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They say girls love sweets because the endorphins released when eating them help to get rid of bad moods and make everything better. But if we’re being honest, most people of any gender want their foul moods to be whisked away by the delightful taste of sugary sweets! However, sometimes your problems can’t be solved with just cakes and ice cream and you still have so much pent-up frustration that can only be released by DESTROYING something. If you run into this kind of situation, we have the perfect solution for you: a popular sweet from Korea that must first be smashed with a hammer before you can enjoy it.

Normally only sold at Iwataya, a store in Fukuoka City, it’s not surprising that many people are encountering this sweet for the first time at Shibuya Hikarie. Originating from Germany, this “snowball” or schneeballen, was adopted in Korea and has become very popular there.

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The schneeballen is shaped like a perfectly round ball, about 7-8cm (around 3 inches) in diameter. Strips of dough are made into a ball and then fried and coated with chocolate and powdered sugar. What separates this sweet from the rest is how you eat it. Almost like a Terry’s Chocolate Orange, you have to smash it first before you get to eat it! You can even buy a cute little “Schnee Hammer” to hit them with.

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Image: Facebook (シュネーバレン Schneeballen Japan)

Knowing that these tasty little treats would only be sold from August 28 to September 10, we rushed out to try them. Coming in 11 different flavors including white chocolate, coconut chocolate, cinnamon, butter garlic and sweet onion, each schneeballen runs you 540 yen (US $5.18). For “journalistic purposes”, we got three different flavors: chocolate, pink chocolate and sweet onion, which netted us a pretty pink box.

▼A towel underneath will hopefully protect your furniture from any errant hammer swings!

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We recommend smashing the schneeballen in the little bag they provide, or else you are going to see a ton of pastry flying about. First, we tried hitting the sweet onion one, and were quite disappointed when it crumbled away after our very first whack. The two chocolate ones were a lot firmer, and it took us eight hits to break them apart into bite-sized pieces.

▼On to the taste test!

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We were quite happy to find that the fried dough was crisp and firm and not at all oily. The chocolate flavor was bitter but the nuts provided a delicate sweetness. The pink chocolate had a very strawberry-y taste, but our favorite of the three was the sweet onion. The smell and flavor were very satisfying, and it was more savory than sweet, a snack that would pair great with a beer.

Let’s be honest, what really puts this pastry on a whole different level is the ability to “smash and eat.” With other bakeries making pastries that just aren’t hits, why would you ever want anything else? There is just one requirement if you decide to go to Shibuya Hikarie to try this smashingly sweet dessert:

▼ You must dance like this on your way there.

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Image: goldeneye926

Images: RocketNews24
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