Comparing 13 Umaibo Flavors Now Priced at 15 Yen: Where Did the Three Tasters' Ratings Diverge?

At the start, Ryuji demonstrated a way of eating that they said everyone of their generation used to do. If you place an Umaibo in your palm and press down, it splits cleanly into four stick-shaped pieces. Ryuji said they had always eaten it this way since long ago and called themselves an "Umaibo hardcore fan."

The first item was the mentai flavor, which is said to be not spicy and popular with children. All three agreed it was "delicious," and someone was surprised there was this much powder on it. Okarun said they are bad with curry, to the point of eating the mild version, but could eat this because it isn't spicy. Ryuji said they had eaten a great deal of Umaibo but had no memory of the mentai flavor being delicious, and gave it an A.

Regarding the second item, the yasai salad (vegetable salad) flavor, Ryuji declared even before eating it that "it says vegetable salad flavor, but it's completely different — this is garlic flavor," emphasizing that it is entirely unlike Jagariko's salad flavor. When they actually ate it, the other two also acknowledged the presence of garlic, saying it comes through quite strongly in the aftertaste.

Ryuji praised it highly, saying the garlic really comes through and it's delicious. Okarun, on the other hand, said that while garlic itself is tasty, when something is called vegetable salad and has this much garlic, it feels wrong to them personally. Ryuji pushed back while teasing, with remarks like "The meat is the vegetable," and this disagreement carried over all the way to the final rankings.

The gyutan shio (salted beef tongue) flavor is a product that reproduces lemon-accented salted beef tongue in Umaibo form, and it also contains black pepper. One of the participants praised it, saying it was impressive how close it gets to the taste of beef tongue. Ryuji called it "a really cheap beef tongue taste," more like pork tongue if anything, but said it comes together well and is delicious.

Okarun said that, considered as a snack, they disliked the sourness. This criterion of "not wanting sourness" would come up again and again in Okarun's ratings afterward. Ryuji retorted, "You don't like spicy, you don't like sour," and jokingly lamented that Okarun rejects every flavor.

The tonkatsu sauce flavor is a product billed as "making you want to eat rice," and before eating it Ryuji expected it to be a top-ranker. They got excited when it smelled of tonkatsu sauce the moment it was opened, but after eating it, the reaction shifted to "it's a little different from how I remember it." Comments were made that the sauce was on the weak side and the sourness stood out, and Ryuji kept their rating at average.

Okarun was even harsher, declaring, "I don't want any more, I definitely don't want to eat it." The reason was that they have no desire whatsoever to eat the sharp kick of sauce in a corn snack. The other participants followed up by saying it was purely a personal opinion.

The ebi mayonnaise (shrimp mayonnaise) flavor was introduced as having been created through a public call for new flavor ideas. When opened, the smell of mayonnaise was strong, and the impression was that mayonnaise hits first when you eat it, but as you chew, it comes into harmony and tastes quite a lot like shrimp.

When Okarun again gave a low rating, Ryuji pushed back: "It's 15 yen. Can you make this flavor for 15 yen?" Okarun replied that it just happened that things they didn't find delicious had come in a row, and they couldn't say what would happen from here on. Another participant said that if it gets this close to the taste of shrimp mayo for 15 yen and is delicious, that's more than enough, and remarked that the toasty shrimp aroma combined with the mayonnaise powder makes a flavor anyone would recognize as shrimp mayo, crediting the skill of the manufacturer, Yaokin. There was also the opinion that it harmonizes well with the corn snack.

The corn potage flavor is a classic that the participants called "a pretty sure bet." After the preface that, since it's a corn snack, there's no way corn potage flavor wouldn't go with it, they tasted it, and a cry of "This is it" went up. There were comments that it seemed richer than Jagariko's corn potage flavor, and opinions that it hasn't changed from the old days.

Okarun also gave it an S, saying, "This is truly the flavor I'm looking for, this is the kind of thing I want to eat in an Umaibo." It was also mentioned that, for Jagariko, the tarako butter flavor would be an S. Other comments included that if it still tastes this good when eaten now, it's a sure thing, and that it's so rich you'd think dissolving it in milk would make corn potage.

The natto flavor is a product that uses natto powder. Okarun was the only one who had never eaten it, and Ryuji rejoiced theatrically, saying, "To think this guy gets to experience this now — I'm jealous." When opened, it clearly smelled of natto, and there were cries of surprise that eating it left a sticky, gooey sensation in the mouth as if you'd just eaten natto. A hint of mustard could also be detected, and there was speculation that although mustard powder isn't listed among the ingredients, they might be using spices to create a mustard-like quality.

Because Okarun's rating was low again, Ryuji pressed them, saying, "This is going to turn into a fight, seriously." Okarun explained that they think it's impressive and that they like natto itself enough to eat it often, but if asked whether they want to eat this as an Umaibo, the answer is no. Meanwhile, the other participants offered the opinions that they got to experience a shock just as great as the first time they ate it, and that it's delicious even setting aside a love of natto. There was also praise that while it's only natural that using natto powder makes it taste like natto, adjusting it to be delicious and continuing to sell it unchanged is Yaokin's skill, making them a "pioneer."

The salami flavor was one Ryuji had named a "personal favorite to win" based on old memories. It was also mentioned that the package color may have changed. When eaten, it had a smoky aroma, and the comment was made that this is the key point of the salami.

Okarun rated it as tasty, but said that when told it's salami, they do wonder whether it's really salami, and if asked whether they want to eat this flavor as a corn snack, not particularly. Ryuji smiled wryly, saying, "This pattern again," and quipped that Okarun says scathing things in a gentle tone. They then countered that this smokiness isn't found in other snacks, saying you could drink a whisky like Hakushu or Yamazaki with it.

For the cheese flavor, someone commented on the striking vivid color of the powder, but upon eating it, some participants felt "Was it this flavor?" and "It's mild." Someone also recalled there being a bit more powder on it.

Okarun rated it as a tasty cheese-flavored corn snack, neither good nor bad. When Ryuji retorted that Okarun "looks down on Umaibo," Okarun explained that what they meant was that the corn potage was tastier. Ryuji themselves said they had the impression it used to be richer, and that after eating the corn potage it lacked richness, and they'd like it if it were a bit stronger, enough to work as a drinking snack; but allowing that maybe it was like this in the old days too, they concluded that it's delicious.

The teriyaki burger flavor is said to taste of sweet-savory teriyaki sauce. Ryuji said it tastes like the sauce of McDonald's Teriyaki Burger. When eaten, some said they also sensed sourness.

Okarun, saying that, as they had been saying all along, they don't want sourness in a snack, gave it around a C+. Ryuji jokingly replied, "I'm gonna punch you later," prompting another participant to quip, "That's a compliance problem." Ryuji assessed that the sourness is mayonnaise-like, and that a sweet soy-sauce-like taste comes first, so it does work as a teriyaki burger. However, it wasn't number one, and while whether you actually want teriyaki burger flavor is a separate question, they said the flavor reproduction is there.

The takoyaki flavor is a product that claims to reproduce Osaka takoyaki with a strong bonito broth flavor, and Ryuji had high expectations, saying, "It should have been incredibly tasty." They got excited at how dark the powder was, saying it had the color of takoyaki.

But after eating it, the reaction was subdued, and Ryuji let slip, "This might be different from what I thought." They had thought it was a favorite to win, but felt it tasted of sauce and aonori with the sweetness standing out. Recalling that it used to have a caramel-like taste, like something grilled with sauce brushed on, they said they couldn't tell whether the flavor had changed or their own palate had, and rated it average.

The sugar rusk flavor is a relatively recent product, and all three were eating it for the first time. It is said to be made with a special process that makes the hole smaller, focusing on a rusk-like texture. When opened, the aroma was strong, and there were cries of surprise that it smelled like a gâteau rusk.

With this flavor, Okarun's and Ryuji's ratings were reversed from what they had been until then. Okarun gave it an A+, saying that because there's no hole and it's densely packed, it has a rusk feel, and while it seems a little too sweet, it's delicious, and being able to eat this for 15 yen is very good. Ryuji, on the other hand, as a "rusk hardcore fan," pointed out that rusk has to be coated in sugar all over, but this one doesn't have sugar all the way through. They went on to say that they love Caramel Corn and this is different from that, going off on a tangent with "Bring me some Caramel Corn."

The last item, Umaibo Chocolate, doesn't have "flavor" in its name. Wondering aloud whether it was an Umaibo coated in chocolate, they opened it to find something that looked like a small Choco Bat, hollow inside. The participants reacted that it was nostalgic, and the assessment stopped at there being nothing in particular to say beyond that.

Finally, each person announced their top three. Okarun chose cheese in third, corn potage in second, and sugar rusk in first. They gave a reason consistent with what they had said during the tasting: these are the kinds of flavors they want to eat in a corn snack, and they aren't looking for saltiness or sourness.

The other participant chose beef tongue in third, corn potage in second, and natto in first. Natto and corn potage were a given, but the beef tongue had been a shock. Ryuji named vegetable salad, natto, and corn potage, and regarding the vegetable salad complained, "I'm saying the garlic is what's good about it, and I've never had a flavor of mine rejected this hard."

Apart from corn potage appearing in everyone's rankings, the ratings were widely split, and Ryuji themselves said they hadn't expected them to diverge this much. In the overall review, Ryuji said corn potage was the tastiest, that everyone had nothing but "it's tasty" to say about it, and that it had so much powder on it you'd wonder if that was okay, which made it the best, declaring "Corn potage is the tastiest Umaibo" as the result of the test.