Wacky Snacks: Bourbon Kikori No Kiri Kabu

Edwin Goei

Name: Bourbon Kikori No Kiri Kabu

Origin: Japan

Found at: Freshia, Tustin

Cost: $2.49

Ingredients:

Sugar, Wheat Flour, Milk Powder, Cacao Mass, Shortening, Palm Oil, Cocoa Butter, Lactose, Wheat Meal, Wheat Germ, Lactose, Wheat Bran, Creaming Powder (Milk, Cream, Lactose, Butter), Honey, Salt, Emulsifier (soy), Leavening, Artificial Flavor.

Edwin Goei

Why I Bought It:
A lumberjack, smoking a pipe, sits proudly on a stump, surrounded by a forest felled by his ax, while a cute, pink bunny rabbit scurries away in terror. And it's all on a box of cookies for kids! Hey kids! How's about some tree stump cookies to commemorate deforestation?!

Since I cannot read Japanese, I could be interpreting this wrong. There could be some pro-environment message hidden in the script warning of overdevelopment and preaching conservation (anyone care to translate?). But I doubt it. Still I'd love to hear the story behind this cookie. Seriously, anybody?

In any case, not a snack I'd see a Greenpeace mom buying for her child's sack lunch, you know? Or is it? Methinks any kid would identify more with the bunny than with the lumberjack. So maybe it would be interesting to see how one would react to the cartoon.

I am, however, secretly hoping they've made a companion cookie box with a hunter smoking a cigar, a rifle at his side. In the background, you see Bambi weeping.

Edwin Goei

Tasting Notes:
Besides the cartoon, there is much to enjoy inside the box. These are wonderful cookies with crunch similar to graham crackers complete with tree rings and dipped in chocolate that's supposed to represent the bark. The aftertaste is pleasantly milky and malty. The flavor and attention to detail is as impressive as the cartoon is hilariously confusing.