Pocky, a sweet Japanese snack invented in the ‘60s, has established itself internationally, spreading not only throughout Asia, but also North America, Europe (particularly France), Australia, and New Zealand. While reading about Pocky’s history, two of the most interesting things I learned are: They were often used as stir sticks for alcoholic drinks (genius), and there was once a brand of Pocky specifically for men called Pocky Bitter. Imagine your dad eating bitter Pocky simply because it’s marketed towards men. Masculinity is often hilarious.
This taste test is all about what flavors jive best with these thin little cookie-like biscuits. Some flavors make so much sense and just work, like matcha, and banana, which reminded me of tea cookies and banana cream pudding, respectively. Other flavors, while still good, don’t spark that same magic. Not everything goes well with a biscuit. So which Pocky flavors came up clutch? Read the list below to find out.
The following article contains affiliate links that may generate a small commission to us when you make a purchase through the link. Learn more about how we work with affiliates here.
- Butter Chocolate
-
Gorgeous. Beautiful. Delicious. Critics (i.e. us) are calling this the Pocky to end all Pocky. There’s something whimsical and wonderful about this butter chocolate biscuit stick. First of all, the snack stick is rather large in size; this pocky is definitely thicker compared to the other flavors. And the taste? Bro, the taste is magical. The chocolate does in fact taste lusciously buttery, and when paired with the sugary biscuit, it almost tastes like a homemade pie crust. The depth of flavor here is off the charts. You get the decadent fattiness of the butter, the creaminess of the chocolate, and the crispy sugariness of the biscuit. Masterful. Truly, though, the butter is what puts this over the top. Simple is king, and fat is flavor. That’s why this is number one.
Credit: Paula Kunatee / Amazon
- Chocolate Banana Cream
-
The mellow fruitiness of the banana just works so well with a Pocky stick. Lovely is the word for this flavor. It’s just so light and flavorful. Chocolate and banana are somehow still an underrated pairing, but this Pocky knows what’s up. It’s really aromatic—the banana works just as well with the biscuit as it does with the chocolate. You know what this reminds me of? Banana pudding with vanilla wafers on top. Damn. I just made a note in my phone to make that soon. It’s always delightful when a snack flavor reminds you of a specific dessert.
Credit: Paula Kunatee / Walmart
- Coconut Chocolate
-
The Sporked office has a proclivity towards coconut—the flavor consistently ranks for us in our tastings. Right off the bat, I love the packaging of this one. Some Glico Pocky products have a neat little opening near the top that makes the biscuits easier to pull out of their package. Points for function, here. And the taste is damn good, too. There are little shreds of coconut on the chocolate that provide both texture and flavor, and there’s a lot of coconut. Really, the biscuit is the last thing you taste here, and I think that’s great. Give us chocolate and flavor add-ons. If I wanted a plain biscuit, I’d be looking to the French.
Credit: Paula Kunatee / Walmart
- Crunchy Strawberry
-
The biscuit stick here is darker, and thus carries a bit more of a more roasted, more bitter (For Men™) taste. It tastes a lot like a chocolate covered strawberry, with an added cookie crunch to boot. It’s buttery, savory, and fragrant. Out of all the strawberry-flavored Pocky we tried, this won out handily. It just nails the composition of flavor. Same ideal packaging as the Coconut Chocolate Pocky, too. It sucks to rip open a bag of Pocky from the side and have to fish them out. You get to avoid that nuisance here.
Credit: Paula Kunatee / Walmart
- Almond Crunch
-
Again, these have great packaging that allows you to open the top of the Pocky package easily. Almond Crunch is packed with almonds, and they provide a delightful crispy crunch you don’t get with most other Pocky. The texture is wonderful, and it also makes these Pocky sticks look fantastical and chef-like. That said, I kind of wish these contained something other than almonds. They don’t do much flavor wise—maybe they need to be roasted and salted? Or perhaps some pistachio would make this Pocky flavor sing more. This is not a bad Pocky stick, but we unanimously ranked it in fifth place compared to the others.
Credit: Paula Kunatee / Instacart
- Milky Matcha
-
With the Milky Matcha Pocky stick, you get the earthy, grassy tea flavor from the matcha, with the added bonus of creaminess. It’s quite a lovely combination, almost like a matcha tea latte. I also tasted a little bit of nuttiness that I quite enjoyed. This is like eating a wonderfully creamy, aromatic tea biscuit. Hard to argue with the flavors here. It all makes sense and delivers something familiar and delicious.
Credit: Paula Kunatee / Glico
- Cookies & Cream
-
This is creamy and sweet, just like you’d expect, but I’m not sure that cookies and cream meshes all that well with the Pocky biscuit itself. Cookies and cream flavor excels in a Hershey’s bar, or as an ice cream, but when paired with a buttery biscuit stick, that melt-in-your-mouth quality gets lost. That said, several of my coworkers dug this one. I guess if you’re a die-hard cookies and cream fan, you just love that crumbled cookies and vanilla flavor combo regardless of where it ends up.
Credit: Paula Kunatee / Walmart
Best of the Best
Best Fruit Combo
Best Sporked Pick
Best Strawberry
Best Texture
Best Matcha
Best American
Other products we tried: Strawberry, Chocolate, Chocolate Almond, Blueberry Yoghurt, Ultra Slim, Choco Charred Milk, Matcha.
Film your own taste test at home and share with us using #SporkedTasteTest for a chance to be featured on our social pages!
My wife loves the strawberry chocolate pocky which are easily accessible at five below.
Danny have you tried the salty milk chocolate ones? They’re delicious imo