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7-Eleven Japan definitely offers a wide variety of tasty onigiri (rice balls), but this week they've delighted Pokémon fans with the clever idea to package a new trio of rice balls as Poké Balls! The new edible Poké Rice Balls were released in celebration of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, and come in three flavors presented as Poké Balls, Ultra Balls, and Master Balls. Now that they've hit 7-Eleven shelves, we decided to make a convenience store run to catch em all and give them a taste test.
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We first tried out the Poké Ball rice ball, which as you can see from the English label, consists of pork sausage, garlic, and mayonnaise.
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Opening it up, we were treated to a serving of tightly packed rice flavored with black pepper, and a teriyaki pork sausage patty that brings Spam Musubi to mind.
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Biting into it, you get quite a garlicy and saucy kick from the creamy center of the rice ball, which is filled with a garlic-mayo sauce. For the "standard" option in the Poké Ball rice ball trio, it definitely packs a lot of bold flavor.
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Next up was the Great Ball. While the label reads "Omelet, Chicken, and Ketchup", the rice ball is a miniature version of a Japanese café favorite--omurice, or omelet rice. Unwrapping it, you'll find a rice ball topped by the ideal "fluffy" and round egg that most identify with well made omelet rice.
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Underneath the egg portion is a very rich layer of demi-glace sauce, as well as ketchup and chicken-flavored rice with a serving of mushrooms. This will definitely be a hit with fans of Japanese retro café-style omelet rice, as it's very much a tasty compact serving of that. Ketchup hating trainers may want to keep this Great Ball in their bag, however, as it's quite loaded with ketchup flavor.
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Last but not least was the Ultra Ball. The "Pork, Egg, and Soy Sauce" ball is actually a miniature recreation of tonkotsu pork broth ramen in rice ball form.
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The rice ball is highlighted by a hard-boiled egg in the center, the type you typically find as a topping in a bowl of hearty ramen. This hard-boiled egg has actually been soaked in the broth of tonkotsu pork ramen, giving it a very distinct porky ramen soup flavor.
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If you can forgive the sloppiness of the image, when you really dig into the rice ball, it is quite saucy! This is thanks to the use of the ramen broth, but also a very smoky soy sauce slathered rice. Of the three, this was probably our favorite, as it really did capture the hard hitting but satisfying flavor of a bowl of tonkotsu ramen--it's definitely the most filling too!
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All three Poké Ball rice balls are currently available at 7-Eleven Japan.