What is Pocky?

It was pointed out to by the lovely Leigh, that I didn't explain what Pocky was in my What flavour Pocky are you? post, for those not-knowing-what-Pocky-is people.

Pocky (rhymes with rocky) is a thin stick of biscuit with a flavoured coating. The basic version is chocolate but there are and have been many different flavours. Wikipeidia lists;

Chocolate flavors

Anime Pocky
Chocolate
Giant Chocolate
Giant Double Choco
Gokuboso Pocky (Superfine Pocky)
Little Pocky
Marble Pocky Chocolate
Marble Royal Milk Tea
Men’s Pocky

Fruit/Nut flavors
Almond
Chocolate Almond Crush
White Chocolate Almond Crush
White Chocolate/Chocolate Almond Crush
Café au Lait Almond Crush
Mild Milk Almond Crush
Honey White Almond Crush
Anglaise Almond Crush
Banana
Choco Banana
Coconut
Coconut Milk
Cinnamon Apple
Green Apple
Mango
Melon
Pine Cream
Strawberry
Tsubu Tsubu Strawberry
Tsubu Tsubu Giant Strawberry

Mousse flavors
Azuki
Black & Latte
Blueberry Yogurt
Choco
Chocolate
Creamy
Extra Chocolate
Mild Chocolate
Hazelnut Milk Chocolate
Custard
Green Tea
Hokkaido White
Royal Milk Tea
Strawberry
Tiramisu
White
New White

Decorer flavors
Berry Chocolate
Grape Mild Chocolate
Lemon Chocolate
Mont-Blanc White Chocolate
Peach & Strawberry Chocolate
White Wedding Chocolate
Apple Cream Custard
Bananu Semi-Sucrée
Chocolat de Caramel
Fraise au Chocolat
Gateau Chocolat
Strawberry Gâteau

Seasonal flavors
Special Pocky flavors available only during certain seasons.
Winter - Fuyuno Kuchidoke (Winter Melt-in-Mouth)
Winter - Murasaki Imo (Sweet Potato)
Spring - Honey
Summer - Kiwi Mango
Cocoa Powder

Regional flavors
Special Pocky flavors available only in certain regions of Japan.
Nagano - Grape
Hokkaido - Yubari Melon
Kyushu - Kyushu Giant Mikan
Kyoto - Kyoto Powdered Tea Azuki Bean
Kobe - Kobe Wine

Reverse
Reverse
White
Strawberry

Fortune Telling Pocky
Honey & Milk
Grape
Strawberry

Pocky G
Pocky G
Berry
Neil

Five Flavor Combination
Pocky with a combination of five flavors. Limited edition 2006.
Kurogo (Five Black) - black pine nut, black soybean, black karin, black sesame seed, unpolished black rice
Goka (Five Fruit) - peach, apricot, jujube, plum, chestnut

Crush
Almond
Cookie
Strawberry

Special Occasion flavors
2001 Giant Rainbow (Contains Giant Cider, Giant Green Tea, Giant Custard, Giant Blueberry, Giant Orange, Giant Chocolate)

European Pocky (Mikado)
Milchschokolade (Milk Chocolate)
Zartherb (Bittersweet Chocolate)

Other Pocky flavors
Caramel
Cereal Almond
Kinako (Soybean)
Kurogoma (Black Sesame)
Lemon Cheesecake
Milk
Milk Chocolate Whole Wheat
Pudding
Pumpkin
Yogurt

There is a Pocky Gallery where you can see the packaging of many of the flavours listed above.

My personal favourites are Almond Crush, Coconut and the good old plain chocolate Pocky.

Unfortunately, you can't just go into a store and have all of those flavour choices. Japan giveth flavours and snacks and just as quickly taketh away. Just when you finally decide that you do like Soybean flavoured Pocky, you head down to your local Circle K and find that it is no longer sold. Wayne and I make a point of going to the convenience stores every now and then just to see what new snacks have been released and which have dissappeared.

While Pocky isn't my favourite Japanese snack (that place is reserved for Kinokonoyama), it's up there. What I do love though, is their commercials. Just for fun, I mean research purposes, he's an ad featuring Morning Musume.