This is the UHA Mikakutō Puccho Ball. It contained four flavours: cola, soda, mikan soda, and grape soda.
Each flavour featured a sour powder coating that dissolved with an effervescent sensation and a Japanese soda-like flavour. After hydration, it introduced a somewhat unsettling fizzy texture, delivering a salivating sourness that lingered before gradually yielding to a hard candy coating with the expected flavour. The hard candy shell was quite substantial, measuring approximately 2mm in thickness, providing a crunchy texture if bitten into rather than allowed to dissolve. Within, there resided a chewy core with the promised flavour. In each variety, the sour sherbet coating contrasted with the sweetness of the hard candy shell, while the chewy core reintroduced a touch of acidity—albeit less intense than the sherbet coating—while also conveying the essence of the respective soft drink flavour.
- Cola (left): A brown hue, boasting a recognizable cola flavour with subtle lemon hints accentuated by the effervescent sherbet.
- Soda (top): Featuring a blue hue, it offered a faint ginger ale-like soda flavour, complemented by a more pronounced lemony acidity within the chewy center.
- Mikan Cider (right): Displaying an orange hue, it delivered a sweet and citrusy mikan flavour that distinctly resembled mikan, without the heightened acidity and zestiness typically found in regular oranges.
- Grape Soda (bottom): With a purple hue, its grape flavour resembled that of sweet and juicy red grapes, offering a naturally fruity grape taste.
In general, we didn’t particularly favor the sherbet coating, but we did appreciate the authentic flavours reminiscent of the soft drinks they were intended to replicate. We would have enjoyed these more without the sherbet coating.
This UHA Mikakutō Puccho Ball contained 50 g. It was produced in Japan and purchased in Sydney, Australia in 2023.