Macrobiotic Vegetable & Herb Cookies - Purple Sweet Potato, Gobo, Carrot, Pumpkin and Yomogi (Japanese Mugwort) Cookies
Remember these wild vegetable and herb cookies? I have finally laid my hands on them!! From the packaging, they appear to be macrobiotic cookies.
And the cookies up-close...
So from the purple one at the bottom upwards, the flavours are: purple sweet potato, gobo (or gobō/gobou), carrot, pumpkin and yomogi.
The general review is that they were all good! Not too sweet, and very natural-tasting. You can actually taste the various vegetable flavours with varying intensities depending on the flavour. Maybe because of the marketing, or how unusual and wholesome-sounding the ingredients were, I did feel healthier eating them!
Carrot Cookies
Let's start with the most subtly flavoured. This was very mild. I could taste a faint sweet and buttery carrot taste, but otherwise it was mostly the wheat flavour that dominated. Carrot powder was used too, so it's not like you can see or feel carrot chunks in this one.
This was the least impressive. Nonetheless, the carrot flavour was definitely there. And I like that it wasn't too sweet, with most of the sweetness coming from the carrot. So I still liked it!
Gobo Cookies (Ginseng Cookies?)
I may have made a mistake the last time though... I think... the gobo-flavoured cookie may not be burdock, but a type of herb. I googled it, and apparently there're two varieties referred to as "gobo" in Japanese. One was burdock, as I mentioned. But the cookie didn't taste like burdock at all. In fact, it tasted like ginseng!
If so, I guess it's the other translation of gobo - a herb called "Cirsium dipsacolepis", whatever that is. There wasn't any other herb or vegetable on the ingredients list, though, so perhaps gobo is a type of ginseng? Or a similar herb to it at least.
Overall, it was very pleasant. The ginseng flavour was strong... like ginseng soup. The strongest-flavoured of the cookies I think. I've certainly never tried a herb-flavoured cookie before. It was interesting to be munching on herbal soup-in-a-cookie.
Also, the gobo bits were more coarsely chopped, and bits of pecan nuts were also added, so this one had nice bits of veggie that I could chew. You can see this effect in the darker brown specs. In that respect, it was the most different from the other flavours.
Yomogi Cookies (Japanese Mugwort Cookies)
These were the dark green ones. It had an earthy grassy taste... reminded me of wheatgrass. Very nice when combined with the wheaty flavour of the cookie! And once again, the herbal, earthy taste made for a very refreshing cookie experience.
Purple Sweet Potato Cookies (Murasaki-imo Cookies)
This one really tasted like sweet potato chips. The sweet potato flavour was very strong, but not as strong as the ginseng flavour. Just imagine sweet potato chips with some baked wheaty flavour.
It wasn't too sweet, though, so I liked that the sweet potato flavour was brought out without any sugar to detract from it.
Pumpkin Cookies
This was one of my favourites in a comfort food way. The pumpkin flavour was obvious, with its sweet and buttery flavour. But I would say not as strong as the sweet potato cookies. If you were eating something with a stronger flavour, you might not notice the pumpkin taste.
Each packet came with just 14 of those small squares... too bad they don't sell them with more pieces. I really liked all of them for different reasons... so I can't pick an overall favourite. But over the past few days, I have been savouring them slowly, having one piece of each flavour daily. ^_^
If you go to any supermarket in a mall in the Osaka and Kyoto region, be sure to get this. Just show the staff the picture, and if they have it, they'll find it for you.
The general review is that they were all good! Not too sweet, and very natural-tasting. You can actually taste the various vegetable flavours with varying intensities depending on the flavour. Maybe because of the marketing, or how unusual and wholesome-sounding the ingredients were, I did feel healthier eating them!
Carrot Cookies
Let's start with the most subtly flavoured. This was very mild. I could taste a faint sweet and buttery carrot taste, but otherwise it was mostly the wheat flavour that dominated. Carrot powder was used too, so it's not like you can see or feel carrot chunks in this one.
This was the least impressive. Nonetheless, the carrot flavour was definitely there. And I like that it wasn't too sweet, with most of the sweetness coming from the carrot. So I still liked it!
Gobo Cookies (Ginseng Cookies?)
I may have made a mistake the last time though... I think... the gobo-flavoured cookie may not be burdock, but a type of herb. I googled it, and apparently there're two varieties referred to as "gobo" in Japanese. One was burdock, as I mentioned. But the cookie didn't taste like burdock at all. In fact, it tasted like ginseng!
If so, I guess it's the other translation of gobo - a herb called "Cirsium dipsacolepis", whatever that is. There wasn't any other herb or vegetable on the ingredients list, though, so perhaps gobo is a type of ginseng? Or a similar herb to it at least.
Overall, it was very pleasant. The ginseng flavour was strong... like ginseng soup. The strongest-flavoured of the cookies I think. I've certainly never tried a herb-flavoured cookie before. It was interesting to be munching on herbal soup-in-a-cookie.
Also, the gobo bits were more coarsely chopped, and bits of pecan nuts were also added, so this one had nice bits of veggie that I could chew. You can see this effect in the darker brown specs. In that respect, it was the most different from the other flavours.
Yomogi Cookies (Japanese Mugwort Cookies)
These were the dark green ones. It had an earthy grassy taste... reminded me of wheatgrass. Very nice when combined with the wheaty flavour of the cookie! And once again, the herbal, earthy taste made for a very refreshing cookie experience.
Purple Sweet Potato Cookies (Murasaki-imo Cookies)
This one really tasted like sweet potato chips. The sweet potato flavour was very strong, but not as strong as the ginseng flavour. Just imagine sweet potato chips with some baked wheaty flavour.
It wasn't too sweet, though, so I liked that the sweet potato flavour was brought out without any sugar to detract from it.
Pumpkin Cookies
This was one of my favourites in a comfort food way. The pumpkin flavour was obvious, with its sweet and buttery flavour. But I would say not as strong as the sweet potato cookies. If you were eating something with a stronger flavour, you might not notice the pumpkin taste.
Each packet came with just 14 of those small squares... too bad they don't sell them with more pieces. I really liked all of them for different reasons... so I can't pick an overall favourite. But over the past few days, I have been savouring them slowly, having one piece of each flavour daily. ^_^
If you go to any supermarket in a mall in the Osaka and Kyoto region, be sure to get this. Just show the staff the picture, and if they have it, they'll find it for you.
If you don't live in Japan, vegetable-flavoured cookies might be highly unusual. If you found this interesting, you can explore more exceptionally unusual food and drinks here!
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