The Japanese do a lot of things well. Candy is one of them, and put these NOBEL Otoko Ume Sour Plum Hard candy on the list.

If you really like salty sour then you will adore these. If you say you like salty and sour, and you try these and don’t like them, then take yourself off that list. These aren’t a novelty, these are a unique treat for those of us that like flavor bombing.

Plum flavored for sure. At least I think it’s plum… it’s a sour sweet – and like 10x more sour than sweet. It’s the same flavor as the dried plums that you’d probably run away from in the Asian candy sections. “Umeboshi” is what you call those. (Visit the link to see some pics.)

These little confections look simple enough. The size of a cough drop, and nothing in the center. Just straight-up hard candy. According to an app a friend has, these NOBEL candies have only 16 calories and 4g of carbs. Not a lot. Eat up, dieters.

But there is a strange thing with these that gives me pause…

I had 2 candies.

I opened one of the little packages way before I ate it, like 4 days, to take a pic of it. I had another still wrapped. The one that was unwrapped was still in its packaging, wrapped loosely in my backpack. When I went to eat it, it was sticky and liquidy. Like it was oozing its insides. “Oh,” so I thought, “these have a liquid center and it must have been kicked around a bit in my backpack. ” So I threw it out, it was super sticky and getting everywhere. I went to eat the one I just unpackaged, and it wasn’t sticky at all. Just like any other hard candy. And as I sucked and then eventually bit into it… no ooze either. No liquid center. Hard throughout. So… what exactly went on chemically with this little candy that it started to ooze itself once it hit the air?

#FreakingMeOutAlittle
#ButIstillAteIt

I wish I took a picture first so you all could see what I”m talking about but alas I didn’t realize it would matter until too late.

Another thing to keep in mind is these make you loud-slurp-suck because of the salt and sour. You kinda gotta suck some air in with the candy to give it some breathing room; too overbearing otherwise. Are you a loud eater by default? These won’t help your cause.

Also, colleague and friend Steve who went to Japan recently and got these, said that the name translates to “man plums.”

I’m not sure whether to giggle or grimace.

Still, I’m buying a whole package from the Amazon marketplace internet site everyone talks about. Link below.