A Review of New Things I've Tried #15 (Sweet Snacks Edition)

Happy New Year! I eat a lot of chocolate (you might have noticed!) but I don't eat chocolate exclusively when I'm in the mood for something sweet. I've tried a few other things recently, including (perish the thought) plain new-to-me fruits. I know you saw snacks yesterday but I have more snacks to show, so I'm putting them out in the world today.

1. Rainbow Mochi (Nuts.com)

Though you should always check the ingredient lists to be sure, mochi is usually incidentally vegan. It's a Japanese or Korean rice cake made of glutenous rice, so it has a gummy texture but no gelatin. I got it from Nuts.com through the usual mailing, but they did recommend refrigeration for it, and I had to eat it quickly (in about a week) so it wouldn't go bad. This was not a problem. These are fantastic. The colors are just for show here--they all taste alike--but I sometimes like things that are just for show, as you already know.

2. Opal Apples

Though I usually stick to the apples I know, for some reason I decided to give these local yellow ones a whirl. They're amazing! So crisp, and so juicy. They edge toward tart, but not tart like a Granny Smith. Just a gentle sort of tartness.

3. Pink Lemons

This may be less of a "snack" than a generic fruity treat, but in any case: I bought pink lemons. They came in my order from a restaurant supply company and I wanted to try them because I'd never actually encountered one before. I put them in my seltzer water instead of the usual lemon or lime for a bit. Pink lemons are like yellow lemons, except that they aren't as tart, and so somehow they taste more like lemons. This may not make any sense unless you've had one, except that the tartness of a lemon prevents you from tasting much of anything other than the sourness, usually. Dial down the tart flavor and you can taste the other things. I can't describe them as tasting like a grapefruit, because they don't exactly, but they are more akin to a grapefruit in how sweet they are than they are a lemon or a lime--definitely not an orange, but something you could maybe see yourself eating straight, rather than just squeezing juice from.