I have a soft spot in my heart for Chocoball. Although I spent months secretly distrusting Kyoro-chan, Chocoball's beaky mascot, I quickly came to appreciate her straightforward combination of flavorful chocolate around a crunchy biscuit center. Chocoball is so straightforward, in fact, I rarely find a flavor strange or enticing enough to write a whole review about it. Thank god for the Japanese obsession with corn.

Corn shows up in the most unlikely places -- on pizza, in sushi, under soft loops of mayonnaise -- making it an easy target for foreigners who like to complain about how weird and gross and wrong the marriage of Japanese and Western food can be. I'm sometimes one of those people, especially when it comes to hamburger sushi, but the truth is: I really love corn. Not so much high-fructose corn syrup or cornstarch or any of the myriad of corn-based products which don't actually taste like corn but help eat away at the American corn glut, I mean actual ears of corn, roasted and salted, or corn tortillas or even canned niblets, eaten cold with a big spoon (a childhood favorite).

So I was kind of looking forward to trying Sweet Corn Chocoball. Don't tell anyone I told you that.

If you, like me and 99% percent of the Japanese population, enjoy corn in its gustable form and believe it can be successfully added to any number of dishes, you will like Sweet Corn Chocoball. The mildly corn-flavored white chocolate coating covers a crunchy biscuit center somewhat like a compressed, sweetened corn chip. It leaves a nice corn aftertaste, which may sound disgusting if you are not a fellow corn appreciator, but I assure you is quite pleasant. I like how each piece is reminiscent of a very smooth and shiny corn niblet. I also like the word "niblet."

Corn has been sadly ignored in the world of desserts and Sweet Corn Chocoball seems to point toward a whole New World of a-maize-ing treats! (Sorry, Kyoro-chan stipulated I had to be corn-y at least once in this review...sorry again.) I mean, it wouldn't be so difficult to make the leap from cornbread to corn cupcakes -- perhaps topped with a big dollop of mayonnaise?

In non-candy news, I want to thank everyone who has donated thus far to my bike ride to benefit untouchables in India. The total donated so far is $919! I am amazed at your generosity. Thank you so much!