Lotte Toppo Coffee and Vanilla Ice Cream Flavor

OK, I may have eaten some before I took the photo

The Attraction:
Admittedly, I didn't pick this item up. The little lady grabbed a box of these out of curiosity. I didn't think much about them, but then I thought, why not put them to the SneakASnack test!

The Review
I had no expectations when I tried these. OK, I had low expectations when I tried these. We've all had Pocky up to this point, so I thought this wouldn't be much different from any other knockoff that I've had up to this point. How different could it be? As much as I enjoy an occasional Pocky myself, what else needed to be said?

Lotte has always been one of my trusted brands for snacks. Though I may not love every single offering they have, their products are always made with high quality and care. Even with that, I casually grabbed a stick of Toppo thinking it would just be a throw away snack for the moment. When I picked it up, I did notice that it was thicker and denser than a Pocky. About twice the weight. I thought that was odd. There was a smell of coffee, which I'm not even a fan of, but I how bad can one stick taste? Here goes nothing...

I bite in and as advertised, there is a coffee and vanilla flavor, but it's well balanced. The coffee flavor is present, but not overwhelmingly so. There's enough to know it's there and the vanilla flavor helps mellow it out. Also surprisingly, the stick itself is not like a cracker; it's not dry on the inside. It's moister, more like the outside of a Fig Newton in the middle, but with a crisper shell. Other than being in stick form, these are not like Pocky at all!

I'm like a reverse Pocky!

The Sweet:

Great coffee flavor, without the bitterness, balanced out nicely with the vanilla ice cream component. Moist may not be quite the right word for it, but it is not dry, which gives you a nice texture when you bite into it.

Doesn't look like much, but don't let that fool you

The Bitter:
Coffee lovers may want a stronger "hit" of coffee flavor.

Conclusion:
I'm not a fan of coffee flavored anything, so you can imagine my own surprise how much I enjoyed this product. Sometimes letting go of expectations is the best thing you can do. In the case of Lotte's Coffee and Vanilla Ice Cream Toppo, it was just what I needed to let go of what I thought I knew and be pleasantly rewarded with this new snack discovery.

Video of the Week
I've been to several massage spas in my day, but never have I gotten the full array of spa treatments like Conan O'Brien... and after seeing this, I may never want to.

This was my favorite part!