Glico Milk Chocolate Mikado
Mikado, the German version of Japan’s Pocky, and also made by Glico. You’ve probably never heard of these, and you’re perhaps wondering why. If there’s a European version of Pocky, officially made by the same guys who make Pocky, then why don’t we have it in Britain? Why do we have to import regular Pocky from Japan or Thailand? Read on.
This particular box comes from Germany and set me back £1.50, whereas Pocky can be had for half of that. This better be worth it…Anywho like I said this is made by Glico, based in Germany, so that’s good, no knock offs here.
The box retains a certain Japanese feel to it. The red circle on the front is like the red circle on the Japanese flag. Mikado is a Japanese sounding word, and “sticks mit feiner schokolade” is…well about as German as it gets, nearly fooled ya there.
The box opens at the top in typical Pocky fashion, and within is the foil packet we’ve come to know and love. Inside is 75g worth of lovely milk chocolate stick things. So what’s the difference? Well, it’s all about the chocolate and sticks themselves.
These are…delicious. Absolutely delicious, and they put regular Pocky to complete shame. The chocolate on here is really good, it tastes European and has a real flavour to it, as opposed to the tasteless, boring Pocky. The sticks themselves feel like they have a higher production value to them, and all in all these are a million times better than Pocky.
As a self confessed anime nerd and Japan lover I feel like I almost have to like Pocky, whereas I’ve never really been that fond of the original stuff. This though, I can fall in love with. Glico need to bring this stuff over here, and to America, so the geeks with their Pocky can see what it should really be like. Well worth having.
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January 6th, 2009 at 10:37 am
I love Pocky.
I want to eat Mikado someday.
January 6th, 2009 at 10:12 pm
Happy New Year, Terry! Keep up the fab blog!
January 7th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
Oh, these ‘are’ Pocky? I’ve had these a long time ago in Germany and thought they were quite nice but too expensive. The DeBeukelaer brand is well known in Germany but I never noticed the Glico name on there, probably as it didn’t mean anything to me – or did they not use it then?
I’ve just taken a look at Wikipedia to find out more about the term Mikado and to my surprise it is a proper Japanese word referring to the Emperor of Japan.
January 7th, 2009 at 10:57 pm
Crazy, I thought I knew all the Pocky flavors! I wonder what else Glico has out there.
March 9th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
Mikado has finally been localised and brought over to England. I got a 3 pack of 36g boxes at Tesco today for £1.99. Amazingly lovely stuff
April 27th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
these are available at tescos. currently on half price offer at 59p per box. i bought 2 boxes. absolutely delicious. going back to tescos to stock up on them.
May 6th, 2009 at 11:23 am
Just bought some myself but are you sure they’re ‘half price’? Tescos had them for 56p and I didn’t see any half price mention. £1.20 per box would be over the top…
August 3rd, 2009 at 7:49 pm
just bought a pack at Asda today, sold for 60p which is half price apparently, really good, though I’m not sure I’d pay the £1.20!!
December 12th, 2009 at 2:22 am
The half price thing was because they were the big boxes. 3x small (36g ea) is about £1.99.. (each small has a single pouch inside, whereas the large – and half price ones had two @ 59p)
I also agree that Mikado are very good.. The ‘Real’ Pocky have a darker tasting and waxier chocolate, probably due to a higher cocoa content.?. whereas Mikado are definitely more European / sweet and creamy chocolate. I also agree that the actual Pretzel sticks in Mikado seem of a much higher quality.
All in all, Mikado stack in IMHO very well against Pocky.
February 3rd, 2010 at 9:31 pm
It’s soo funny. I’m a huge fan of japanese sweets and I like pocky, too.
First time I saw pocky I thought: Man, that looks alot like the mikado I can get everywhere here. But I never thought it’s actually from the same producer XD. Frustrating, when you travel an hour with the train to get pocky, but only 10 minutes with the bike to get mikado.
Noticed it right now after looking at the mikado package I’m eating right now. Lovely dark-chocolate…. mhh