One thing that the Japanese confectioners do really well is their gummi candy. The many flavors, the soft chewy texture and the colorful packaging just lends to a wonderful candy eating experience. This is why I was so excited to find these charming Meiji Apricot gummis in a box of samples kindly sent to me from Jbox.com. Apricot is one of my favorite fruits, so seeing it in a Japanese candy form made me even more worked up!
The colorful package with the apricots on the cover is just too precious. Some designer did a fantastic job with this one. The icon in top corner claims it has 2200mg of collagen in them, which is some new beauty Japanese health craze that Meiji is obviously trying to cash in on. According to the large illustration of the package, the gummi has a liquid center. I’m interested by this since it’s something I’ve never experiencesd before. Have the Japanese found a way to make their gummis even more irresistible?
The smell is very sour and has almost has a vinegar essence to it, which I found surprising because I don’t consider apricots a sour fruit. Strange. The gummis themselves are beautiful to look at: nice semi-opaque tangerine colored drops. They’re dome shaped with a flat side so they sit nicely in front of you. They’re also soft and squishy, but spring back to form after squeezing them. (Yes, I like to play with my gummis, ok?) In my first bite, I noticed they have a satisfying texture: not too soft or too firm.
The flavor is subtle at first, then it grows to a very powerful tart taste. I can’t quite lay my finger on the flavor. It doesn’t read as apricot to me… I think the closest thing I can compare it to is a peach Jolly Rancher. It does leave a nice sour aftertaste in the mouth that really gets your saliva working! I also can’t help but think I’m tasting a bit of vinegar in there, but it could just be the nature of the sourness. I was a bit disappointed because if it wasn’t for the illustration on the package, the flowing center of these wouldn’t have been noticeable to me at all. It’s not at all liquid; heck, it isn’t even gooey! It seems to be the exact same color and texture as the outside. The only way you can sort of make out the difference is a change in the surface texture, because the center is completely smooth and the outside is a bit textured.
Overall these are pretty tasty, so if you’re big on sour gummis I’d recommend them. If not, I don’t think you’ll miss anything by passing on these. Unfortunately, these were a seasonal flavor because I don’t see them on the Jbox website anymore. Still, I have yet to taste a Japanese gummi that I didn’t like, so I fully encourage you to try any that you can! Just make sure you report back here with your favorites!
- Meiji Gummi Website (in Japanese)
Buy Japanese gummis online:
- at Jbox.com
- at Asianfoodgrocer.com
I love sour, I love gummis, and I do love the intensity of Jolly Ranchers, so if I ever see these in a dollar store or someplace, I’m grabbin’ ‘em! My last trip to a local dollar store yielded some delicious gummis from Turkey in both grape and strawberry flavors. Individually wrapped, soft, chewy, a great gummi texture, VERY strong grape flavor which I got addicted to, and a good strawberry, too, though not as realistic-tasting as the grape. Maybe these apricot gummis will show up there someday; this particular dollar store is owned and run by Asian folks, so who knows!
January 16th, 2008 at 3:44 am