A Few Of My Favorite Things: Japanese Mochi and Cucumber Water

This is the second edition of a new series of posts entitled A Few Of My Favorite Things. From time to time, I am going to go out of my way to do the unthinkable. I am going to expand my horizons, I am going to try something new… and then decide if I like it or not.

Last week on A Few Of My Favorite Things, I decided to play it safe and select a product that I knew I already liked (root beer), then branched out by sampling a brand I knew nothing about. So I chose to try Virgil’s Root Beer for the very first time. And on a scale of 1-10, I rated this beverage as a solid OK. If I had a Pinterest page, wait… maybe I do… I don’t remember. I definitely do not use it because I am a man. If I had / used a Pinterest page with any regularity, I wouldn’t pin a picture of Virgil on it. I did post a few on Instagram though, but only because I am trying to grow my followers and needed something to share. Virgil didn’t change my life, but I do not think he’s a bad guy.

This week, I decided to go green. Green tea and cucumber that is! If you are an herbivore, then I’m sure your little elf ears just shot up in the air like homemade fireworks on New Year’s Eve or the Fourth of July. When I saw that cardboard box of Japanese style green tea mochi sitting on the shelf at World Market, my ears did the opposite. I can’t see my ears because I am a human, but I can imagine that they looked like my dog Peanut when he tucks his tale so far between his legs that I get worried that he might implode. I think I am a pretty open guy when it comes to food. But when the title is the only  thing written in English on the entire box, that makes me nervous. On the other hand, cucumber sparkling water doesn’t make nervous at all. I already know that I hate the taste of cucumbers. I figured that by watering that awful taste down, it wouldn’t be so bad. My wife seemed to think that I might actually like it. She is usually right about… everything… so I trusted her advice.

I pulled up to the house about seven or eight, and yelled to the cats in my drive way… Yo homes, smell you later. Fine. You’re right, inner critic… that didn’t really happen. Pardon me for trying to entertain my readers with 90s sitcom humor. After my lovely Italian wife prepared the family a delicious meal, I cleared off the top my of microwave and snapped a few photos of these products with my iPhone. Then, I made a quick unboxing time-lapse video that you can check out on me Instagram page.

Based on the image on the packaging, I thought that the green tea mochi would be sweet. Looking at all that powdered sugar, I was expecting the queen of Narnia to come out of that box and feed me turkish delight. I thought I was going to rule the kingdom, and that my brother and sisters were going to have to bow down and serve me. As a middle child, I can’t lie… that idea made me really excited. When I bit into that powered dream, I was whisked back to reality. That little ball of green tea jello was not sweet. It was not gewy. It had a texture similar to the Christmas Story bar of soap stress ball that I have in the top drawer of my desk at work. It was completely different than what I was expecting, but it wasn’t bad. The more I chewed on it, the more I realize that it just tasted like green tea. And once I accepted it, I actually thought it was OK.

Now, the Cucumber Sparkling Water, that was hilariously disgusting. On a scale of 1 – 10, I would rate the same a I would the Jones Soda Thanksgiving Pack. So bad that you just have to try it and then convince all your friends to try it too. And that is exactly what I did. All my sons were sitting on the couch watching tv. It took a little bit of prodding but once I got my oldest boy to try it, the other two quickly fell in line. The expressions on their faces were so funny! But the party didn’t stop there. Peanut is not only our dog, but he is family. So we poured a little in his bowl too. He ran over to his bowl and started lapping it up. But after just one or two tongue-fuls, he realized that this water was tainted with cucumbers. Hahaha! We all laughed our butts off that night. So much fun!

I want to quickly clarify that I am not implying that this brand of Japanese Green Tea Mochi or the Cucumber Sparkling Water are not good products. I am sure there are plenty of people in this world that love them. I am just not one of them. The point of this series is for me to rediscover who I am. We all change through the years, but sometimes we do not realize it till we take time to notice. So if you are a herbivore or woodland elf that has a different opinion about these products, I’d love to hear your pointy-eared point of view. Comment below!