Glico Pocky: Milk flavour

Product name: Glico Pocky: Milk flavour
Purchase details: £0.65 for a 25g box (Sida)
Calories: 120 per box
Country of origin: Thailand

I’ve heard of quite a few varieties of Pocky over the last year or so but have never been lucky enough to find any on sale – I’ve just had to stick to the UK’s Mikado re-branding! In the end, I managed to get this box of ‘biscuit sticks coated with milk flavour confectionery’ on my first ever visit to an oriental food store. I’m shocked that it took me so long to set foot in one (I just don’t normally pass them on foot!) but I’ll definitely be checking them out in future.

The box was a bit bashed on purchase but I liked the imagery of a white cloudy sky with illustrations of a cow, milk, and the biscuits. I was also pleased to see a more interesting foil wrapper on the inside, featuring the Glico logo, rather than being plain silver.

These biscuits had been imported by ASCO Foods Limited and had a delicious scent that was like a cross between white chocolate and vanilla ice cream. They were coated in quite a thin, creamy yellow coating and so it was possible to see the biscuit’s markings through this outer layer.

To try and familiarise myself with the flavour, I sucked the first piece of biscuit I tried and, to be honest, I wouldn’t recommend it! The coating was really waxy and didn’t melt at all. I resorted to rubbing at it with my tongue and it just had a weird, slimy feeling which wasn’t great. It didn’t really taste of much either!

Chewing was definitely the way to go. Initially, I thought the product tasted like dried banana chips which, whilst nice, wasn’t at all what I’d been expecting. However, a milkier element did come through in the aftertaste, and it was at this point that I realised how bland milk actually is! I love it to drink but using it as a flavour for something else just didn’t give the tastebuds much to get excited about.

Despite this, there was enough going on for me to still enjoy my first try of Pocky. The main flavour soon developed into the biscuit itself, rather than the coating, and whilst the product was only slightly sweet, I liked how this contrasted with an almost saltiness at times.

Texturally, the biscuits had a dull crunch, and the waxy nature of the coating wasn’t an issue when chewing.

I certainly wasn’t put off Glico Pocky with this Milk flavour variety and I’m hoping the only way is up as I, hopefully, discover some of the more exciting offerings available. This type did have the bonus of containing 3% calcium, although I found it strange that it was listed as an ingredient!

Appearance: 7/10
Aroma: 8.5/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 7/10
Overall score: 7.38/10