I've never been very interested in Fran. Maybe it's because it always just seemed like the poor girl's Pocky. But I've been seeing Cool Fran in stores since the start of summer, along with a couple other candies labeled "cool" and the whole "cool" candy phenomenon was too intriguing to ignore.

Cool Fran is a choco-biscuit stick covered in something identified as "whipped white," which is further covered with lemon chocolate and bits of kishiritouru.

...Wait. What's kishiritouru?

After some multilingual Wikipedia-ing, I came to the conclusion that it's xylitol, a sweetener commonly used in chewing gum, which apparently gives the sensation of coolness when chewed.

And it really works. After eating a Fran, my mouth had a subtle, mentholated sort of coolness, but without the minty taste you usually associate with the feeling. The Fran itself was just okay. It was kind of like a lemon-filled cookie turned inside out, but with too much cream filling. Whipped white, you are unnecessary.

The real question is: after eating my Cool Fran, did I feel any cooler? The answer: no, no I didn't. I was as hot as ever. And Fran, even Cool Fran, is still the poor girl's Pocky.