Remember when I said I was going to try snack foods from other places? Well, last night I decided it was finally time to start tackling Mt. Foodmore, which is currently taking over an alarming amount of my dining room table. I thought I’d start with something simple… gummies!

On the left we have lychee… tasty, but I question the package’s claim that the candy matches the flavor and texture of the fruit. I’ve seen people eat lychees on TV, I’ve never seen them bounce one. One the right is yuzu, a type of citrus that makes a DELICIOUS gummy. Like, pile of wrappers good. Tastes like a tangerine to me.

Left is ramune, based on a popular Japanese lemon-lime soda. They put something in it to make it taste ‘carbonated,’ but it ends up being just artificial. Not a fan. Right side, strawberry. Nothing surprising there.

Tiny, but oh so mean.

And then we have these little guys. This candy is apparently also ramune flavored. When I got my package these were the first thing out of the box. My coworker asked what it was called, and I pointed to the Japanese and said ‘this’. Literally, I knew nothing about this candy except it was probably some kind of gummy. So I popped one in my mouth and OH MY GOSH WAS IT SOUR. Not Sour Patch sour. Not Warheads sour. Make your eyes tear up please give me some water sour.

After watching me wave my arms around and then drink a cup of water, my coworker still took one. His reaction was a more restrained version of mine (in fairness to me, he was warned). So you may be asking yourself, why after being drawn in by a cute starfish package only to have your brain officially cut ties with your mouth, would only six be left? Well, barring the two prank ones I gave out, my coworker and I ate them. After you got past the sour part, they are actually pretty good. To be fair, by that point your tastes buds have passed out from shock so they might just be relieved the sour part is over. Still, good enough to try another one. (Except those two you see stuck together. There must be some sort of prize for eating them.)

Bottom line: yuzu great, others meh, starfish holy cow. And a tiny, tiny dent in Mt. Foodmore.