Otsuka Calorie Mate Balanced Food Chocolate 2.82oz/80g (4pack)

I calorie count on and off as a way to keep my weight down, and Calorie Mate is definitely something I'll be including from now on. Each stick is 100 calories, fairly nutritionally varied, and easy enough to eat, if a little dry and dense. I would recommend buying the chocolate flavor, since the cheese one does NOT taste nearly as good, though.

Bought it because of MGS:3, as well as for my friend who was cosplaying Naked Snake from that game. The box alone was a good prop. Flavor wise, the chocolate ones are actually pretty good and seem to have a good shelf life- but they absolutely suck the moisture from your mouth, so jave water handy. Seriously might buy again because they were actually pretty good.

CalorieMate is a nutritional energy bar made in Japan. One box contains 4 cookie-biscuit blocks. Inside the yellow box are two shiny gold packages. Inside each package are two solid bar-shaped cookie blocks. The size of each block is about 2 x 1.8 x 6.8 cm (3/4 x 3/4 x 5/8 inches). It's about the size of my thumb from the tip to the joint on my palm. The texture is like a soft biscuit, like a graham cracker but softer and thicker. The blocks are solid and don't crumble to dust if you tap them on a plate. You have to bite and chew them. The solid blocks are available in 5 flavors. The flavor is written on the back and on one side of the yellow box: red font = チョコレート (chocolate) pink font = メープル (maple) green font = フルーツ (fruit) black font = チーズ (cheese) light blue font = バニラ (vanilla) The chocolate one I bought has a mild chocolate bread-like flavor. It's not as sugary as a normal cookie, but it's definitely chocolate. The fruit one contains lemon and grapefruit. Balanced nutrition is this product's main point anyway. Ingredients are written on the box in English and Japanese. The manufacturer's English website also lists the ingredients. The website says, "Contains a good balance of protein, fat, sugars, 11 vitamins and 6 minerals that the body needs. Contains the five major nutrients, but it is intended only as a dietary supplement. Provides about half of the amount of vitamins required for one day. Block type provides 100 Calories per block." By the way, the recommended daily Calories in the US is between 2000 and 2500. In other words, this product concentrates on vitamins and minerals. Note that the information is based on a serving size of 80g which is the whole box, all 4 blocks together, not just one block. Allergy warning: Contains wheat, egg, almond, milk, soy. The price is expensive. I bought it so I could try it for the first time, but I won't buy it again. CalorieMate is made by Otsuka Pharmaceutical, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. Other than blocks, it's also available as a liquid drink in cans and as a drinkable jelly in pouches. The company also makes Pocari Sweat and Oronamin C.

Obviously, like many people here, I bought this because of MGS 3. Great game by the way. I honestly did not have any idea what the actual CalorieMate block was like until I saw this listing for it. I've only seen the package in the video game. So I bought it and tried it and let me say that it is really good. I can understand why some people don't like it because it's a little dry/chalky but overall the chocolate flavor is really good. The packaging is also really good and easy to open. If you're a fan of MGS then this is at least worth a try.

As the packaging mentions, this is a snack food to give you some extra calories between meals. It's a bit dry, but I like it. I recommend drinking water, milk, coffee, or tea with it, and letting it absorb some of the liquid, like you would with a biscuit or dry cookie. I first tried these when I was in Okinawa, and fell in love with them. The flavors are subtle, so you shouldn't worry about any lingering taste or pairing it with complimenting food/drink during your snack attack

Yum! Honestly better taste than I was expecting. The consistency is that of shortbread, and the taste is like a chocolate cookie, but not overpoweringly sweet. Good to keep around, and so good with a coffe/tea!

The package took much longer to arrive than anticipated but the seller was very kind about it and kept track of it for me. The bars are not the most delicious thing but they do taste okay. If I had to compare the flavor to something I would say it's like a tootsie roll. Of course I didn't buy it to eat it but because of Metal Gear. WARNING: Only eat ONE AT A TIME. These things are EXTREMELY FILLING. They come with 4 wrapped packages of 2. Each individual bar is 400 calories and eating one hits your stomach like a brick. I presumed since there were two to a package you eat both right? NO! My stomach felt like it was going to explode. The texture is like that of compressed bread so I can only assume once it hits your stomach it expands significantly. Eat one, save the other for later or else feel the wrath of your intestinal track processing your entire days worth of nutrients in one sitting.

These actually taste pretty good and a bit dry. Makes for a nice little snack paired with milk (in my opinion) and have quickly turned into a new favourite of mine. Packaging is minimal, Calorie Mate outer box, 2 inner packages that look like foil in which contain 2 cookies. To quote Snake from MGS3 - "I want some more!"