we wanted to find out all the differences

between Pocky in Japan and the US.

This is "Food Wars."

In Japan, our Pocky comes in a 72-gram box

which contains two packets and a nine-pack.

(Pocky wrapper crinkles)

- Our Pocky's come in basically three sizes.

The one 1.14-ounce box, the 2.47-ounce box,

and the 4.13-ounce boxy bag.

But our strawberry-flavored box is smaller

than this chocolate box.

This is a 3.81-ounce box,

which is 0.32 ounces smaller than this one.

Largest box bag is this, the Cookies & Cream flavor,

which is 4.57 ounces

or 0.44 grams larger than the chocolate box.

One theory, my theory,

is that the Pocky boxes contain a specific number

of Pocky sticks

and each Pocky is a different weight

based on the flavor coating.

So we're gonna weigh each Pocky individually

to see if this is true.

All right, chocolate first.

So seven of these are 13 grams. Can someone write that down?

Strawberry, seven is 13 grams.

Was that what the first one was? Okay.

Cookies & Cream!

Cookies & Cream, seven of them are 18 grams.

Well, the Cookies & Cream ones are definitely a lot heavier.

A lot heavier.

(Joe chomping)

Mm!

- So let's see how many Pocky are in a box.

(George counting in Japanese)

(audio chirping)

32, 33, 34.

Thirty-four Pocky in total.

So one packet has 17 Pocky

and another one also has 17 Pocky.

- Let's see how many Pocky's are in this box.

(Pocky wrapper crinkles)

(exhales) Oh, man.

Is this normal?

I think I can kind of like,

do you wanna get a close-up on there before?

So one, two, three, those are the broken ones.

(audio chirping)

30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36.

You know how everyone was complaining about

how I eat Kit-Kats in the Kit-Kat episode?

(suspenseful music)

(Joe chomps)

(Joe chewing)

Mm!

(upbeat music)

Here's all the Pocky's that are native to the US

that are not in Japan.

- And here are all the Pocky's native to Japan.

- Cookies & Cream, Cookies & Cream.

Not a solid block, so that's good.

(Pocky wrapper crinkles)

(Joe chomping)

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Mm!

I like those.

This looks like fun, Yuelei.

Chocolate Banana, have you had these before?

You have?

No, mm-mm.

That banana flavor hits right away.

Oh, no.

Matcha green tea.

Any "Food Wars" heads watching know,

Joe does not like matcha.

Mm, smells like a freshly-cut lawn.

(lawnmower rumbles)

(Joe chomps)

Yeah, nah.

There's also a Crunchy Strawberry flavor you can get here

in the US,

but I was not able to get my hands on it

by the time of filming this episode.

So here's just regular strawberry.

Uh-oh.

Oh, another solid block.

Yeah.

(Joe chomps) (audience gasps)

Mm, yeah, dude.

Put me in jail for crimes against Pocky's.

- George's energy.

Bong, let's go!

All right, let's start with this one.

We have Pocky Luxury Milk Chocolate.

(laughs) Is it Pocky?

You look like corn dog.

What happened to you?

Hmm.

It's got milk and fermented butter flavor.

And we have another corn dog.

It's a Almond Milk flavor.

(George speaks in Japanese)

Mm.

It has strong almond milk flavor.

I prefer this one, the milk chocolate,

but both are so short.

You should be longer.

(whistle screeches)

You too!

We have this ultra-thin Pocky.

Oh. (laughs)

You are so thin this time.

This one is short.

This one is so thin.

We have Tasty.

Why is it Tasty?

Oh, fermented butter is used for this stick.

Ooh.

(George chomps)

It's got just a little bit of butter flavor.

I still prefer this one, this corn dog.

Almond Crush.

It's a little different. Look at the packets.

Yeah, obviously, it's got almonds.

Okey-dokey, Pocky.

(George speaks in Japanese)

I love this.

I love this.

Mm.

We've got Pocky Chocolate Coconut.

Oh, this one is also this style of packets.

Oh.

It's pretty similar with this one, Almond Crush.

(George chomps)

Hmm?

Yeah, obviously, it's got coconut flavor,

and also, it's got a little bit of saltiness.

It's not my taste.

Strawberry chocolate Pocky.

(George chomps)

Oh.

Ah.

Right after you bite this, you get some sweetness.

But after that, you get sourness.

It smells so strong.

I can smell it from here.

Cocoa powder Pocky,

And it says you can only get this in winter season.

Oh yeah, look at this. It's got cocoa powder.

(George speaks in Japanese)

(George's lips smack)

We've got the cutest Pocky ever.

Cherry heart-shaped Pocky.

Aha.

Oh, look at this!

Heart! It's in there.

How cute.

And this part, cherry chocolate is so awesome.

You get strong cherry flavor.

We've also got blueberry heart-shaped chocolate Pocky.

(Pocky wrapper crinkles)

Ooh, look at this.

So blue.

This color doesn't make me want to eat this, but let's try.

(George speaks in Japanese)

Ooh!

Mm.

So sour.

But look at this heart-shaped Pocky.

Not for me.

This is what I've been waiting for, sakura matcha.

So "sakura" means cherry blossom.

Cherry blossom matcha taste.

Ooh.

Look at this!

So it's got matcha chocolate

and this stick is pink.

(George chomps)

Mm, this is so Japanese-y Pocky.

Just sweet matcha.

The feeling of spring has come to my life.

(bird chirping)

Spring days here in my body.

(George sings in Japanese)

Everybody's curious what these are.

Megami no Ruby.

Otona no Kohaku.

What does it mean?

I don't even know. (laughs)

Anyway, so it says Megami no Ruby.

It means like, "Goddess Ruby".

Otona no Kohaku, in English, it says, "amber."

Kind of like stone, fossil, jewel.

It says it goes well with red wine.

Interesting.

Ta-da!

It looks like regular chocolate Pocky.

(George chomps)

Oh?

What is this?

This taste itself is like berries.

This one goes well with whiskey.

(George chomps)

Huh?

It's pretty close to dark chocolate, it's bitter.

In Japan, we have this Gokuboso extra-fine Pocky,

which are roughly half the thickness

of a regular chocolate Pocky.

- In the US, ours are called the Ultra Slim.

- I got a new digital scale.

What I'm gonna do is weigh a regular chocolate Pocky.

2.13 grams.

So ultra thin Pocky.

So it weighs 1.52 grams.

- Thinner, that's it?

Here's a big boy.

Here's the thin.

Is it able to do this?

Can I get out of the way so it's just the white background?

23, 24, 25, and there's another bag in here, so 50 per box.

Okay, so 50 instead of 36.

Seven regular Pocky's are 13 grams.

Let's see how many slim ones we needed to get to 13 grams.

5, 6, 7, 8 1/2.

Eight and a half slim ones are the same

as seven regular ones.

Is that that much slimmer?

I guess that's slimmer.

Does anyone think that's not significant enough

to be a selling point?

Pocky adjusts its sweetness for different countries.

Not surprisingly, the US ones are meant to be sweeter.

I'm gonna do a taste test side by side.

We got the American ones and the Japanese one,

and we're gonna see just how different they taste.

I'm worried that these are also gonna be a Pocky popsicle.

Oh no, okay.

Japanese.

These are only Japanese ones I can find.

Obviously, they're bigger. I don't know if this is the norm.

(Joe chomps)

Mm-hm, in the baseline sweetness.

Yeah.

Mm.

(Joe chomps)

Yeah, it's noticeably different.

They taste identical, but ours has a sweet aftertaste.

I like the Japanese ones much better.

- So Pocky is in the Guinness World Records three times.

It's the largest chocolate-coated biscuits brand,

has the most mentions of a brand name

on Twitter in 24 hours,

which was 3,710,044 times.

And finally, it was part

of the most people opening packaged food online

simultaneously with 143 people.

- 143 people, that's it?

That doesn't seem like that many.

I feel like I've been on Zoom work calls

with 143 people in it, right?

It would've been literally one email to set that up.

- I can do (George speaks in Japanese).

Pom-pom-pom-pom-pom-pom-pom-pom-pom-pom-pom-pom-pom.

Now I got more than 200 George's clones right here.

Simultaneously, three, two, one.

Boom.

Now I broke the Guinness World Records.

So November 11th is known as a Pocky (speaks in Japanese)

or Pocky Day in Japan.

This date was chosen because a Pocky is shaped like a one.

At November 11th, visually, it looks like four Pocky.

And also, Pretz are included in this day, November 11th,

which is the pretzel version of Pocky.

And in Japan, you can get them in flavors like Salad,

Ripe Tomato, Sweet Potato, and Roasted Bread flavor.

In the US, we also have Pretz,

and we get these fun flavors like Sweet Corn, fun,

and Pizza.

Oh, God.

It has nothing on it.

(Joe chomps)

Nope.