Pokémon Poké Ball rice balls now on sale in Japan, don’t taste like jelly donuts【Taste test】

7-Eleven is the next stop on our quest to become Pokémon food masters.

As we all know, Friday was an important day for Pokémon fans. What’s that? Pokémon Scarlet and Violet came out that day? Oh, yeah, that’s cool and all. But November 18 was also the release date for 7-Eleven’s new Pokémon rice balls.

▼ The onigiri (rice ball) section of Japanese convenience stores is always stocked with great stuff, but especially so today.

7-Eleven Japan has rolled out a trio of Poké Ball-themed rice balls, representing the standard Poké Ball and its upgraded Great Ball and Ultra Ball forms.

Naturally, I needed to procure all three of these and take them back to the SoraNews24 taste-testing lab for further analysis, starting with the regular Poké Ball.

Oddly enough, it’s the most expensive onigiri of the three, despite the in-game Poké Ball being the most affordably priced method of Pocket Monster catching. That said, at 172 yen (US$1.25) it’s not going to shatter your budget.

Out of its wrapper, we can see that the Poké Ball rice ball features a nicely thick pork sausage patty with a strip of seaweed wrapped around it. It’s got a nice meaty texture as you bite into it, and a peppery kick that makes it reminiscent of Spam musubi, plus a large dollop of mayo waiting between the rice and pork.

Next up, the 162-yen Great Ball.

This is an onigiri-version of omurice, a Japanese-style rice omelet. Instead of being entirely encased in egg, though, you get a nice fluffy layer of egg at the top.

▼ If you’ve been playing Scarlet and Violet, it might remind you of the pompadour hairstyle sported by new Water-type starter Quaxly.

This is a special rice omelet, though, because in addition to the standard ingredients of egg, chicken, and ketchup-seasoned rice, it also has demi-glace sauce with mushrooms, which have a surprising amount of presence. Between the sweetness of the ketchup and the complexity of the mushrooms, this is an onigiri that kids and adults can both enjoy, much like the Pokémon games themselves.

And last, we come to the 151-yen Ultra Ball.

This one is an onigiri made with rice cooked in tonkotsu pork stock ramen broth, but the flavor isn’t as overpowering as you’d expect, and isn’t particularly salty either. Instead, the soy sauce makes the bigger impression, and the rice itself tastes similar to soy broth-based takekomigohan dishes like gomoku onigiri.

At the center you have what’s called a hanjuku tamago in Japanese, a boiled egg with a soft center. Hanjuku tamago are popular additions to bowls of ramen, and its presence here serves a similar purpose, adding some moist richness with just a touch of decadent gooeyness.

As long-time overseas fans will remember, once upon a time the English-localized version of the Pokémon anime tried to pass off the in-series onigiri as “jelly donuts.” So it’s kind of cool to see the franchise now doing something that puts onigiri in the spotlight as well, especially when 7-Eleven has gone three for three in the deliciousness department.

The Poké Ball onigiri are on sale now at 7-Eleven branches across Japan, and will be available for a limited, undetermined time.

Photos ©SoraNews24
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