I love it when I experience something new, cause it’s rare.  Even if I don’t like it, I enjoy being exposed to it, unless the “something new” in question involves more pictures taken with the Hipstamatic iPhone app.  Especially if they’re photos of your great time at Burning Man.  We believe you, it was awesome.

A few months ago, I went back to the Asian mecca of Genki.  The little crepe place/mini market that holds the secrets to many new and different Asian candies-and delicious salty snacks too, let’s not forget about those.  And illegal toys based on movies, those are sweet.  On a whim, I bought these 2 bags, probably because of the insane colors.  They just looked fun.

Delightful, right?  Each bag has 2 flavors in it.  On the left, we have orange and lemon.  On the right, grape and the ever-present Asian “Tutti-Frutti”.

Here’s where this gets fun.  Everyone’s tried Hi Chew candies, right?  We reviewed them a LONG time ago, and perhaps were a bit too harsh.  Hey, I was young!  Hi Chew, while not being other-worldy, certainly have good flavors.  These are very similar to those in every way.  Except…these have…STUFF inside them!  First, check out the lemon/orange:

On the left, you’re looking at the lemon.  Inside is another level of flavoring, no big deal.  On the right however…if you look close, you’ll see that there’s actually a totally different piece of candy in there, with a different consistency.  It’s a sphere shaped gummy : the eyeball, as Jonny Jr. puts it.  You can see it better here:

On the left is the grape.  Bottom left, you can see the grape gummy ball (actually more like 2) just waiting to bust out of the main chew.  On the right, they step it up a notch: that little square is a fizzy tutti frutti little bomb of flavor.

What happens is that you start chewing these guys, and the taste and feel is quite similar to that of a Hi-Chew.  However, after you chew for a bit, either a gummy ball ends up releasing from the confines of the chew, giving you two different things to chew on, or a fizzy little square starts to go off in your mouth, or both, or neither.  See, it’s that kind of lack of organization that I find enticing.  It’s a gamble!  You never know what the eyeball candy will hold for you, yet you persevere.

As well you should-these are very good.  Damn good if I do say so.  My favorites are the orange and grape, but all of the flavors are good.Kids can’t get enough of them, so it’s a slam dunk if it’s your weekend with the kids and you didn’t take them anywhere fun last time you had custody.  I like these myself though, because they’re weird.  And new.  And actually good.

It strikes me that there’s no way in hell any American candy company would ever make these.  I like the fact that the Japanese have a larger appetite for the bizarre, it keeps things fresh.  I definitely recommend picking up a few bags-and if you have to decide on only one, get the grape and tutti frutti.  When the eyeballs pop out of the candy, and you begin to chew both (it’s impossible for the eyeball to simply become part of the main chew-trust me, I experimented.) turn to your kid if you have one, or if not, some random kid, and say, chewing, “…Oh yeah….I got the eyeball”.  Then give a knowing wink.  He/she might run away, but at least you’ll be eating eyeball candy.