When you don’t know what a candy is, going in, it makes the review really quite fun. At least for this reviewer.

Take these Japanese candies.

I know they’re Japanese because they came in either the Freedom Japanese Market box, or Japan Crate or the Oyatsu Box … just can’t remember which.

I’ve done my share of eating Japanese sweets to know the purple is grape, the red/brown is cola, and the blue is Ramune – another soda that’s almost bubble gum-like in flavor, and a favorite of my kids.

As with many Asian candies, these don’t do flavors half assed. They go full assed – kicking in a strong taste right when you throw them in your mouth.

If you look closely at the package, you will see the appear to be a hard candy with something in the center. I assumed it would be some kind sour fizz substance. I have a lot of talents, it’s true, yet reading and understanding Japanese isn’t one of them. So really I had no idea what would be in there.

I popped the grape in my mouth first. As a rule, I like grape and I posit that Japanese grape is better than we do Stateside. The flavor is great – almost verging on the tart but not quite, more like “sharp.” I suck for awhile, trying to time the perfect moment to bite in, assuming I’d get a flood of sourness. The flavor didn’t subside, which is nice, and after a good solid minute and a half, I finally bit. Alas, acidic sour did not pass to my tongue. Nay, it was a soft-ish center with dampened flavor. It was a tad chalky, almost like a Razzle. And as I chew, it reminds me MORE of a Razzle, and I realize this. is. gum.

Gum?

But the shell around it is so thick. Not sure I’ve ever had gum in a hard thick candy. Then while eating it, the shell mixes in with the gum so I’m kinda eating, kinda just chewing, wondering if I should swallow or if I should just chew. My brain kept saying “this is gum” but my tongue kept saying “swallow that bitch.”

It was tres confusing.

Eventually, I got it. It’s gum. And it’s pedestrian gum around a way better than average hard thick candy shell.

Clever. Unique. At least to me it was.

Since I can’t speak nor read Japanese and have no idea what these are called or where to get them, I searched the interwebbles for things like “Japanese hard candy gum Ramune cola grape” and got nothing back that looked like the package above.

So my dear readers who know Japanese candy – what are these called? Where do you procure? And do you like? I find them interesting and novel, but although I usually either want gum, or candy. Putting them both together #ConfusesMe.