Nerunerunerune: The Original Japanese DIY Candy That Started It All

Before Popin' Cookin'. Before YouTube food unboxings. Before the world discovered Japanese DIY candy — there was a purple packet, two powder sachets, and a spoon. Nerunerunerune launched in 1979 and changed what candy could be. Forty-five years later, it is still on shelves, virtually unchanged, and still mesmerizing everyone who makes it.

What Is Nerunerunerune?

Nerunerunerune (ねるねるねるね) is a Japanese DIY candy kit made by Kabaya Foods. The name is an onomatopoeia derived from the Japanese verb neru — to knead, to mix, to work with your hands. You repeat it three times because that is exactly what you do: mix, mix, mix.

Each kit contains two or three powder packets, a small tray with compartments, and a tiny spoon. The process is simple. You pour one powder into the tray, add a small amount of water, stir — and the mixture begins to foam, expand, and change color before your eyes. Add the second powder, keep mixing, and the texture transforms into something stretchy, airy, and unlike anything else in the candy aisle.

The result is a bright, tangy, slightly fizzy candy with a texture somewhere between taffy and meringue. It is strange. It is fun. It is genuinely delicious.

The History of Japan's Original DIY Candy

Nerunerunerune was created by Kabaya Foods and first sold in Japan in 1979. At the time, the concept was genuinely radical: a candy that required the child to make it themselves, using a chemical reaction, and that looked completely different before and after preparation.

Japan in the late 1970s was entering a period of creative consumer product design. Toy manufacturers were experimenting with interactivity. The candy category, by contrast, had been largely passive. Kabaya asked a simple question: what if the act of eating was also the act of playing?

The answer was Nerunerunerune — and it was an immediate success. The product spawned an entirely new category of Japanese candy: chiikyugashi (知育菓子), or educational candy. Every DIY candy kit that followed — including Popin' Cookin', which launched two decades later — owes its existence to that original purple packet.

• 1979
  Nerunerunerune launches in Japan. Two-powder kit with color-changing reaction. Becomes an instant phenomenon in Japanese candy shops and school tuck shops nationwide.
• 1980s
  The product expands — new flavors added including grape, strawberry, and melon. The format remains unchanged. A generation of Japanese children grows up with Nerunerunerune as a childhood staple.
• 1999
  Popin' Cookin' debuts, inspired by the chiikyugashi category that Nerunerunerune created. The DIY candy market diversifies. Nerunerunerune remains the category's founding icon.
• 2010s
  YouTube discovers it. Videos of people making Nerunerunerune for the first time rack up tens of millions of views globally. Non-Japanese audiences experience the color-change reaction for the first time and are universally astonished.
• Today
  Still sold unchanged after 45 years. New limited-edition flavors appear seasonally, but the core two-powder format that launched in 1979 remains exactly as Kabaya designed it. A rare case of a product so well-designed it has never needed fixing.

How to Make Nerunerunerune

The process takes about three minutes and requires only water. Here is what actually happens at each step:

• Add Packet 1 to the tray — this is the base powder, usually containing sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and flavoring. It looks like colored sugar at this stage.
• Add water to the fill line — use cold water. The powder begins to dissolve and the mixture will appear unremarkable. This is the calm before the reaction.
• Stir vigorously — within 20–30 seconds the mixture begins to foam and expand. The color starts to shift. Keep stirring for 60 seconds until the foam is thick and airy.
• Add Packet 2 — this is the acid powder (usually citric or tartaric acid). The pH shifts. The color change happens immediately and dramatically. Stir until fully combined.
• Eat with the spoon — the candy is at its best immediately after mixing, when the texture is light and elastic. It deflates slowly over 10–15 minutes, so do not wait.

Nerunerunerune vs. Popin' Cookin': What Is the Difference?

Both are chiikyugashi, but they offer fundamentally different experiences:

Nerunerunerune is fast, dramatic, and sensory. The color change is immediate. The texture is the point. It is more about the reaction than the result — you eat it quickly, without ceremony. It is the candy equivalent of a science demonstration.

Popin' Cookin' is slower, more intricate, and detail-oriented. You build a miniature food — a sushi tray, a ramen bowl — over 15–20 minutes. The result looks like something. You photograph it before eating. It is more craft project than chemistry experiment.

They complement each other perfectly. Nerunerunerune is the immediate hit of energy and surprise. Popin' Cookin' is the extended creative session. Most PopnCandy Tokyo boxes include both, because the best Japanese candy experience includes both.

Where to Find Nerunerunerune Outside Japan

Nerunerunerune is not widely available in international supermarkets. It occasionally appears in Asian grocery stores and import shops, but stock is inconsistent and products are often months past their best-before date by the time they reach shelves.

The most reliable way to get fresh Nerunerunerune outside Japan is through a Japanese candy subscription box — where kits ship directly from Japan every month, in-date and authentic. You also get to discover which flavors and limited editions are currently available in Japanese shops, rather than whatever happened to survive the import chain.