is a Japanese snack food made by Meiji Seika since 1979. It comes in a package with two compartments. One side has biscuit sticks (which can be sometimes called cracker sticks), the other side has chocolate, strawberry, vanilla, or yogurt flavored frosting used for dipping. The sticks themselves may also be flavored. Some Yan Yan products are sold in rectangular containers with 9 sticks and dip. There is also a new version which includes two flavored dips.
In 1982, British company KP Snacks began licensing Yan Yan for UK markets releasing it under the name Choc Dips.
The sticks
The sticks were once plain, but Meiji later printed pictures of various animals on them with quotes relating to that animal. The quotes are in English, but often appear unorthodox to native English speakers. Examples of these animal quotes include:
Balloon: Goes Pop Bat: Only In The Night / Flying Mammal Beetle: Thick Shiny Shell / Lucky Color: Brown Butterfly: Flower to Flower Cat: Has Nine Lives / Say Meow Chick: Eager to Hatch / Lucky Color: Yellow Chicken: Kokekokko / Cluck Cluck Cow: Muuuuu Duck: Go For A Swim / Quack, Quack Elephant: Jumbo / Longest Nose Fox: Beware Of Lies / Cunning And Sly Frog: Amphibian / Ribbit Giraffe: Tallest Mammal / Longest Neck Goat: You Are Lucky Today / Don't Feed Paper Grown Baby: Cradle Them All Horse: Gallop Away / My "Neigh"bor Kettle: Goes Ssss Lion: Roar Mole: In A Hole / Born to Dig Mouse: Eats Cheese / Do Not Be Timid Octopus: Eight Arms / Lucky Number: 8 Owl: Active At Night / Night Predator Panda: Go for More / Loves Bamboo Rabbit: Eat More Carrots Rhinoceros: Think Big / Nose Horn Seal: Loves To Sun Tan / Barks Underwater Sheep: Wool Sweaters Snail: Snail Mail? / Slow Mail Squid: Black Ink Squirrel: Your Best Friend / Nut Burrower Stag Beetle: Love It / Powerful Jaw Starfish: Star in the Sea / Star+Fish / Sea Star Whale: Biggesy Mammal (Typo: Should be "Biggest Mammal") / Largest Mammal Zebra: Herbivore / Fancy Stripes
Some of the animal-related quotes relate not to facts about the animals, but instead to the noise the animal makes, which is printed in a Japanese-influenced English dialect. For example:
Chicken: Kokekokko Cow: Muuuuu
There are also two "golden" non-animal quotes: Golden Egg and Golden Log.
Flavors Yan Yan comes in a variety of flavors. This includes vanilla sticks with chocolate, strawberry, mango, purple yam, vanilla cream, and the newest, hazelnut, or chocolate sticks with vanilla cream.
Similar snacks Pocky is a similar Japanese snack which includes thinner sticks pre-dipped in cream. The cream comes in a much wider variety of flavors such as green tea cream or honey-flavored cream. Yan Yan is dipped by the consumer themselves, and comes in a more limited assortment of flavors. Meiji also produces another snack called Hello Panda. It is a panda-shaped biscuit with either chocolate, strawberry, vanilla, or matcha (green tea) flavored fillings. Yan Yan is also similar to the American snack Dunk-a-roos.
Nutella has a similar snack called Nutella & Go that includes breadsticks or pretzels for dipping into their signature hazelnut spread. It has similar packaging to Yan Yan, but Yan Yan is significantly taller while Nutella & Go is wider.
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