Yataiman Gyoza Dumpling DIY Kit

Hello and welcome to the first review of Japanese candy which are received through the subcription service Candy Japan. This review is not affiliated with Candy Japan. The subscription is wholly paid by the reviewer. Candy Japan is a subscription based service where candy is sent twice per month for $24 and the amount of candy received can vary depending on the size of the candy and amount per unit.

And before we start I would like to apologies if this review is very "Stream-of-conscientious"ness. I also call the banana and milk flavoured candy for "pastry" as I am not sure what it really is.

For this review we shall look at the Yataiman Gyoza Dumpling DIY Kit.

From Candy Japanese webpage:
"Candy version of an actual food called "gyoza", quite popular in Japan and originating from China. The real gyoza is meat or vegetables wrapped in a small shell-shaped dough cover. This candy version consists of banana flavored dough-like candy with small chocolates and jelly bean -like candies to put inside the "dough". As a bonus, with this set you can also make another Chinese food called "shumai"."

When opening this package you will the different items that it comes with.

It contains one big box with a smaller detachable box, one bag of grape flavoured jelly beans, one bag of chocolate sprinkles and three bags of "pastry" where two are flavoured banana and one is sweet milk.

With these DIY kits you have to assemble they candy itself following the instructions provided.

As common with these DIY kits you are attempting to make the finished product look like the item the candy is emulating. The difficult, or rather how many steps you have to go through to make the candy, varies and this kit is one of the simpler ones requiring only 5 steps.

And here is my attempt to make the two different candies, starting with the dumpling.
The "pastry" is placed in the middles and pressed out to the side to make it into a round shape.

Once it has reached the desired radius you feel it with the chocolate sprinkles and fold over the "pastry" making an enclosed dumpling.

Your end result may vary.

The Shumai follows the same proceeding as the dumpling, however this time you will use the jelly beans for filling. You place as many as you dare into te pocket you have made as seen in the picture and plac eone last in the opening as shown at the bottom

 Again your end result may vary.

Now to the flavours.

The jelly beans comes in several colours, light pink, dark pink bordering on purple and green. The smell and flavouring is a fairly common candy grape taste which is also slightly bitter after taste.

Surprisingly the chocolate sprinkles have a chocolate cookie scent to them with a bit strong flavour. It is reminiscent of a chocolate bar which was sent by Candy Japan earlier this winter. It has a very smooth
flavouring and feels cream when melting in your mouth.

The main building tool comes, as mentioned earlier, in two different flavours where you get two of the banana flavoured and one of the milk flavoured. The banana flavoured "pastry" have a strong scent of banana and taste quite delicous. Combined with the chocolate it is a bit like a inverted chocolate banana and should go well for anyone who likes the combination of chocolate and banana.

I must admit that neither the candy grape nor the milk flavoured candy have ever been of my liking, so i found the milk flavoured "pastry" was similar tasting to other milk based candies and mixed with the jelly beans was a very strong mixtures of flavours I personally am not very fond of. However if you like both the flavours this might give you a very surprising experience.

All in all the package was interesting and one of the simpler of the Meijin DIY kits. The candies by themselves are very good and quite edible separately. When combined they come together in your mouth creating a very good sensation. However due to the flavour of the the candies combined are readily available already in the form of chocolate bananas it might just be easier to go to the local store and purchase that. 

please leave comments with suggestion on how to better the reviews.