Good Taste Shrimp Candy?

There was no cake today but we were not completely empty handed.  We picked up a few of the classics to be found in the vending machine which is always the place of last resort.  In addition we had a box of "candy"  that was brought to us back from a visit to China.  The name is certainly appealing - Good Taste.  The part that is a little disarming is the picture or a shrimp on the front of the package.  Shrimp does has a good taste but is this shrimp candy?  We were a little puzzled as you can tell by some of the expressions.  We had one of our Chinese speaking colleagues translate some of the info but there wasn't much of a description.  We were a little leery.  Some people so much that they just said no. You'd think this was durian or something.

Today's selection

This looks a little fishy!

That is definitely a shrimp on the box of candy!

Well at least "Good Taste" is a positive.

What is this shrimp all about anyway?

A few more skeptics!

Will need a translator for what it says on the back!

Fortunately we had one!

Well we opened the box and tried a few of the "Good Taste" treats. They were individually wrapped and each had an image of a shrimp on the wrapping. When you took them out of the wrapping they looked a little bit like a caterpillar not shrimp. Once we tried them however, it became clear these had nothing to do with shrimp at all at least in the taste category.  This was indeed a type of candy with a hard sugar  outside and something crispy peanut filling on the inside.  As you bit into them they crunched in your mouth and reminded us of something. We decided that minus the chocolate they were reminiscent of a Butterfinger candy here in the US.  The taste was very similar and they actually were not that bad at all. 

Little shrimps all in a row!

It does look a little crustacean-like!

After all that it is a Chinese Version of Butterfinger!

So why is there a shrimp on the cover?  It was a puzzle until one of our colleagues from mainland China joined us.  We were told that when she was younger this type of candy was offered up and was usually colored red.  With that color and their shape they reminded people of shrimp and thus the association began. There is some reference in import guidelines to "Red Shrimp Crisp Candy."  Apparently they are not imported here much if at all but are well known in China. We were fortunate to have someone pick some up for us otherwise we would still be grossed out by the notion of Shrimp Candy.

Alternative for the Shrimp candy skeptics!