Sasebo Burger Drops

How's this for Healthy Month? All the flavor of a juicy burger in...a food drop? It's more common than you think. J-List was kind enough to send over an assortment of foodie goodies for my perusal, so here's one of the most a propos for the month: food drops. In this case, a Sasebo-limited confection that supposedly tastes like the local specialty (and American favorite) fast food chain, Sasebo Burger, similar to the hand-crafted quickservice chain Five Guys with locally sourced ingredients.

While I didn't get the full Sasebo Burger experience, I can only hope that it's not close to this food drop. Definitely more of a novelty than a form of sustenance, you're really trading taste for calories in this treat. Food science has come a long way, though, and there's a disturbing accuracy to these that, for a hard candy, actually had a powerfully smoky and somewhat meaty flavor. Where it was really lost was in the remaining aspects. Any creamy cheese or mayonnaise flavors ended up tasting overly sweet and indistinguishable, lending us the descriptor of "smoked butterscotch." Don't quote us on it. It's not an unpalatable flavor, but it's really something strange. At first, I thought this was coming from the sugared coating on the candies, but it lingered to the point of being intentional.

I don't know whether the burger buns in Japan are sweeter; perhaps someone can clarify on that for me, but I do know that some acidity in this- an element of mustard or pickles, would have cut the sweetness immensely and possibly tasted better. I'm confident that they can do it. After all, if they can manufacture sweet meat, anything is possible, right? Buy this for the novelty. It's neither satisfying to a savory or sweet tooth, but still delights.