There’s nothing better for a sick day at home than to write a review for Pocky Watch. Sure, the sugar isn’t good for my immune system, but it’s great for my morale. And today’s morale booster is  a new Kit Kat I spotted at the convenience store the other day: Bitter Almond. It’s apparently the result of a collaboration between Nestlé and Japanese hair salon chain Tokyo Beauty Center (TBC エステティック). Sort of the opposite of ‘For Men’s’ branding, I guess.

Whatever the source, Bitter Almond Kit Kat is pretty delicious. Rather than trying to incorporate whole almonds, Nestlé has crushed them up and mixed in the bits with 44% dark chocolate, which goes over your normal Kit Kat wafer. I’ve only seen these in the 99 calorie x2 packs, which have a nice brown pyramid design, and actually a pretty golden wrapper on the inside.

You guys know what’s up with Kit Kat, so let me go into the particulars of this one. I can’t say that the almonds add too much to the flavor. Even examining the wafers closely, I can only see a dozen or so bits in each. For actually almond candies, I prefer larger chunks, as in M&Ms or Meiji’s various ‘Almond’ products. But what is there does add a bit of nuttiness. The dark chocolate is what I really liked about these. It’s a dull sweetness that doesn’t overpower the almond or the wafer. I really could eat a bunch of these, and I think if you’re even slightly a fan of bitter chocolate, you should check them out too.

4/5

Buy Bitter Almond Kit Kat from napaJapan.com.

Choosing this Pocky to review was a no brainer. Even with my recent conversion to Toppo, I still love love love Pocky, especially crushed almond kind. I also love coconut—yep, I’m one of those people; if you don’t like coconut you should just stop reading now—in all shapes and sizes. Almond Joy and Mounds ranked among my most treasured halloween candies. Seattle’s Trophy Cupcakes has a triple coconut cupcake that makes me die and I love coconut milk in savory sauces. I’ve heard that there might be some positive health effects to eating coconut products, but really even if the stuff made you gain thirty pounds I’d probably eat it anyway and be fat and happy. 夏のココナッツ (Summer Coconut) Pocky is one of the best Pocky flavors I’ve tried.

The box for this Pocky is quite cute and reminds me of Hawaii. The background is a brilliant blue water design, and the name is written over red hibiscus flowers. I like the break from traditional Pocky colors and I think the design is very fresh for summer. Even though the box is the same size as original Pocky there are only sixteen sticks! On top of that, the sticks aren’t even full length, they’re about a quarter of an inch shorter then original Pocky. This is a travesty and a bit of a rip off. Is flaked coconut really so hard to come buy that they can’t at least make the sticks full length? I like the look of the Pocky even if there isn’t enough of it, the chocolate is nice and shiny, and the coconut flakes are stuck on quite well.

The taste is pure pleasure. The chocolate is sweet and milky and the coconut is smooth and flavorful. I’m not completely sold on the pretzel, but it adds a really nice crunch which compliments the chocolate and the coconut well. I think this Pocky has one of the best combinations of flavors and textures on the market. If you like coconut, you will love this Pocky.

I’m really happy that I bought this Pocky, and I think it’s one of Glico’s best offerings. I’m a little sad that it’s limited edition, but I think I might stash some in the freezer to save for a rainy day. I think this tropical twist on an old favorite is a great way to kick off summer. For those of you unable to get your hands on Coconut Pocky, I bet you could make something very similar with original Pocky, coconut flakes, and a blow torch.

5/5

Buy Summer Coconut Pocky from napaJapan.com.

Aimee’s already written our Toppo review, but I saw these at the convenience store, and had to throw in my two cents. Just like Pocky, Bitter Toppo are apparently ‘for men,’ as in the view of candy manufacturers, Japanese women just lack the constition for reduced sugar content.

Really, though, these are quite similar to regular Toppo. There’s two foil bags, each with twelve sticks. You’ve got chocolate inside pretzel sticks, only this time the pretzel is a little darker, and the chocolate is, to my mouth, tastier.

Our other reviewer actually went so far as to declare regular Toppo better—better!—than Pocky. You’ll notice that our site has yet to change its name (Toppo Watch sounds rediculous anyway), but I won’t say there wasn’t a fair bit of arguing over the heresy here at the PW offices. Let me be clear: I don’t prefer Toppo to Pocky. It’s good, it’s fun, it’s a fantastic snack for on-the-go, but—like a matinee Vegas Elvis impersonator—it just kinda feels like a knockoff on the real thing.

This dark chocolate Toppo, though, is something else. The genius touch, in my opinion, is the bitter pretzel that Lotte makes these with. While the regular Toppo feels a bit like a low-rent coffee stirring biscuit, the combination of bitter chocolate and bitter pretzel, with just a touch of salt, turn this from an OK candy into a great one.

No, we’re still not changing the name of the site, but if Lotte can hit a few more home runs like this, they’ll be giving Glico a run for its money.

4/5

This is Pocky Watch, and we do love Pocky, but I think we should also give some credit to our favorite stick snack’s competitors. A lot of the appeal of pretzel stick chocolate seems to be its displayability during parties or when sharing with friends. Pocky sitting in a cup (flickr) has a way of looking like a delicious bouquet. Lotte’s Toppo, has a similar affect, and my first encounter with it was at a party sitting in a cup.

Toppo is basically inside out Pocky. The exterior is a thin pretzel-like shell that has a nice baked sheen. The core is a fairly generous stick of milk chocolate. Since the entire stick is pretzel on the outside, there is no “handle” at the end of the stick and the chocolate fills the whole pretzel. The box is almost identical in size to other similar products, and doesn’t really stray from the usual white, brown/black, red color scheme that most of these cookies have. Each box has two foil plastic packages, with about 12 sticks in each (24 total).

Here comes the blasphemy. I like these more then Pocky—a lot more than Pocky—possibly to the point where original Pocky has been ruined for me. Toppo has a higher chocolate to pretzel ratio then original Pocky, which I love. The exterior pretzel is extremely crisp and less breadsticky then Pocky. I also think there is more salt involved in Toppo. Pocky has a way of being kind of bland, while Toppo has a nice kick. Now I just need to worry about eating too much of it.

5/5

I’ve had a relationship with standard Pocky since 1992. I thought we were happy. I thought I was satisfied. I’m not saying I’ve never strayed. I’ve been tempted by the novelty of jumbo Pocky, I’ve dabbled in Kinoko no Yama. But I’ve always gone back to Pocky.  I thought the combination of cookie and chocolate was perfect. But now I have opened the Pandora’s box known as Gokubuko Pocky and I’m not sure I can ever go back to the regular stuff.

I wasn’t familiar with the word “gokubuso” but from what I can gather from Google, it means superfine or extremely thin. So basically Gokubuko Pocky are the Olsen twins of the Pocky world! The sticks are about the same length as standard Pocky, but they’re much thinner – somewhere between a standard Pocky and a toothpick. They have a satisfying crunch and a fantastic mouth feel. The chocolate to cookie ratio is higher than that of the standard version since the cookie is thinner. While I never thought that was something I wanted, now that I have it, I’m not sure I can go back!

I had low expectations of this product when I picked it up at the Central Market in Shoreline, WA for $1.99.  That was mostly because I had no idea what Gokubuso meant and the photo on the front of the box wasn’t particularly helpful. But now I’m hooked. I’m thinking about writing a letter to Glico to ask them to make a Gokubuso version of Tomato Pretz! My only complaint about the product would be the overly engineered packaging. I ignored the opening instructions when I opened the package. Luckily the box contains two packs so I will have another chance to master the art of opening Pocky.

Gokuboso Pocky for the win! 5/5