Afternoon Tea x Pocky

Kirin bottled tea brand "Gogo no Koucha" (午後の紅茶 meaning "Afternoon Tea") and Glico's "Pocky Midi" currently have a collaboration product campaign going on.

If you buy a bottle of Gogo no Koucha's "Honnori Cinnamon no Apple Tea" (ほんのりシナモンのアップルティー meaning "faintly cinnamon apple tea") and a box of "Butter Hanayagu Potteri Custard" (バター華やぐ ぽってりカスタード loosely meaning "Buttery Rich Custard") Pocky Midi, you can combine the packages to make a charming fairytale scene.

Being a sucker for advertising--although I also do happen to like both Gogo no Koucha and Pocky quite a lot--of course I had to go out and buy both products shortly after seeing the ad. (At Lawson's, it was 151yen for the Gogo no Koucha, and 193 yen for the Pocky Midi.)

On the package, it recommends drinking some tea eating some Pocky, and then drinking tea again for the best taste experience. Apparently the tea is supposed to taste different after eating the Pocky, but I honestly couldn't tell the difference.

The tea is tasty; although if you are hoping for a good balance of cinnamon and apple, you'll probably be disappointed since--true to the flavour name--it really is nothing more than a "faint" after taste of cinnamon at best. But--as I find to be the case with most white-chocolate based treats--the Pocky is rather over sweet. Surprisingly it does actually have a bit of a buttery taste, though, so it's not just a standard custard flavour.  

What I liked most about the products, though, is the variety of arrangements possible due to the fact that there are two different Pocky box designs and the label on the tea also has two different designs.

Based on the advertising, it's likely the makers intended them to be aligned in this manner:

 

But the products can also be aligned in this manner if you so desire:

 

Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I'd like to think this could be considered a small win for equality?

Apology Burger

(Note: This is a follow-up to my previous post about "McDonald's Japan's Unbelievable Customer Service.")

So the call from the McDonald's manager came on Sunday around 11:20am--a good 25 minutes earlier than I was expecting. He asked if I would mind if he left/came over a little bit earlier, which was fine by me since I was up anyway and had not yet eaten anything.

As promised, he came bearing not only my 690yen refund for the Hawaiian BBQ Pork Burger (Set) that wasn't, but also with a freshly made replacement set.

The conversation was about as awkward as you would expect it to be--with him apologizing again in excruciatingly polite Japanese and ending with a 90-degree bow. Thankfully it was a very short conversation--quite a bit shorter than the phone conversation. Not an experience I would want to repeat, but some did good come out of it.

Having had some time to think about what I would say, I was glad that I was at least able to somewhat apologize for having inadvertently made it into such a big deal with comments along the lines of: "I"m sorry, if only I had noticed it while I was in the store..." and "Thank you and sorry for making you come all the way out to deliver this to me."

Also, I was glad that he did in fact come over to our apartment instead of me going over to the McDonald's (as my husband suggested I should call back and say that I would do). If I had gone into the store to pick up the refund, all of the staff would know my face and I doubt that I would feel comfortable eating there again anytime in the near future. But this way, only the manager can connect my face to the complaint. And since I had never seen him before I opened the door, I think it's fairly safe to assume that the manager isn't usually out front, seeing customers.

As for the "proper" Hawaiian BBQ Pork Burger itself, well, it probably wasn't worth all of the fuss. There wasn't even all that much pulled pork on the burger anyway--I had to look twice after taking off the top bun to confirm that I hadn't somehow managed to get a pork-less burger a second time. The pork definitely did make the burger tastier the second time round but it didn't improve the taste enough that I would bother going back to eat it a third time.

So yeah, if you're going to make a complaint at McDonald's, I would highly recommend doing it in person while you are at the restaurant, rather than escalating things by filing a complaint through the McDonald's Japan's online comment/inquiy form (which I forgot to mention in the previous post was a bit of a pain to find anyway). My husband said that the apology wouldn't have been so over the top if I hadn't gone higher up the command chain with the complaint, and I tend to agree with him. 

The idea of the personal apology and hand-delivered replacement meal sounds impressive and makes you feel like the company values its customers in theory, but in real life it is just a really awkward and embarrassing situation all around.  And if--as my husband suggested (I hadn't even considered the possibility until he pointed it out)--it was indeed only by command of the McDonald's headquarters that made the manager apologize in the way that he did, and it wasn't something that the manager genuinely felt that he should do, then that definitely changes my perspective/feelings on the matter. It would suck to work at a company that makes you apologize so abjectly over such a small issue. Valuing customers is important, but it is more important to value your employees and to treat them with respect!

I would like to think the best of the manager and McDonald's, though. Even though I would never ask or expect someone to go so far in apology--especially over such a minor matter--I would like to take the gesture at face value as a sign of the amount of respect the Towada Aeon McDonald's has for its customers. 

And to end the post on a lighter note, have fun playing a game of "Spot the (Pulled) Pork"!