Snack Time Part III

This Snack Time post has gotten way too long so I thought I'd better get it out there before it gets lost in my draft folder.

 

In May of 2019, I received an amazing care package from Julia, stuffed full of yummies. Thank you, Julia! With the exception of the Hanamizuki teas I'm savoring slowly, the rest didn't last very long ^.^

 

First up, these Macadamia Caramelisers were exquisite. Basically, it was a macadamia nut coated with a thin layer of crunchy caramel and then coated again with milk chocolate. One bite into it and there's this satisfying crunch blending in with melty chocolatey goodness. I gave one bag to my sister since she loves it too and ate the rest. Ha. The kicker though is that these are only available at Lawson conbinis (I think it's Lawson, right, Julia?). Why, I have no idea. I think these ought to be available everywhere, but that's just me.

 

OMG OMG Meiji Almond Caramel LE flavor OMG OMG soooooo good and gone forever T.T Why!?

 

Oooohhh Ritter Sport Macadamia chocolate bar. It was gone in one sitting. Hubby ate half ^.^

 

These Persimmon Hi-Chew were decent. To be honest, I'm not a big fan of Hi-Chews in general but these weren't bad. The thing about having friends is that they give you opportunities to do and try things you never would otherwise seek out on your own. Glad I tried these!

 

In February of 2020, I received another amazing care package from Julia and it too was stuffed with goodies. Goodness gracious, why am I so lucky? Thank you so, so, so much, Julia! I literally squealed when I opened the box. Look at this loot!

Over that winter, I kept seeing pictures of ruby and blond chocolate on Insta and Julia was so kind to indulge me with a few. 

Behold this Comptoir du Cacao Gourmet Bar Blond Strawberry! It was so good I ate the whole thing in one sitting! Woops ^.^

These Baci Ruby Chocolate Limited Edition were delicious as well. I actually found more of them on Amazon and promptly bought 3 bags!

Then in May 2020, I received yet another surprise care package from my friend T. in Tokyo. After we moved home in the fall of 2016, I had deleted my Facebook account but forgot to save my list of contacts. Woops +.+ I thought I'd lost touch with T. but somehow we found each other again through LINE. I sent her a tiny care package in the spring of 2019 and she responded in kind with this enormous box full of goodies for both myself and my little guy. Thank you, T.! 

These are popular snacks for kids in Japan, T. said.

I'll start with these chocolate and vanilla biscuits. They were pretty good. Hubby and I gave them to our little guy as after school snacks and he happily ate them all up.

These Morinaga Vegetable crackers tasted like senbei ^.^ My little liked it too, because he likes senbei.

The rest of these goodies were intended for me ^.^ T. even put sticky notes with little tidbits on each item.

These Lotte Rummy, or chocolate with liqueurs in general, were getting popular in Tokyo, T. said. I tried these and wanted to like them but in the end they weren't my favorite. The alcoholic taste was a tad too strong for me and it made the chocolate a touch bitter.

These dried guava slices T. picked up for me when she was visiting Taipei. They were yummy!

T. included these rice crackers that set off a craze for me throughout the summer of 2020. I just couldn't get enough rice crackers and scoured many online stores for them! The ones T. sent in particular made me so nostalgic for the two years hubby and I spent in Yokohama, because this was the exact brand I used to hoard in our tiny, tiny, 250 square-feet apartment (I kid you not!). I loved the variety and I still do. I wish these were available here :(

Out of the ten different varieties in each little packet, my favorites were the norimaki (the long senbei with a strip of nori in the middle) and the round red ball with bits of nori and a peanut inside! The tiny candied fish was my least favorite. It was a tad too fishy for my taste.

This Morinaga Caramel Houjicha was from a Taiwanese friend who was visiting. Another nostalgic item for me as I used to eat these when hubby and I were still living in Yokohama. I especially loved the salted caramel flavor. Yummy!

Found these Meiji Horn in LE Coffee flavor at my local H-Mart. They were ok, surprisingly too sweet so I wasn't too fond of them. The coffee flavor was harsh and a touch bitter too.

 

The rest are local American snacks and candies. So Oreo does LE flavors here too, like this Latte Cream Oreo Thins. Went though a few packages of these before I got bored of them ^.^

Piece, Love & Chocolate was a gourmet chocolate shop in Boulder. Once upon a time when hubby was still going to his office in the morning, every now and then he'd stop by and get me a box of chocolate on his way home. 

Once upon a time, whenever I have errands to run in Boulder, I'd drop hubby off at his office in the morning and then camp out to write at this T & Cakes Cafe & Cakery, because they used to be right across the street from him ^.^ I'd stay for a few hours until lunchtime, then I go grab lunch with him, run my errands, and head home. While there I'd get myself a mini cupcake and a cup of tea. It was a quaint little shop and was rarely crowded, so I had the place to myself most of the time. It was a bonus that their cakes were pretty decent as well, nothing like French patisserie but was still much less sweet than the vast majority of "American-made" cakes. Too bad the place closed down in the fall of 2019, before the pandemic hit :( The rent in Boulder was and still is driving out many local businesses which is so frustrating to watch.

This is not really a "snack" but more like a only-in-America gag item: organic Maple Water, by Drink Simple (brought to you by who else but Whole Foods?). Not sure what it is or why it's better than your good ol' water, but it was so absurd hubby and I just had to buy one to try. It tasted like, well, water with a faint fragrance of maple. Yeah.

Another gag item from our local supermarket: Driscoll's Limited Edition [monster] Blueberries, available around Halloween time to boot! It was a bit freaky how gigantic these blueberries were.

I bought these Harry & David Holiday Assortment Cocoa Mix because I wanted those tins ^.^ The hot cocoas themselves were ok, nothing special, a tad too sweet to be honest, but the tins were adorable.

The most perfect tea tins!

Finally, my guilty pleasure: Cheetos Crunchy Flamin' Hot Limon. I go through phases where I'd eat bag after bag of this stuff, then stop for months and months, and back to craving them.

This is all for now, but there's already another Snack Time post filling up slowly in the Draft folder ^.^"

 

See my previous posts:

- Snack Time

- Snack Time Part II