I am not one to require too much of a reason to throw a mini cream puff party in the office, but Beard Papa's announcement of karintō cream puffs was a good one; so, I take the liberty of starting this spring snack write-up with our impressions.

If you're not familiar, karintō are those things in the snack aisle or local dagashi-ya (sweet shop) that look like dirty twigs. The dirt, however, is brown sugar and the twig is best explained as "fried." Not fried "something" but just . . . fried. The main ingredient besides sugar is flour, and they're crunchy like cookies despite being cooked like doughnuts. By the time you get that far, it's only a couple leaps to the cream-puff idea.

The website copy calls it a "masterpiece confection that can be confidently recommended to karintō fans since it captures the flavor of the real thing." Here are some comments from our tasting panel . . .