Pocky for Men?

May 8, 2002 4:46 PM

Pocky for Men? Mmmm, Pocky, I love you. But a flavor for men only? I don't like bitter chocolate! This is my favorite flavor. It reminds me of Crunch Berries. Mmmm...Crunch Berries. Just because I like a hot pink candy stick doesn't make me any less of a man, does it? Perhaps this is some sort of snack food cultural barrier that needs to be addressed. I admit, I don't get the green tea 'mousse' style Pocky, but to each his own, eh? Let's hear it for Pocky!
posted by WolfDaddy (18 comments total)

There's genius here somewhere. There must be.
posted by mikhail at 5:00 PM on May 8, 2002

As long as there's No Pocky For Kitty.
posted by LionIndex at 5:13 PM on May 8, 2002

I prefer the Fran...It's like crack! I buy 5 packs at a time!!
posted by black8 at 5:13 PM on May 8, 2002

i think i may have found my kindred spirit in you, black8...except i just buy lots of the super-size boxes of Fran (or Pocky...usually the one in the shinier box).
posted by Spinderella56 at 5:20 PM on May 8, 2002

never had the green tea one, but the regular chocolate mousse flavor is one of the best things this mouth has ever tasted.
posted by cody at 5:20 PM on May 8, 2002

Cody, I have had the green tea flavor, and truth to tell, I think I'd rather munch a batch of real tea leaves.

However, like most things Pocky, there's this wonderful aftertaste 30 seconds after eating the green tea flavored ones that almost ... almost ... is worth the initial strange flavor.

mikhail, you are surrounded by genius. Surrender.
posted by WolfDaddy at 5:24 PM on May 8, 2002

How about a little Pocky history?
posted by donovan at 5:27 PM on May 8, 2002

Are those green tea leaves in your pocky or are you just glad to see me?

I love the comment (donovan's link) that Japanese are scandalized by the name of the black market pocky - it's called Chocky. And I had no idea what pocky was until 5 minutes ago. I love learning about this stuff.
posted by iconomy at 5:50 PM on May 8, 2002

My favourite is larb.
(About halfway down the page, above the line, and yes, that's spelled correctly)
posted by sauril at 5:57 PM on May 8, 2002

Since when is Men's Pocky strange? I have some sitting on the shelf right now, actually... but of course, it's not as good as plain ol' regular red box chocolate Pocky. ^_^
posted by SenshiNeko at 6:59 PM on May 8, 2002

Am I the only one who actually likes Men's Pocky, then? Of course, my preferred chocolate bar is the Lindt 70% cocoa bar... mmm. First time you have one, it tastes like baking chocolate, but you'll never go back to Hershey's.
posted by darukaru at 7:21 PM on May 8, 2002

Lindt makes a bar with an even higher percentage cocoa (85%, IIRC). Mmmmmmm.

Hershey's is shit. It's not even remotely like chocolate.
posted by five fresh fish at 7:33 PM on May 8, 2002

I used to think Men's Pocky were just bigger and thicker than the regular red boxed chocolate Pocky. I don't think I'd like to try the bitter chocolate. Although, I have to admit the strawberry flavor is my personal favorite.
posted by raks at 7:39 PM on May 8, 2002

Men's Pocky are not really bitter. Quite good. I'm eating them now. When my brother came home from Japan for a visit around the holidays, he brought me about 20 different packs of Pocky. I've been rationing them ever since.

Hello, I'm jewishbuddha, and I'm a pocky addict (warning: self-link)

The Mousse Pocky come in chocolate, white, and strawberry, in addition to the Green Tea WolfDaddy mentioned. Personally, I think the regular strawberry are better than the mousse ones though. You can find a sampling of other available flavors on the Glico Pocky page. (links in Japanese, but you can see the flavors on the packages).

Green Tea is pretty good though. I got a variety pack of 7 flavors of Giant Pocky (about 1/4 inch thick, 1 foot long) with Green Tea, Blue Apple, Grape, Orange, Custard, Chocolate, and Raspberry. Yum.

There was an online gallery of pocky packages, showing an enormous varieyty of flavors, but it seems to be down, and the Google cache doesn't have pics. oh well.
posted by jewishbuddha at 9:45 PM on May 8, 2002

Inconspicuous Consumption (Here's the archives) addressed the puzzle of Pocky For Men (and gender branding in general) about a year ago.

As for the product itself, it tastes pretty much the same as any other pocky I've tried, and it certainly doesn't look very masculine -- the long, thin sticks are too skinny to even be considered phallic.
posted by anastasiav at 10:54 PM on May 8, 2002

What the...?

You have Pocky overseas? I never thought that name would travel...*

I always thought the green tea pocky was just a Kyoto souvenir kind of thing, kitschy. They sell it in giant packs in tourist shopping areas, next to the Audrey Hepburn T-shirts (mondo weirdo). You really have Pocky??!! Do you have chocolate Collon, the snack that looks just like it sounds?

*My wife is a Kyoto native, and every day she passed near the Nintendo headquarters on her way to elementary and high school. Nintendo started as a playing card maker. She said she always thought they would never make it overseas with that name.
posted by planetkyoto at 5:03 AM on May 9, 2002

Men's Pocky is good stuff.

And yeah, we can get Collon here too... Asian grocery stores are pretty common in a lot of communities in the States.

I have a Black Black wrapper pinned to my cubicle wall, with the enigmatic "Yes... Chewing!" side facing the hallway. ;) Black Black is way better than Wrigley's.
posted by Foosnark at 9:17 AM on May 9, 2002

I adore Men's Pocky. I love telling my wife she cant have any.

Nothing better than a Pocky-fest while drunk in a Izakaya.

Sigh.... I miss Japan...if I could only land a job again there, I'd move back in a heartbeat.
posted by Dantien at 3:48 PM on May 10, 2002