On my last trip to my favorite Asian grocery store, T&T, I was surprised to find what looked like a lot of takeout coffee cups on the shelf in the candy section. Had a crowd of coffee drinkers decided to abandon their beverages in the candy aisle en masse? But upon closer inspection, it was merely the latest candy offering from Glico, Walky Walky – a pellet-shaped candy packaged in a container that resembles a fast-food coffee cup.
The coffee-cup-shaped container is a cute gimmick, even if it did lead me to believe that they might be coffee-flavored. (Coffee and strawberries? Surely not.) Since they’re made by Glico, otherwise known as “the Pocky people,†my first thought upon looking at the package was to wonder if these were just a bunch of Pocky sticks that had been sliced up into little Tart ‘N’ Tiny-sized pellets, and this first impression turned out to be pretty much correct.
The name “Walky Walky†even sounds a bit like “Pocky†– whether this is intentional or not I don’t know (it’s not like Engrish snack names are known for being logical). I suppose the idea behind the name is that these are easier to eat “on the go†than regular Pocky, though it’s not like Pocky are an awkward shape to eat while walking or anything.
It seems like you’re supposed to tip them right into your mouth, as the coffee cup shape would suggest, since shaking a bunch of pellets into your hand from a coffee-cup-lid-style opening is actually kind of a tricky thing to do while walking. The idea seems to be that this is a snack for the Starbucks generation – a quick little pick-me-up that’s as convenient as your neighborhood java joint.
Shaking a bunch into your mouth at a time is actually not a bad way to eat them, since you really have to eat a decent-sized handful at a time in order to get the full effect – a single one has very little crunch and nearly no strawberry flavor. But when you eat a bunch at once, it’s definitely like having a mouthful of strawberry Pocky. The strawberry coating is pretty dead-on with the flavor of strawberry Pocky too – a milky strawberry flavor, like strawberry ice cream.
Actually, it’s kind of a “more Pocky than Pocky†experience because you’re putting a whole bunch in your mouth instead of one thin stick, and while regular Pocky can sometimes be a little skimpy on the coating, these definitely weren’t.
As a Pocky fan, I quite enjoyed the Walky Walky, though they were a lot more expensive than a regular-sized box of strawberry Pocky. I think they’re a very interesting experiment, and I’m hoping Glico decides to branch out into some of the other flavors from Pocky’s extensive lineup.
Buy Walky Walky online:
- at Jbox.com
- at Amazon.com
the cover design makes me think of hungry hungry hippos!
February 4th, 2009 at 12:05 amThey have a Chocolate Pretzel flavored Walky Walky.. I’m curious to know how they got it to be that flavor….lol
February 4th, 2009 at 1:55 am