Japanese Candy Review: Pucchoco Almond and Chocolate

Monday, August 11, 2008 - by Laurie

I love me some Japanese candy, and usually the Asian markets in my area have a good supply. But lamentably, I have never been able to locate the Puccho brand of chews. A unique texture combining the soft chew of Starburst with tiny balls of gummi and, sometimes, fizzy candy bits? Sign me up! And the flavors sound great – melon, cola, and especially ramune. (Ramune is a Japanese soft drink that’s a lot like 7-up or Sprite. It has an indescribable flavor that’s almost lemon/lime… only not. The flavor is totally addictive, whether in candy or drink form, and there’s nothing quite like it outside of the Japanese candy market.)

So on a recent trip to my local Asian mega-grocery store, the T&T, I was elated to encounter the elusive chew at last. Sort of. Instead of a paper-wrapped “stick” or an awesome plastic tube thing, they came in a small bag. Very small. They were also expensive – $2.99 for the tiny bag. On sale. The regular price was nearly five bucks. (Oh, T&T – I love you so, but come on, what’s with your prices?) Instead of “Puccho,” these were called “Pucchoco” – that’s right, they’re chocolate-covered. And rather than being fruit or soda-flavored, they were almond-flavored – a new one on me.

It wasn’t ramune… but it would do.

The caramel-colored bag, decorated with adorable almond-headed characters, turned out to contain eight individually wrapped pieces, each about the size of a Jolly Rancher. The individual wrappers came in two colors, a caramel-brown and a darker brown, but I didn’t detect any difference between the candies inside. The candies themselves were glossy little chocolate-covered squares sprinkled with bits of crushed almond.

The package shows a brown-and-white checkerboard effect to the filling, but it just looked white to me (though the layer was too thin to really make out.) The taffy had a rather hard snap to it, like a chocolate-coated Starburst. There are no little gummy bits, but they probably wouldn’t go well with this kind of flavor anyway. Instead, the center has a graininess to it – I’m pretty sure there’s some ground almonds in there, just enough to add texture without actually making it crunchy.

At first, the chocolate flavor dominates, but as the chocolate layer melts away, the flavor of the center comes to the front: a warm, toasty nuttiness with a bit of salt and a rich skim-milk-powder flavor, kind of like White Rabbit candy. The overall effect is a lot like the taste of dry hot chocolate mix (not that I’m in the habit of eating hot chocolate mix with a spoon or anything). It’s a comforting flavor, like a mug of hot chocolate on a cold day.

Overall, this is one candy that definitely lived up to my expectations. In fact, I’m going to go ahead and award it my very first CandyAddict.com Awesomely Addictive Candy Award. And as for that ramune flavor, I guess there’s always Jbox.com.

• Puccho Website (Japanese)

Buy Puccho Online:

• at Jbox.com