This was another find at the Mitsuwa Market in Chicago. This ao nori karinto is a much, much prettier version of the original karinto I first reviewed. I honestly didn’t know that there were more than one varieties of this deep fried snack. There is apparently a goma (sesame) version of karintou as well.
Although it wasn’t too hard to create a more visually appealing snack than the classic karinto, I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out ao nori karintou’s finer qualities. For starters; ao nori has an enticing spring green color coupled with a sparkling white sugar coating. Laid out on a plate, ao nori karintou looks like a mass of sugar coated green beans. So pretty…
The packaging, while not the most splashy or eye catching, is none the less effective since it was designed to showcase the karintou. This gimmick would definitely not work with the Classic. It did, however, work for me since I was enchanted by the idea of a deep fried seaweed flavored cookies and was completely sold on its appearance.
Although I looked for it, I couldn’t find anything about the company, Yoshinogawa, that produces this karintou. I don’t know if they’re affiliated with the Yoshinogawa folks who make sake, but they might, for all I know.
This karintou is similar in texture to the original karintou but not exactly. It’s slightly chewier and not as crispy. The seaweed flavor is moderate and makes the karintou taste clean for all that it’s a fried bit of gluten dough rolled in melted sugar. Aside from the nori flavor, there’s a marked after taste of donuts, albeit crispy donuts. Not an unwelcome taste at that.
Leave it the Japanese to use seaweed in new and inventive ways. I have to admit that I would never dream of tossing seaweed into a cookie, let alone dream it would taste so good!
This snack is very, very good. You’ll love it if you like nori and sugary snacks. Avoid it if you’re not willing to get addicted to a snack; karintou overall is just that tasty.
TEXTURE=
FLAVOR=
APPEARANCE=
PACKAGING=
Ao Nori Karintou’s average score is:
