Aficionado Intelligence Report - 10

 

The unrelenting pressure on Glico could only lead to one result: The safe return of Wasabi Pretz.  But in a valiant effort to save face, they simply could not just return the original Wasabi Pretz to the shelves. They had to make them Edamame Wasabi Pretz - a new product. 

Nice move! Either way, it's OK. We'll ask no further questions...and we'll just "let it be" as they say.

The edamame version are just as good if not better than the plain wasabi. Although the words plain and wasabi should rarely used together.  These are sure to disappear shortly after opening them. 

The company also thought they could casually reintroduce them to the store shelves by hiding them next to the wildly popular Mentai めんたい Pretz (spicy cod roe, with a hint of yuzu flavor) and nobody would notice, like it's been there forever. But our Aficionado operatives are highly trained, astute observers, and it did not fool them for a microsecond.  But they did fall for that marketing trick and picked up a pack of the mentai Pretz too (what Google spell check? you don't recognize mentai??).

Nearly six months after their disappearance was first reported, we welcome you back with open arms, and mouths.  Please be here to stay this time -  no "limited edition" marketing ploys. That's for cars and Franklin Mint late night infomercial coins, not pretzels.



Quick administrative note: the latest version of the Yokosuka Ichiban guidebook is out and you can find some more info about it on the Quick Notes page.

* Aficionado Intelligence Reporting (AIR) was conceived of grey bearded men, through brilliant thought, in a small Izakaya on the backstreets of Yokosuka. AIR reports on little known but exceptional (or maybe just really good) dining spots or interesting food developments and relies on highly untrained observers making random observations and developing conclusions through sometimes single data point regression statistical analysis.

Any conclusions from its reporting are final.