Last month I got excited about corn-flavored Pretz, the crunchy Japanese pretzel sticks.

Yesterday Iris and I went to Uwajimaya. While we shopped I entertained her by pretending to be the huge dragon hanging from the ceiling and saying things like, “Mmm…I smell roast duck!” Later in the car Iris said she was the dragon, and she said, “This dragon LOVES POCKY STICKS.”

We did get some Pocky sticks (Almond Crush flavor), but I was more excited about something else: Cacao Pretz.

Aside from the fact that Cacao Pretz are a tasty snack (even though they taste very little like chocolate), I was excited about them in a purely philosophical sense. They represent the fulcrum of the Pocky/Pretz lever. The crux of the matter. It is as if a regular chocolate Pocky, enamored of its Pretzy cousin, managed to absorb its chocolate skin.

Try them. Ours are gone.