Yan Yan (snack)

Yan Yan (ヤンヤンつけボー, Yan Yan Tsukebō) is a Japanese snack food made by Meiji Seika since 1979. It comes in a package with two compartments. One side has biscuit sticks (which can be sometimes called cracker sticks), the other side has chocolate, strawberry, vanilla, or yogurt flavored frosting used for dipping. The sticks themselves may also be flavored. Some Yan Yan products are sold in rectangular containers with 9 sticks and dip. There is also a new version which includes two flavored dips.^[1]

In 1982, British company KP Snacks began licensing Yan Yan for UK markets releasing it under the name Choc Dips.^[2]

The sticks

Messages on yan yan sticks

The sticks were once plain, but recently Meiji has placed pictures of various animals on them with quotes relating to that animal. The quotes are in English, but often appear unorthodox to native English speakers. Examples of these animal quotes include:

Balloon: Goes Pop
Bat: Only In The Night / Flying Mammal
Beetle: Thick Shiny Shell / Lucky Color: Brown
Butterfly: Flower to Flower
Cat: Has Nine Lives / Say Meow
Chick: Eager to Hatch / Lucky Color: Yellow
Chicken: Kokekokko / Cluck Cluck
Cow: Moooooo
Duck: Go For A Swim / Quack, Quack
Elephant: Jumbo / Longest Nose
Fox: Beware Of Lies / Cunning And Sly
Frog: Amphibian / Ribbit
Giraffe: Tallest Mammal / Longest Neck
Goat: You Are Lucky Today / Don't Feed Paper
Grown Baby: Cradle Them All
Horse: Gallop Away / My "Neigh"bor
Kettle: Goes Ssss
Lion: Roar
Mole: In A Hole / Born to Dig
Mouse: Eats Cheese / Do Not Be Timid
Octopus: Eight Arms / Lucky Number: 8
Owl: Active At Night / Night Predator
Panda: Go for More / Loves Bamboo
Rabbit: Eat More Carrots
Rhinoceros: Think Big / Nose Horn
Seal: Loves To Sun Tan / Barks Underwater
Sheep: Wool Sweaters
Snail: Snail Mail? / Slow Mail
Squid: Black Ink
Squirrel: Your Best Friend / Nut Burrower
Stag Beetle: Love It / Powerful Jaw
Starfish: Star in the Sea / Star+Fish / Sea Star
Whale: Biggesy Mammal (Typo: Should be "Biggest Mammal") / Largest Mammal
Zebra: Herbivore / Fancy Stripes

Some of the animal-related quotes relate not to facts about the animals, but instead to the noise the animal makes, which is printed in a Japanese-influenced English dialect. For example:

Chicken: Kokekokko
Cow: Muuuuu

There are also two "golden" non-animal quotes: Golden Egg and Golden Log.

Flavors

Yan Yan comes in a variety of flavors. This includes vanilla sticks with chocolate, strawberry, mango, vanilla cream, and the newest, hazelnut, or chocolate sticks with vanilla cream.

Relation to other snacks

Pocky is a similar Japanese snack which includes thinner sticks pre-dipped in cream. The cream comes in a much wider variety of flavors such as green tea cream or honey-flavored cream. Yan Yan is dipped by the consumer themselves, and comes in a more limited assortment of flavors. Meiji also produces another snack called Hello Panda. It is a panda-shaped biscuit with either chocolate, strawberry, vanilla, or matcha (green tea) flavored fillings. Yan Yan is also similar to the American snack Dunk-a-roos.^[3]

Nutella has a similar snack called "Nutella & Go" that includes breadsticks or pretzels for dipping into their signature hazelnut spread.^[4] It has similar packaging to Yan Yan, but Yan Yan is significantly taller while Nutella & Go is wider.

References

^ "Products".
^ "KP Snacks - Brands - Choc-Dips".
^ Zhang, Jenny G. (2020-09-14). "The Ultimate Guide to Chinese Supermarket Snacks". Eater. Archived from the original on 2021-02-19. Retrieved 2021-03-03.
^ "Nutella® & Go | Nutella®".

External links

Official website (in Japanese)

[1] "Products".

[2] "KP Snacks - Brands - Choc-Dips".

[3] Zhang, Jenny G. (2020-09-14). "The Ultimate Guide to Chinese Supermarket Snacks". Eater. Archived from the original on 2021-02-19. Retrieved 2021-03-03.

[4] "Nutella® & Go | Nutella®".

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