Konbini Kinyoubi: Koala No March
Welcome to Konbini Kinyoubi, where every Friday (Kinyoubi) we visit our local convenience store (Konbini) and buy something delicious. This post contains affiliate links. For more information, please read our affiliate disclosure.
One bummer about this blog is that our readers from America and other English-speaking countries don’t have access to the fun treats we talk about. We can go on and on about the glory of Famichiki, but unless you come to Japan, you won’t be able to taste it. Black Thunder and Pocari Sweat have made it to some corners of the globe, but a lot of the other things we’ve featured on Konbini Kinyoubi are hard to obtain or are prohibitively expensive when ordered on Amazon.
To solve this problem, I did some Amazon searching to find out what Japanese snacks ARE available in the US at reasonable prices so we can feature things that readers are actually able to try. I don’t plan to feature all of them because some of them suck, but one was a snack I’d always seen at the store but never tried. Then I saw it at the store. Then I tried it.
Lotte Koala no March (aka Koala’s March)
Koala no March (known as Koala’s March abroad, which is basically what Koala no March means) is a Japanese kids’ treat from Lotte that’s pretty ubiquitous. You’ll see them in grocery stores and konbinis, and due to their branding, I usually walk right by them, assuming they’re just for kids. But as a scholar, I knew I had to understand all the fruits of Japan’s cultural stew, so when we saw three different kinds of them at Lawson, we bought all three for a full-on taste test.
Koala no March, as you can surmise, are shaped like little koalas. They’re puffy and filled with stuff - think those peanut butter pillow snacks but with a bit less filling in them. They have cute images on them of koalas in various poses, sometimes saying “Arigato” in hiragana. They’re cute and small and come in small packages, but that doesn’t mean they’re just for three-year-olds. They’re also for forty-year-olds who need some tasty num-nums.
Chocolate Koala no March
The most common flavor, chocolate Koala no March was the one we tried first. The cookie exterior didn’t taste like much - a little crunch, but not a ton, though at least they weren’t stale. Inside, the chocolate was really tasty, but I felt like there should be more in there. I was hoping for a huge strong burst of flavor, but this honestly didn’t deliver that punch. This probably makes them a good snack for little kids since the flavor isn’t too strong. Not amazing, but I found myself reaching for more.
Strawberry Koala no March
I’m sure the original chocolate version brings memories back for Japanese kids who are all grown up now, but it was the strawberry ones that gave me a hit of nostalgia. The filling tasted EXACTLY like strawberry Nesquick, which in my day was called Nestle’s Quick. Definitely sweet and artificial-tasting, but they were delicious and brought me back to the days of lumping way too many spoonfuls of pink powder into my milk.
Condensed Milk Koala no March (the blue one)
Condensed milk isn’t a super common flavor in Japan, but I sort of had an idea of how these would taste. They ended up being the sweetest of the bunch. Again, good, but felt like I was getting too much sugar without anything to balance it out, sort of like when you eat a whole bunch of white chocolate and long for some dark chocolate to balance it out (which is why I often steal the white chocolate Eriko keeps in the fridge and pair it with the dark chocolate I keep in said fridge). I’d call these my least favorite of the three, but I still finished the box the next afternoon while Eriko was at work. (I finished all three boxes the next day while Eriko was at work. It was my lunch. I’m a bad boy.)
Verdict: is Koala no March worth going out of your way to find?
When I asked Eriko for her ranking of the three flavors, she said chocolate, then strawberry, then condensed milk. I said strawberry, chocolate, then condensed milk. She ate a couple more, then changed her rankings to be the same as mine. There you have it: strawberry is the best kind, but chocolate is pretty good too.
I doubt I’ll be buying these again unless I get a very specific craving. They don’t have a strong enough flavor to make them a decadent treat, so if you don’t carry happy childhood memories of them, they likely won’t do much for you. There’s no flavors here you haven’t had before, although the mildness means young kids can eat them with no fuss, and since they’re small, a box might last your kids a few days.
If you’re in Japan, there are better konbini treats like Famichiki and Black Thunder and delicious ice creams to try, so I’d skip this one. If you live abroad, they are interesting, though not as interesting as some of the things you can get from Sakuraco and TokyoTreat. But if you don’t want an entire box of random stuff, Koala No March can be obtained at a fairly low price.
Where to get Koala’s March outside of Japan
The good news is that Amazon carries Koala’s March in its US store. The bad news is that there are so many buying options that in order to pick the best deal, you’ll have to do math. I am not willing to do that math, so I’m just going to link to the ones I think are the best deals. But they have additional flavors we haven’t tried, as well as some products like pens and charms for Koala’s March fans, so go ahead and check them out. If you bring these to a kid’s party or holiday, you will be the cool aunt/uncle.
Koala’s March Chocolate - Family Size - BUY ON AMAZON
Koala’s March Chocolate - Regular Size - BUY ON AMAZON
Koala’s March Strawberry - BUY ON AMAZON
