Bizarre Japanese Candy Review: Kasugai Mango Gummies and Lotte Fruitio Gum

This past memorial weekend was filled with fun activities! One of our outings took place at Balboa Park during their annual Ethnic Food Fair. We sampled world cuisine as well as Japanese Candy. Well, of course, I purchased the candy at Mitsuwa Marketplace and brought it over to the park.  On this beautiful San Diego day, we taste-tested Kasugai mango gummies and Lotte Ume flavored Fruitio gum.

Kasugai Mango Gummies

Lotte Fruitio ume-flavored gum

We first tried the Kasugai mango gummies and they did not disappoint! I love mango flavors and this was definitely tasty! The gummies were soft in texture and had a natural mango flavor. As an added bonus, they even sparkled in the sun! I have no idea what they put in this product to make it so glittery! Maybe they're magical! ;-)

After our wonderful gummy experience, we moved on to try Lotte Fruitio ume-flavored gum. Now, on the package it states that this is a "hard candy" The gum had a candy shell, however it was certainly not a hard candy. The description on the package was a little deceptive. More than likely, this was due to poor translation. 

Once you remove the plastic wrapper, a silvery box is revealed! Very sleek and modern!

When you slide open the box, each piece of gum is individually wrapped in silver foil.  The Japanese love their packaging!

Finally, when you open each foil wrapper, out pops a pretty lavender colored piece of gum.

"Ume" in Japanese means, "plum".  These are plum-flavored chewing gum pieces. The flavor is a little odd for my taste. Shane, who tasted this as well, found this gum quite disgusting. I didn't find the gum quite so terrible, but it certainly didn't rank high on the bubblegum list.  The gum had a lavender flavor with strong hints of clove and cinnamon. The experience was like eating spicy perfume. 

Of the two candies, Kasugai mango gummies was the clear winner! We definitely recommend it!  If you want to check out our video review on Youtube, click on the link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UywvIEMqjTc