Saturday, February 7, 2009

Nihonjin Nibbles: Crunky

According to Wikipedia...
Crunk is a type of music which originated from southern hip hop and EDM in the early 1990's.
The term "crunky" would then be seen as something to do with this type of music, not a Japanese candy bar.

Fig. 1: A Crunky chocolate bar.

The Crunky bar is manufactured by Lotte, a large South Korean company. The bar appears to be the Japanese answer to Nestle's Crunch bar, though the Crunky bar uses fine malt puffs rather than crispy rice. The Crunky bar weighs in at 48 grams and is 261 calories.

Fig. 2: Nutrition Information, in Japanese of course.

The first thing I noticed is that the bar comes in a box rather than a plastic sleeve like our typical American candy bars. Another unusual thing that I noticed with this Crunky bar, as well as the previously reviewed Pocky, is the packaging's instructions on opening. The instructions actually worked. Unlike so many American products, like cake mixes, that say press here and pull back to open (and you wind up denting the side of the box so bad that you say screw it and just tear open the top flaps), when you "tear here" on these products they actually open up properly. Amazing.

Fig. 3: The Crunky foil packet.

Once I got inside the package, I found a foil packet not unlike what a typical American candy bar would have been wrapped in 'back in the day'. (Most candy wrappers are now plastic.) The foil of the packet is quite thin and every easy to open.

Fig. 4: The actual Crunky bar.

Comparing to the Nestle Crunch bar, the Crunky bar is quite a bit larger and thicker. The tiny malt puffs give the bar a similar look to the Crunch bar, just there are more of the little bumps. The taste is, however, not the same. The Crunky bar has a similar texture and crunchiness, but is no where near as sweet as the Crunch. This is probably due to the Japanese palate not liking sweets as much as other flavors. I generally have a tough time with sugary candy as it invariably hurts my throat, and this bar did not noticably affect me. The chocolate seems to have a similar mouth feel as typical milk chocolate as it melts. The malt puffs do not seem to add anything to the flavor of the bar, and they may be there for texture only.

On the whole, this was a pretty good bar. I like Nestle's Crunch bar, and this would seem to be a good substitute for that.

I think this bar deserves a 7/10.

3 comments:

Kuma-chan said...

Mike, you're saving them? C'mon dude, just eat them! I have to say that you have more strength to resist than I do.

Crunky sounds like Crunchy. It looks interesting. If you ever do go, lemme know if it still tastes the same.

Kelly said...

If crunky is larger than nestle crunch in america, your nestle crunch must be tiny. Ours in Australia is a very large, thick block. I can't say i'm very much a fan of other nestle chocolate's besides kit kat though, they just don't have that creamy taste like cadbury.

I'm not much a fan of the plain crunky, though i loved the melon, and i also like white crunky.
Mind if i add you to my blogroll?

badmoodguy (Бадмўдгуи) said...

Thanks for reading you guys!

Our Crunch bars are rather thin, about 1/4 inch thick around the edges, then about 3/8 of an inch thick in the middle. We do, though, sometimes have thick Crunch bars available depending on the season and the store. The "bite-size" Crunch bars that come in bags are significantly thicker. You are right, though, our Nestle products don't have the creaminess that chocolate should have. Hershey's candy bars and chocolates are generally the best we have for chocolate.

Anyhow, thanks for reading and you may certainly add me to your blogroll. :)