Many moons ago, I tried many snacks in Mexico City, Mexico and failed to document basically all of them. One of my favorites was a spicy watermelon candy. I *thought* this one was lost to the sands of time, but I found a note on my phone from 2018 referencing Skwinklote. Whether this was *the* original snack I had that I loved so much, or a close copy I bought at Rocket Fizz (Seattle, WA) at some point, it clearly was worth bookmarking.

What the product image doesn’t show you (and what I missed in the product description) is that one of the flavors on this is honey. I was expecting a particularly buttery chip and got something that was…fairly sweet. Not for me!

These are good! They’re the texture of ramune candies, in a spherical format. There’s little crunchy bits of strawberry flavor. Probably my favorite out of the different ramune candies I was trying out from this Japan Candy Store order; would buy again.

I…didn’t realize quite how massive a bag of these I was purchasing. These are individually-wrapped, larger-size ramune candies in an original Ramune soda flavor. Despite being made by Kasugai (who makes my favorite ramune candies), these weren’t my favorite of the bunch I tried. These candies are a little stiffer and don’t melt in your mouth as well, which is what I love about ramune candies in the first place. The flavor is also a little eh, nothing to write home about.

AFAICT, Calbee is *the* potato chip brand of Japan. Their stuff is everywhere and fairly easy to find here in a major U.S. city (Seattle), though various flavors may not be equally available. I couldn’t resist trying out this consomme broth flavor, presented in a Pringles-like tube format. Calbee’s tube chips, for lack of a better term, are a bit stiffer, flatter, and rounder than their Pringles cousins. This flavor was pretty tasty, with a respectable amount of flavor dust. Had these been made in America, there probably would be a heavier hand with the flavoring. Would buy again.

Jelly beans aren’t one of my favorite candy formats, but I was interested in trying out the tropical flavors. The texture on these was a little on the stiffer side; whether that was age, temperature, or intentional, I am unsure. In any case, the flavors were indeed tasty and I ate this bag faster than I care to admit, but not sure I would seek these out again. There are so many other candies in the world!

Pretty tasty, I enjoy the strawberry and grape flavors. A little bit more of sandy texture, so not top of the class for ramune candies. The mouse character seems to belong to Lucy Cousins, an English children’s lit writer.

On my second and as-of-yet last trip to Japan in 2019, I attempted to find my beloved Kasugai Ramune candy again but was unsuccessful. This fruit-flavored variety pack by Abeseika is a great replacement, though. The tablets come in melon, strawberry, lemon, grape, and orange, and you can rip each flavor off the strip as its own little packet. This is great for PACING ONESELF and making the candies you have stockpiled in Japan last longer when coming back home.

I’ve looked for these in a Daiso in Seattle, WA recently, and though they were out of stock, according to the salesclerk it sounds like they do generally carry Ramune candies.

These little tablets are my white whale, my accidental entry into a deep love for Ramune-style candy. For my fellow Americans, these are basically Smarties—powder compressed into tablets. Unlike Smarties, which are pretty hard, these will dissolve in your mouth. I suppose that fizziness is what makes them “Ramune” candy, in that they (gently) fizz like soda. I say “gentle” because these are definitely not Poprocks, the dissolution is much more subtle.

I have not found the Kasugai fruit Ramune candies anywhere in stock, since I first picked them up on a whim in a Japanese grocery store. I had a sinking suspicion that this particular line is discontinued, but they ended up restocking these on Japan Candy Store for a hot minute.