)
Meiji - Seasonal Macadamia Covered with Green Tea Matcha (Individually Wrapped) - 1.65 Oz
Amazon Price: $4.29 (as of 10/06/2008)
Glico - Pocky Kurogoma (Black Sesame)
Kurogoma is a mixture of black sesame, black rice, black soy beans, black pine nut and black quince in what tastes like white chocolate. Sounds weird? It's actually a very tasty combination. If you like those little sesame sticks in snack mixes, you'll think these are yummy!
Amazon Price: (as of 10/06/2008)
Kabaya - Strawberry Chocolate Candy - 2.36 Oz
Amazon Price: $3.19 (as of 10/06/2008)
Glico - Purple Sweet Mousse Pocky - 2.11 Oz
Amazon Price: (as of 10/06/2008)
Glico - Salad Pretz Sticks Family Party Pack (10 Packets) - 6.8 Oz
Amazon Price: $9.99 (as of 10/06/2008)
Glico - Strawberry Bit Cream Covered Pocky (4 Packs) - 1.97 Oz.
Amazon Price: (as of 10/06/2008)
Kasugai Apple Gummy Candies
Amazon Price: $3.99 (as of 10/06/2008)
Kasugai Fruit Gummy - Grape - 4.76 oz.
Amazon Price: (as of 10/06/2008)
Kasugai Gummy Candies with Muscat (Green Grape) Juice
Amazon Price: $3.99 (as of 10/06/2008)
Kasugai Orange Gummy Candies - 4.41 Oz
Amazon Price: $3.99 (as of 10/06/2008)
Kasugai - Roasted Mix Nuts 3.88 Oz.
Amazon Price: $3.99 (as of 10/06/2008)
Meiji - Five Mini Candy Assortment - 2.20 Oz - Buy 9 Get 10 Shipped!
Amazon Price: $3.99 (as of 10/06/2008)
PierMall Taste of Japan #15 - Furuta Choco Egg 2008 Collection (With Model Car, Jet Plane and Combat Tank) - 3 Boxes
Amazon Price: (as of 10/06/2008)
Make Your Own Snacks
Japanese Snacks & Light Meals: Quick & Easy (Quick and Easy Series)
Amazon Price: $18.95 (as of 10/06/2008)
Other Places to Buy Okashi
- Asian Food Grocer
- San Francisco-based online shop with Koala no March cookies, Every Burger chocolate ''hamburgers'', Meiji Apollos, Calpico sodas, etc.
- Asian Munchies
- Brooklyn-based, Asian Munchies has lots of stuff: Pocky, Pretz, Ramune soda, Calpis, Kirin coffee drinks, etc., as well as gift baskets.
- J-Snacks at J-List
- J-List has tons of cool, wacky Japanese stuff and lots of snacks and drinks. Pick up some Pocari Sweat, Calorie Mate, Ramune bottle candy, Kompeito, Final Fantasy Potion, Pancake-flavor Pretz and, of course, Pocky.
Great Okashi Stuff on CafePress
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