Mammos Cola Candy

Apologies for the late update. I’ve been quite busy lately, what with my university, my own writing, and numerous other things. The next week is pretty hectic, though I will try and keep the updates as frequent as possible.

Another first this time, with these hard ‘cola candy’ (콜라 캔디) from Mammos. The name is literally just ‘cola candy’ in Korean, which looks something like ‘korra kaendi’ when transliterated. It’s ugly, but it is what it is.

I experienced some kind of tragic enthusiasm when first opening these, as they satisfied a condition that many western snacks do not – at least not anymore. The foil bag in which they came was filled to the brim with individually wrapped candies. As many western readers will tell you, empty space or air seems to be half the contents in many snacks. The bag gets bigger, the contents get smaller. But not here my friends. The bag is loaded, and you get more than you could expect.

Another annoying trend that has been successfully avoided is the ‘clumping’ these kinds of sweets. Remember Campino? Do they even sell them anymore? Anyway, the problem they suffered, along with many other brands, is that they were loosely piled into the bag with no individual wrappers. If you stored them incorrectly, or you kept them in the bag for too long; hell, even for no reason AT ALL – they would clump together in one huge hard chunk, which necessitated you then chisel them apart with an ice pick or sledgehammer. Cola Candy? No sir, none of that here. Each candy is individually wrapped, again in foil, which guarantees no clumping, and keeps each piece super fresh.

Aside from actual cola, the drink I mean, I’ve personally found cola-flavoured products have for the most part fallen short of the real taste. My personal theory is that cola is a carbonated drink, and so emulating the sensation it produces on the tongue when drunk is quite difficult – probably even impossible to pull off correctly. These candies don’t have the ‘tongue fizzling’ quality to them. Bad for those who desire genuine flavour, though fairly inconsequential to those who just want to eat something tasty.

They’re small, perhaps the size of those chewable vitamins, so you can even stick two or three into your mouth at once (if you’re into that kind of thing). This is definitely a product for the car or workstation – maybe even to put into your school or university bag. They’ll last a long time, so you can dip into them every now and again when you fancy something small and flavoursome.

As a corollary, ever since I gave up smoking candies like this have been a godsend. That oral fixation never quite goes away, so hard candies, chewing gum – even coffee, tea, and flavoured drinks have served as good distractions.

One more thing: my girlfriend claims to have never seen these in Korea before. I did a Google search (in Korean) and the exact brand pictured turned out to be quite uncommon. Maybe they’re new, or perhaps just not widely circulated. Who knows…