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When you talk about soft candy in Japan, the first thing that comes to mind is Hi-Chew made by Morinaga. These delightfully chewy candies pack a mouthful of flavor in a small soft package. The flavors can range from your run-of -the-mill candy flavors like strawberry, grape and orange, to prefecture specific flavors like Hokkaido’s Yubari melon. The candy has gotten so popular that you can even find it pretty easily in stores (and even a factory) in the United States as well.

Anyone who has eaten a Hi-Chew knows that the taste and texture is so nice that just one piece is never good enough. Even when you try putting two of them in your mouth it doesn’t quite hit the spot. Soon you realize you’ve eaten the entire pack and have to buy another one! If only there was a larger version of the candy that we could sink our teeth into. RocketKitchen isn’t talking just medium or large size Hi-Chew either, we are going gigantic!

When you look at the candy, it’s easy to see that there are two parts to it, the inside and the outside, so we decided to go with green apple for the outside and strawberry for the inside. In order to assemble this giant piece of candy, we knew we were going to have to get a lot of little Hi-Chews. Our ingredients consisted of 60 packages of each flavor and with each package containing 12 pieces, that adds up to 1,440 regular-sized of Hi-Chews!

▼ Our reporter P.K. Sunjun and his necessary items.

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Step number one was simply unwrapping all the individual pieces, during which the office filled with the sweet signature smell of the candy. It took us about two hours, but the hardest part was the self-control it took to not sneak a piece while we were working.

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In order to keep the candy soft and pliable, we occasionally would microwave the “ingredients” on defrost. Piece by piece, we painstakingly combined the 720 inner strawberry pieces and the 720 outer green apple pieces. While the strawberry center could be mashed all together and shaped as one piece, the green apple outside layer was separated into four portions and shaped to fit around the middle. It wasn’t easy, but thanks to Mr. Sato’s and P.K.’s well defined arm muscles, the gigantic Hi-Chew finally took its proper shape.

▼ There is a reason for the lack of shirts…

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▼ Maybe…

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With a little bit of perseverance and the flat surface of the table to help sharpen the edges of the big candy, we had our gigantic Hi-Chew! The thing ended up weighing 10 kilograms (about 22 pounds) and was so big it didn’t fit into the microwave anymore.

▼ We feel very lucky our table didn’t break.

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▼ Here’s a phone as a handy size reference.

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▼ The muscle-y powers of Mr. Sato and P.K. created this gigantic, fruity Hi-Chew. We are very proud.

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The only thing left to do was a taste test. But since we couldn’t break off a piece at all, we ended up allowing the candy to cool and then cutting it up with a knife. The “cooking” process was so easy; you can definitely try this one out at home! It might even qualify as a good cardio workout, so on your next day off, how about grabbing 1,440 pieces of Hi-Chew and attempting to build your own gigantic piece? Please share your results with us in the comments if you do!

Images: ©RocketNews24
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