Tasting Calorie Mate and Soyjoy. Energy Bars from Japan

CalorieMate is a Japanese energy bar, of the biscuit variety, that has been around since 1983.  It is a well known food supplement/replacement for hard working salarymen who need energy to pull those long hours at work.  Soyjoy is a much more recent product created from soybean flour and is another energy bar type of food supplement.  Both of these types of bars provide many essential nutrients in addition to calories.  You can pretty much find CalorieMate in any convenience store as it is a popular emergency snack / food.  Soyjoy is also fairly easy to find, but not quite as ubiquitous as CalorieMate.  Both products come in many different flavours, and between the two you have everything from cheese, chocolate, to all kinds of fruit flavours.

CalorieMate and Soyjoy.

CalorieMate flavours include cheese, fruit, chocolate, maple, and vanilla. The bars are balanced to provide five major nutrient groups required by the body for any activity and any time.  These groups are protein, fat/lipid, carbohydrates/sugar, vitamins, and minerals.  These bars are packaged in two foil packs of two bars each into one box.  The boxes are easily stored, transportable, and have a long shelf-life.  Four biscuit bars (one 80gram box) provides 400 calories.

I tried the chocolate flavour of CalorieMate.  It reminded me of a shortbread cookie more than anything else.  The biscuit had a dry, slightly powdery texture that was easily bitten through.  There was a light chocolate taste and was pretty good for a food supplement.  I have a couple of emergency biscuit bars and I'm pretty sure this tastes better as it is a common snack/energy food in Japan.  People wouldn't buy this if it tasted bad.  I'm not sure about some of the other flavours, but I'm pretty sure I'd be okay with a most of them.  These bars are manufactured by Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co./CalorieMate.      

Back of the packages.  The Soyjoy bar is propped up with a piece of Kendal Mint Cake.

Soyjoy is a relative newcomer to the market, with its first release in 2006.  It is made from a dough that is derived from soybeans rather than flour and a bar is supposed to have the nutrition of 35 soybeans that doesn't include their skins (I'm not sure what significance this has).  Other ingredients like fruit and nuts are kneaded into this dough and baked.  The bars are supposed to be easy on the body and are quite tasty.  SoyJoy has the following flavours: strawberry, raisin, apple, sweet potato, fruit and cheese.  These bars are also manufactured by Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co./Soyjoy.

I find it interesting that these bars didn't get introduced earlier as kinako, roasted soybean flour, is a commonly used product in Japanese cuisine.  Kinako has appeared in Japanese cookbooks more than 500 years ago, in the Muromachi period.

Keither Sutherland starred in some CalorieMate commercials when 24 was popular.

I tried the SoyJoy blueberry flavour for the first time this year, but had tried CalorieMate years before.  When I opened it, there was a strong scent of blueberries that hinted a more of a dessert than an energy food.  The foil packaging for the bar is pretty sturdy to keep it fresh as it also has a year long shelf-life.  You could see dried blueberries baked into the bar and it looked quite inviting to try.  The bar has a soft, yet firm bite to it that kind of reminded me of some soft breakfast bars or a soft cookie type texture.  The fruit flavour was prevalent with a background taste that didn't remind me of roasted soybeans as it was kind of like a normal wheat-based bar.  It was pretty good too and there wasn't a chemical aftertaste to the bar, something I also notice with the CalorieMate too.  A 30 gram Soyjoy bar provides 134 calories, so you would need 3 bars to provide the same energy that a 4 bar box of CalorieMate would provide.

Between both types of bars, you would have a nice little emergency food stash if you needed it.  There is a wide variety of flavours and textures too.  When I travel in Japan, I will pick up one of these to throw in my pack for a snack emergency when no convenience stores are around.

CalorieMate Chocolate and Soyjoy Blueberry unwrapped. 

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