The Jungle Stand Tasting Bar ~ June 2013

If you are new to The Jungle Stand, please see my introduction post here.

The theme for this month's The Jungle Stand is Welcome to Taiwan!

The postcard above says to dust off my passport, because I'm going to take a trip around the world!

The first stop is Taiwan! This leads me to believe that upcoming boxes will be featuring other countries!

I'm not very familiar with Taiwan, but the postcard says, that Taiwan is a culture blended from Chinese and Japanese, with influences from the west.


Okay, here we go!

Green ~ Sachima 

A caramel treat resembling uncooked, instant thick noodles. A light fare, this is a common Chinese pastry found in many Chinese speaking regions, including Taiwan. It consists mainly of flour, butter & sugar. A fun taste because the texture is crunchy, then chewy.

This was okay. It smelled like donuts, and tasted like a French Cruller. The texture was chewy, the flavor was light, and not overly sweet.

Yellow ~ Rice Cracker

This taste is influenced by the Japanese. The rice cracker is a dry wafer made of rice. Taiwan's interpretation dusts sugar all around, adding a sweetness.

This sounds good in theory, but really wasn't. The rice cracker was very crunchy, with a salty, soy sauce like taste, and a sweet after taste. Blah!

Pink ~ Sesame Pastry

This sesame flavored pastry also has a crunchy & chewy texture. When you bite into it, you'll think the middle is hollow. Although this delicacy looks quite ordinary, the process of giving it a dual texture is quite complicated.

The flavor of this taste, again, was okay. However, the texture in the center, throws you for a loop. The sesame pastry is chewy, sweet & very strong in sesame flavor . The flavor of this taste is identical to the Mrs. May's Sesame Strips, I posted about here .

Red ~ Squid

This is a dry, shredded squid. It's like beef jerky, minus the beef, add the squid. Extremely popular in Taiwan and throughout Asia.

Let me start off by saying.....I HATE seafood, so as you can imagine this did not go over well with me. I literally had to stop myself from gagging, not only from the smell, but the taste. Absolutely disgusting!!  

The Jungle Stand suggests that suck on the squid, revealing a hint of sweetness. I did this, and it does have a sweet taste.

 Blue ~ Pumpkin Cake

Made from Chinese Pumpkins, which are a bit different from it's American counterpart. If you're unfamiliar with the Chinese version, smell the cake. This delectable is topped with seaweed, which will be the first flavor to hit you. Very nice balance of saltiness & sweetness. Best taste in the bar.

Okay....this would be edible without the seaweed! Why does Taiwan have to ruin a perfectly good taste with seaweed (Just kidding,lol). Yuck! This taste is nothing like what you think the texture, of pumpkin cake should be. It's very crunchy and crumbly.  This taste reminds me of the crunchy outside of a sugared pecan or almond, but completely ruined with the flavor of seaweed. Again, yuck.... I couldn't even finish it.

Orange ~ Peanut Brittle

There are many subtle variations and names for this peanut confection. But no matter the variety, they're always bite-sized and hard. Made from a mixture of peanuts & sugar, which is then heated to a thick state & cut into small pieces after cooling.

This was my favorite taste in the bar! Yum! The texture of this taste, was like peanuts that were ground up (with sugar) into little bits and pressed together into a log shape. Tasty, but very hard.

 

Honestly, I almost "paused" The Jungle Stand after tasting this box. Well, actually I did pause.  Then, I was contacted by Jackie at This Jungle Stand asking why I paused. I explained to her, how I absolutely hated this box, but it was because of personal preference, and not because of anything they did wrong. After giving it some more thought, I resubscribed. I'm going to give The Jungle Stand another chance, since the brownie brittle was so awesome last month!

Please come back and see what tastes I get from The Jungle Stand next month!