If you haven’t had Pepero before (this was my first time too), they’re these fun little biscuit sticks dipped in chocolate or other flavored coatings. They look kind of unique and remind me a lot of Pocky, which you’ve probably seen before. I grabbed a box of the Strawberry Pepero from Costco, and I’m excited to share what I thought of them!
Location in Store
I’ve been eyeing these in the bakery section at Costco for quite some time. They’re near the Seedwise Clusters and the Kirkland Signature Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies. The item number is 1803385.
Taste
These taste similar to Pocky if you’ve had them before. The Pepero are composed of a thin biscuit stick that’s covered in strawberry cream with little crunchy strawberry flavored chunks on top. The strawberry coating is sweet but a bit tangy and has a flavor similar to strawberry yogurt.
The coating is sweet and tangy but noticeably artificial tasting. Despite being artificial, the flavor of the strawberry is quite nice. I found myself having a hard time stopping eating the Pepero! They’re addictive!
The stick on its own is dry, crunchy and reminds me of a cross between a pretzel and a cookie. The little bits on the outside don’t add as much texture as you’d think. They’re a bit crunchy but there’s a lot of crunch already from the biscuit.
Cost
The 256 gram box of Pepero costs $7.99 Canadian at Costco. Inside the bigger box there are eight smaller 32 gram boxes. In my opinion, this seems pretty cheap for a unique product from Korea!
Convenience
In each smaller box the Pepero come packaged in plastic bag and there are eight biscuit sticks in one package. These are great as a sweet snack and I think kids would be over the moon bringing these to school! The best before date listed on my box is about eight months from when I purchased it.
Nutrition
Calories
One small box of Pepero contains 160 calories, eight grams of fat, 21 grams of carbohydrates, one gram of fibre, 10 grams of sugar, two grams of protein and 85 milligrams of sodium. That’s not as many calories or as much sugar as I expected. Still, these aren’t low in fat or carbohydrates.
Ingredients
The ingredients list has a ton of ingredients I wish not to see! Ingredients like palm oil, artificial flavor, glucose-fructose and lots of additives, preservatives and chemicals. The Pepero contains wheat, barley, milk, soy, almond and peanut. It may contain egg and sulphites.
Scoring
Taste: 8.5/10
Cost: 9/10
Convenience: 10/10
Nutrition: 0/10
Overall
Give it a try!
These are super tasty, my whole family loved them, especially my toddler. Due to the unhealthy ingredients these are definitely going to be more of a treat than an everyday food!
Have you tried the Costco Lotte Pepero? What did you think of them?
Please note that this review was not paid for or sponsored by any third party. This product was purchased by Costcuisine for the purpose of producing this review. The opinions in this review are strictly those of Costcuisine. Costcuisine is not affiliated with Costco or any of its suppliers. In the event that Costcuisine receives compensation for a post from the manufacturer of a product or some other third party, the arrangement will be clearly disclosed (including where the manufacturer of a product provides Costcuisine with a free sample of the product).
