I love crunchy candy. Crunky, Macademia, and even Pocky; crunchy food fills a certain segment of my sweet tooth. Now, I hardly ever prefer Lotte’s chocolate to other brands, but I thought I would give some of their new, crunchy, offerings a try: あられ (arare) and パン (pan) Ghana.
Arare, as I was not aware before trying it, is roasted mochi. If you’re not familiar with that, I’ll share my first reaction when I saw these: they look (and taste) like Cap’n Crunch dipped in chocolate. They’re light and fluffy, and primarily chocolatey. Mixed in is a touch of soy sauce, which tastes better than you might assume. Unlike some candies like this, Lotte doesn’t skimp too much on the quantity. While there’s only 42g of array chocolates, that’s something like 25 pieces, and a pretty filling snack.
Pan, being French for ‘bread,’ is exactly that. This candy is essentially the same as the first, only with sweet salad croutons. While the arare promised to be both サクサク (sakusaku), crispy, and フワフワ (fuwafuwa), fluffy, these crouton Ghana only promise to be crispy, which is understandable, because these are a little heavier than the Cap’n Crunch Ghana.
While both of these crispy chocolate snacks were a fun experience, neither really rose above the pack. As I mentioned in the beginning, Lotte chocolate really doesn’t do anything for me, and as a filling, I much prefer nuts or the mochi puffs from Crunky. They’re both pretty unique, though, and if you’re looking for a taste you can’t find outside of Asia, you could certainly do worse.
2/5
We couldn’t find these for sale in the usual places, so let us know in the comments if you know where to buy あられ (arare) and パン (pan) Ghana.
