Snacks: Yan Yan

Yan Yan is a product from the Singapore company Meiji. They may or may not be hard to find in a local store, as the ones I have were given to me as a gift.

Looking over the packaging, the first thing you notice is the familiarity of the idea behind Yan Yan. It's basically an edible stick with dip, much like Dunk-a-roos or Sargento® Chocolate Dip & Cookie Sticks. Next, you see that the cookie sticks have little messages on them, described as "fun lines", with an animal name and cartoon head. They say things like:
"Gallop away (Horse)"
"Go for a swim (Duck)"
"Do not be timid (Mouse)"

And finally, I skim over the ingredients and nutrition facts. This is where i come across an odd, yet reassuring, statement. Below the nutrition facts is the manufacturing information with the company address:
"MNFD BY: MEIJI SEIKA (S) PTE. LTD.
36 QUALITY ROAD SINGAPORE 618806
PRODUCT OF SINGAPORE. DOES NOT CONTAIN PIG FAT."

Wow! All the taste of pig fat without the actual pig fat? Pig Fat-tastic!

So I tear the lid off, and have at them. I choose to only take a single, generous dip of chocolate with the first few cookie/cracker sticks, hoping that there will be enough chocolate to last the twenty or so sticks. I can always increase my dipping towards the end.

The taste is pretty good. It's a buttery, crackerish cookie. The chocolate is just chocolate, nothing funky or unusual, which is good. Together they form an enjoyable snack and experience. To sum it up simply, Yan Yan is fun!

Unfortunately, I did run out of chocolate prematurely. But, it did last longer than other snacks with this theme, and it had more crackers than the them too. So after eating the last few pieces dipless, I see there are a few bonus broken pieces at the bottom of the container. I poured them into my mouth and licked out the chocolate compartment for good measure.

Pros:
Awesome packaging.
Yummy flavor combination.
Very nice quantity of sticks.
Doesn't contain pig fat.

Cons:
Hard to find in stores.
'Tasty choco cream' tends to run out before the sticks.
Doesn't contain pig fat?

Verdict:
- Great for all ages! If you can find them, give them a try. There are three different flavors available, so you should base your choice on what you might want in a cake frosting, or ice cream flavor. And if you can't decide, try to the double dip version that has chocolate and strawberry in the same container!