Riska Sittori Ichigo

I wonder what they are saying is 70g?
Strawberry flavor?

The Attraction:

It appears as though my local Asian grocery has decided to take on some new snacks from Japan. This strawberry take on something that looks like a porous stone looked too strange not to try. 

The Review:
I really wasn't sure what to expect with this snack. What I was pretty certain about is that I would encounter an exaggerated Asian strawberry flavor as seen in other snacks such as Strawberry Pocky or Strawberry Yan-Yan. Like it or not, you must come to accept that this is what strawberry flavored anything will taste like in Asian snacks.

I open the bag and before I can even take a deep inhale, the sweet smell of strawberries comes pouring out of the bag. Well, I guess that probably means the strawberry flavor will be strong enough, but what's the point of having another strawberry flavored snack on the shelf? What the heck could be so different?

I pick up a biscuit out of the bag and notice how odd these cookies look. They look somewhere between a crouton and that pumice stone you use to scrape callouses off your feet. I wonder why the odd shape? "I hope these aren't too dry", I ponder. If they are just a strawberry-flavored crouton, I'm going to hurt myself.

I take a bite and although they are crunchy, they aren't quite as dry as a crouton, but as you continue with your bite, you get a weird sensation of a small "burst" of strawberry flavor. Almost as if there was a small pocket of strawberry moisture inside. It's an odd experience and difficult to explain, but it certainly has gotten my attention now. Let me try that again...and again.

Should I eat them or exfoliate with them?

The Sweet:

Interesting and tasty "pop" of strawberry flavor

The Bitter:
Not the most natural presentation of strawberry flavor

Little pockets of strawberry goodness

Conclusion:
After downing a few of these cookies, I Google translated what "Sittori Ichigo" means and it translates to "moist strawberry" in English. Ahh...it  all makes sense now.

The taste itself is run-of-the-mill-stuff; standard artificial strawberry flavor, however where it separates itself from the crowd is that sensation of strawberry moisture, for lack of a better term. It's so unusual and unlike any other snack, you can't help but have another and another to have that "hit" of moisture again. Ingesting artificial flavors in a snack has never been so much fun!

Video of the Week
As if video games couldn't be anymore realistic, a company called Force Dynamics has products that work in conjunction with gaming consoles to create motion and the actual feeling of being in the game. Now if only I could scrape together $85K to pick one up. (Feel free to click some ads to help me move closer to that goal. I only need 8 cajillion clicks to get one)

Christmas IS just right around corner...