.FOOrD BLOrG. Wine Caramel anyone?

This little item is something that sounded so intriguing to me that it was the soul purpose of an order from Tokyo. Yea, I ordered other snackies but this was the starchild and then it sank to the bottom of my snack cabinet. Therefor it lay under a blanket of odd snackies like that scene in that animated film that takes place on the island of misfit toys. Sorta like that anyway, if they all were eventually eaten. Well, one mysterious evening (ok it wasn't quite mysterious I am trying to create a dramatic effect..) a brief nudge of the snack compartment (that has to be a debut in the word grouping department there) and the Hakodate Wine caramel was unearthed and plucked from its questionably delicious compadres and judged. Mouths in attendance that evening were veterans Sarah, Dave, and making his snacktastic debut Westin.So the thing about these candies is that they are made with 1% Hakodate wine which is simply wine from Hokkaido. So I figured they would be dark caramels with deep lush red wine flavors. Where our mouths would be challenged to wade in the luscious mystery of its hypnotic confection. Yep, I was wrong. Expected a bit much? Yea, let us see how wrong I was:

Sarah- It tastes like grape bubbalicious.

Westin-A hint of banana, it has a grape nose and chalky umami. (Yeah, look at the pro!)

Dave-I get wine soda from City Works. Wait, it tastes like an old starburst...a touch of banana and aged Laffy Taffy.

Dirk-Oh, this is just a crappy Now and Later.

EPIC!.....Sadly no. Not hardly, part of this feels like I really expected too much and the other part of me thinks that the 'promise' or experience I was expecting is due to the wording. Wine candy is barely what we got Not even close to a wine caramel. Candy is often intended for kids palletes and there for is not often designed with layers of flavors and nuances but WINE sure is so by combining caramel, a word for me that is intense, deep, and sugary, with wine which is aged and delicate: I came up with quite unfair expectations for this snack. Is it bad? Well, lets just say not as bad as it could be. Did it deliver? Lets just say, this is a wine caramel as much as the experience of eating a Caramelo and drinking Gato Negro. Yeah, I don't want that experience either. TAA-TAA!
(oh good, there are leftovers...)