By Myra Chen
The idea of Do-It-Yourself crafts and miniature food items has always been appealing to the youth population, for reasons almost unexplainable. But as Julia Fox said, the children yearn for the mines. Popin’ Cookin’ expertly took advantage of this phenomenon by designing kits that put kids to work in exchange for delicious candy.
Popin’ Cookin’ has officially released eight candy kits, but there are other unique packages that can be found floating somewhere on the internet. For $26.59, one can buy a pack of five Popin’ Cookin’ kits, both official and unofficial, on Amazon: Tanoshii Hamburger, Tanoshii Sushi, Omatsuri Food Festival, Oekaki Gummy Land, Naru Naru Grape Vine.
Popin’ Cookin’ Hamburger
Not too long ago in 2019, the Popin’ Cookin’ Hamburger was released to the public. Since then, it has been the star of the show, taking a different, unconventional approach to candy (though it’s hard to even call it candy). Rather than being a sweet, enjoyable experience, Kracie decided to make it a vomit-inducing, nauseating experience.
The best option when making these candy kits would be to follow the pictures on the box instead of following the website’s instructions. Upon following the directions on Popin’ Cookin’s website, the buns of the hamburger turned into a liquidy mess. There was too much water and not enough powder. Even after being left alone for more than ten minutes, the buns didn’t solidify until it was placed under heat.
Despite being stunned by the accuracy of the taste of each element, it still had an atrocious taste. The resemblance was almost uncanny; the similarities were there, but because of the contrasting textures, the candy wasn’t very fulfilling. It is evident that Kracie prioritized realisticness over taste, making this kit stand out in comparison to the rest. From the smell of ketchup to the smell of the cheese, the flavors were on point, tasting like a real burger, but not in a good way.
The only thing that was even remotely pleasant was the coke, which had both the bubbles and the taste. The display of the meal was adorable and creative, utilizing the kit’s packaging to add decorative factors like a label on the coke bottle and a bag for the french fries.
Overlooking its taste and the lack of instruction, the Popin’ Cookin’ Hamburger was still fun to make and provides for the perfect activity for young children. Each step takes you back to when you were nine years old playing Papa’s Burgeria, but in a more hands-on manner.
Popin’ Cookin’ Tanoshii Sushi
In 2008, Tanoshii Sushi, the second product of Kracie, launched. It combined two things that should never be closer than two feet apart: raw fish and candy. Still, this kit made its way as a strong contender for the first place spot on the Popin’ Cookin’ franchise.
Of the five kits, this one was the most fun to make; each step was unique and creative, appealing to all five senses. The ingredients included were enough to construct two pieces of nigiri, one sushi, two sashimi candies and a plentiful amount of salmon roe.
For the sushi and the nigiri, the rice was a crucial ingredient. When creating the rice, the mixture feels like the Sahari desert when using the appropriate amount of water. Only after adding almost double the required amount of water and you feel like you just worked out your arms for an hour, did the rice actually start to resemble rice. Fluffy and spongy, the rice had a strong cherry scent that fumes whatever room you are occupying.
To top off the nigiri, there were two types of “meat” provided. The omelet nigiri had an eggy texture and was slightly more moist than it should have been. However, it had a pleasant smell of sugar that wasn’t overwhelming.
The tuna was by far one of my favorite things about this set and all of the sets combined. Its smell was the most appealing aspect of it, along with its realistic appearance.
Of all of these components, the roe was the most fun to make. Smelling like oranges, the formation of the roe is an experience that every person should see. This roe had a pleasant popping boba sensation that popped satisfyingly with each bite. The excess roe did not go to waste.
Once all of the ingredients were made, shaping of each food began. As expected, the rice left a sticky feeling on the fingers. The seaweed used to wrap the rice was taffy-like and easy to mold. Because of the rice’s spongy texture, it was difficult to roll a tight sushi.
Overall, the Popin’ Cookin’ sushi kit left quite the impression. If you can overlook its slightly headache inducing smell, this kit could win first place.
Popin’ Cookin’ Omatsuri Food Festival
In the war between Popin’ Cookin’ Sushi and Popin’ Cookin’ Omatsuri, a stalemate occurred before a decision was made. In the end, Popin’ Cookin’ Omatsuri came out victorious. Not without various losses, however.
The first thing you notice when preparing the Food Festival is that the containers and packaging are unstable. The candies were susceptible to leaking because the trays were unevenly designed. As much as it was annoying to have to keep readjusting their position, it was manageable.
Like all of the other Popin’ Cookin’ sets, there is a smell of medicine and an overwhelming scent of pure sugar. For this set in particular, however, when you get closer to the candies, the medicine smell disappears and is replaced with a more pleasant, fruity aroma.
This kit comes with candy apples, chocolate covered bananas, french fries and corn. The candy apples were boring to make, but were the tastiest. Like jello, the candy apple hardened into its mold with a faint apple scent. While it wasn’t exactly crunchy, it wasn’t soft and chewy either. Its texture is most similar to over activated slime.
The chocolate covered bananas were the most realistic aspect of this kit. Both the chocolate drizzle and the actual banana smelled very accurate. Its texture is like that of soggy bread, but the taste wasn’t the worst, tasting just like it smelled.
Though debateable, the best part of this kit was the corn. At its core, it was a yellow taffy that was easy to mold and shape. However, making the corn was not the easiest. The sprinkles, or the kernels, were hard to stick onto the corn base. Although it was creative, the function of it wasn’t the best and left a sticky residue.
Of all of the kits, Popin’ Cookin’ Omatsuri scored the best in presentation, taste and intricacy, despite not being one of Kracie’s official products. It has its flaws, but the end result was the most rewarding because it was pleasing to the eye and to the tongue.
Popin’ Cookin’ Oekaki Gummy Land
The Popin’ Cookin’ Oekaki Gummy Land kit was simple, yet effective in building the patience of young children. More so than the other kits, Gummy Land is child-friendly with much less plastic waste. The kit was equipped with a plastic mixing fork and plastic cookie cutters, and only four powder packets. Three out of four powder packets were for the three primary colors and the last packet was filled with activating powder.
The mechanism of this kit was one of the most interesting aspects of it. The first step was to add water to the three primary color packets and create new colors in the 8 wells using a pipette. Each primary color was a different sweet flavor and when combined with one another, the aroma intensified. The colors were bright and appealing, bordering a neon hue.
To create each gummy, one has to use the pipette to drop the colorful liquid into the activating powder in the cookie cutters. There was an array of giraffes, fish, hearts and stars. All molds, especially the fish, were fun to customize. It is a shame, however, that some shapes, especially the giraffe and the star, were difficult to work with. Because of their angularity, the liquid kept bleeding out of the cookie cutter and required an extra step of trimming to get them to resemble actual giraffes and stars.
Gummy land is certainly a beginner friendly kit. There isn’t a huge variety or a bunch of steps. Rather, you can have fun with it and have some creative freedom. One downside is that the gummy takes a really long time to cure. It tests your patience making each gummy one by one, so if you decide to make this, be warned.
Popin’ Cookin’ Naru Naru Grape Vine
Unlike Oekaki Gummy Land, Naru Naru Grape Vine is far from being child friendly. Its contraption was difficult to assemble and because NaruNaru isn’t officially part of Popin’ Cookin’s franchise, there was nothing online on its step by step instructions. Making the candy was like navigating a room blind because of this.
Creating the stem was the hardest part. The plastic rings wouldn’t slide onto the stand without effort and had to be placed in a certain order, otherwise, they would fall right off. It was frustrating, to say the least.
The process to create the candy, however, was more entertaining. There were two parts, a liquid and its activating powder. The first step was to roll the plastic contraption in the liquid to make a glue for the powder to stick to. The next step was to roll it into the powder, where the candy began to form with a magenta color. The key was to keep going back and forth between the liquid and the powder, but not too much so that the balls of candy don’t fall off the stick.
The texture of the grapes were similar to the candy apples in the Popin’ Cookin’ Omatsuri Food Festival kit; they were jelly-like with a slight rubbery touch to them. When combined with the sprinkles provided, the candy surprisingly tasted delectable.
While Naru Naru Grape Vine scores high in the taste department, it scores negatively in the simplicity department. While it may seem dramatic, making the plastic contraption was discouraging just because of how confusing it was.
