Snack Review: Mah Tong Huat Jolly Jolly Gel Snacks
Most of us have seen gel snacks. Usually in neons or bright pastels, bags of the miniature fruity cups line the snack aisles of Asian specialty stores everywhere. They tempt us with their cuteness and the promise of refreshing, unusual fruity flavors.
I’ve fallen victim to their superbly kawaii charms a few times in the past, mostly in my early teenage years - a halcyon era before I actually had to worry about the price of such indulgences. Though she might have given the price tags a questioning once-over, my mom never seemed to take too much issue with shelling out $2.99 a bag for snacks like these. After all, they were fruit-flavored, which automatically made them healthier than, say, giant cookies.
Although paying for my own groceries is a necessary evil of adulthood and all that jazz, I really miss being able to toss any snack I desired into the shopping cart with nary a care or concern. Now that I’m paying for my edible vices, I’ve become quite a cheapskate in some respects. Suddenly, I find myself having difficulty parting with three or more dollars for one snack, unless it’s an absolute favorite of mine. That means gel snacks, no matter how cutely packaged, are usually out of the question.
However, there’s always something new to discover in L.A.’s ethnic markets, and frequently those “somethings” I come across are cheap. On my most recent trip to the neighborhood Vietnamese emporium, one of my finds was a bag of Mah Tong Huat Jolly Jolly Snacks - a scarcely-believable steal, at 39 cents. Sure, the usual cutesy anime-style doodles were absent from the bag, replaced by too-realistic depictions of oranges and grapes oozing juice - but what do you expect for just under four cents a gel snack?
Once home, I scrutinized the bag for possible defects that might result in such a low price. Expiration date? Non-existent. Toxic ingredients? None not found in Jell-o and similar brightly-hued snacks. Finally, I checked the Jollies’ country of origin. The name “Mah Tong Huat” sounded either Chinese or Vietnamese to me, so I was surprised to learn the gels hailed from Malaysia.
Never having tasted Malaysian cuisine, I was curious about how these would stack up against their more common Chinese and Japanese counterparts. I emptied the bag, laying the ten gel cups within along my kitchen countertop. Apparently, the Mah Tong Huat repertoire includes four color/flavors: Red, Orange, Yellow and Green. Unlike gel snacks I’d sampled in the past, there were no pictures or written descriptions of the fruit-flavors on the individual gel cups. Oh, well… I’d just have to try for myself!
First up was the red gel, which I assumed to be cherry. I was intrigued when, upon peeling back the cup’s top, I was greeted with a strawberry scent. I was delighted as well, as I’d choose strawberry-flavored snacks over cherry any day. Lifting the gel-cup to my lips, I partook in the traditional way - with a slurp.
The gel wasn’t bad, but it was a bit of a disappointment for something strawberry-flavored. The taste was actually quite generic. Neither strawberry nor cherry, nor any other fruit, it was just… “red” - basically sweet like a no-name jelly bean.
Green was next in line. Once again, the snack smelt of an unexpected flavoring - apple, when I’d expected lime. With another slurp, I tasted… the same thing as I had on my first try. I was starting to understand these snacks’ low price… yet I remained optimistic, hoping Malaysia would surprise me yet with a gel-icious taste sensation.
Rather than lemon, the yellow flavor was pineapple. The taste was identical to my first two. Despite that, I dutifully opened an orange snack.
Orange must be a universally-enjoyed fruit, as that was the “flavor” of the orange-colored gel cup. My prediction of the taste was accurate. Nothing, save smell, differentiated it from any other gel.
Mah Tong Huat Jolly Jolly gel snacks weren’t awful in the same sense as my worst snacking experiences. However, I can’t recommend them. Sure, they’re incredibly cheap. But with their flavor, or lack thereof, it would be even more economical to drink corn syrup.
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