Marukawa Strawberry Marble Bubble Gum

Strawberry is the flavour Japanese children meet first.

It fills the bottom of a Milky bottle, colours half the sweets in a dagashi shop, and in Marukawa’s hands it is deliberately soft — sofuto na ichigo aji, as the company puts it.

Not the sharp, slightly medicinal strawberry of Western sweets but something rounder and milkier, closer to strawberry milk than to the fruit itself.

The marbles are the other half.

Each piece is a small sphere, hard-shelled and brightly coloured, six to a pack — a format that makes them feel more like something you would find in a toy machine than a confection.

Chewing one releases the flavour quickly, and then the gum keeps going long after the strawberry has faded, which is exactly what a child wants from a piece of gum bought with pocket change.

Marukawa has been making chewing gum in Nagoya since 1954 and is the name behind most of the gum on a Japanese dagashi shelf.

Like the rest of the Marble Gum range, these carry an atari — a winning mark hidden in the packaging, redeemable at Japanese shops for another pack free.

The odds are long and the ritual of checking is most of the appeal.

About this item
Item Name : Strawberry Marble Bubble Gum
Brand : Marukawa
Item Form : Gum
Number of Items : 6 Counts (Box of 1)