Konbini Kinyoubi: Nippon Cider Candy & Vanilla Cream Crackers from Family Mart
Welcome to Konbini Kinyoubi, where every Friday (Kinyoubi) we visit our local convenience store (Konbini) and buy something delicious. This post contains affiliate links. For more information, please read our affiliate disclosure.
The first thing I need you to understand is that my wife is better than yours. Whoever you’re married to, be they man, woman, animal, vegetable, or mineral, I have the superior spouse. It’s just a fact. I’m sorry, but it’s true. Case in point: the other day, Eriko showed up at our apartment after work bearing gifts of sweet treats from Family Mart. Did YOUR wife do this? I bet not. And if she did, probably not as well as my wife did it.
She brought home two things I hadn’t tried before. The first was a bag of hard candies shaped like little soda bottles.
“Shuwa-shuwa, ne?” she said.
“What?” I said.
I put one in my mouth. It tasted like a quality apple candy, and I’m a man who knows his hard candy.
“Shuwa-shuwa,” she said.
“I don’t know what that means,” I said. “What are you trying to say?”
She shrugged.
“Shuwa-shuwa,” she said.
Then I bit down on the candy.
“Oh,” I said. “Shuwa-shuwa.”
If you don’t get it, “shuwa-shuwa” is a Japanese approximation of the feeling of a fizzy candy hitting your tongue. Much as Pop Rocks do, these little bottles contain bubbles to create a fizzy soda texture to match their soda-bottle appearance. It’s delicious. The outside was a sweet apple candy and the inside was a function - nay, a PARTY - in my mouth, and no one was invited but me; a perfect party.
These are Nippon Cider Candies (“Nippon” is a way of saying “Japan”), and come in four fruit flavors that we enjoyed over the next week. Apple and orange were the best, while peach and plum were also pretty good. Loved them. 100% chance I get more the next time I’m at Family Mart. But we weren’t done.
Up next were Family Mart brand Vanilla Cream Cracker Sandwiches. They were essentially gigantic versions of Ritz Bits Sandwiches made with vanilla creme instead of cheese or peanut butter, and with full-size Ritz crackers instead of the mini version. These hit close to my heart: as youth, I used to fashion my own sandwich crackers using big Ritz and peanut butter and would put so much PB between the crackers my heart would hurt after eating one. Those were the days.
These were, in a word, fabulicious. They were sweet, salty, crunchy, and had just the right amount of vanilla cream so that we didn't feel cheated. And there were 14 of them in the tube! What a bargain! We loved them. Definitely getting these again as well.
Overall, easy 15/10 this week as Eriko hit both choices out of the park. And as long as I refuse to read the nutrition information, they were healthy choices as well. Thank you, Konbini. Thank you.
