Back when I first came to Japan in the early 1990's, I found this snack bar in the Tokyo konbini called Milo. The Milo bars were kind of in the shape of Kit Kat bars, and were made up of pressed malt powder, and chocolate-coated. I liked them a lot, and would buy a pack when I had the money (I think under 200 yen, or $1 USD at the time). A few months later, they disappeared and although I kept an eye out for them ever since, I couldn't find them anywhere, and I had no idea why the stores weren't carrying them anymore. If you like Malted Milk Balls, it's similar, but with more malt.
So, two nights ago, when I was at Donkey and saw the familiar green colors, I hesitated to get excited, partly because it was on an over-sized box, rather than the previous plastic wrapper. That, and the picture on the front was of a tiny, shiny dark-colored rectangle about the shape of a single Hershey's piece, but double the thickness. The box was light, 200 yen ($1.75 in today's USD), and I couldn't find the piece count on the box anywhere. Gritting my teeth, I bought a box just to see what was inside. Mostly, it was just air, with maybe 10 small individually wrapped pieces. They didn't taste like malt, and just barely tasted like chocolate. One thing that I really liked about the old Milo bars was that the powdered malt would collapse in my mouth when I bit into it. With the new Milo abominations, there's no noticeable powder - just solid pseudo-chocolate with lines running through it.
Bottom line: Two big thumbs down. The Milo pieces don't have the original malt flavor or texture, and the amount you get is tiny for the price. I'll never make that mistake again.
