Not too long ago I was contacted by Tokyo Treat to see if I would be willing to take a look at their November 2021 subscription box and give it a review. I’ve never ordered from them before, or tried any other Japanese snack boxes before, so I thought this might be really interesting to try out. I’ve been trying to find new and interesting things to review on the blog, and I know I’ve been away from the site for a while, so why not come back with something everyone loves, food!
I got my box in not too long ago, and quickly realized that I wasn’t going to be able to handle this all on my own, so I called in the troops. My husband and one of my coworkers joined me in giving their opinions and trying out some of the snacks, and I think having their wide variety of tastes and experiences really helped me form a better and more rounded opinion of all the various snacks and flavors sent to us.
Tokyo Treat is a curated monthly box of Japanese soda and snacks delivered from Japan right to your door. The staff at Tokyo Treat will sometimes select a theme for their monthly boxes, and then curate the selection of snacks accordingly. This month’s theme was Fruity Fall, so they picked a bunch of different items that represent some flavors from the fall season in Japan as well as some especially fruity items. You can check out the full selection on their website as well as learn more about their company.
One of my main concerns for this review was to really dig in and see if the price for the box was worth it to order every month. Currently it’s $35 a month, or their yearly plan is $31.50. They have a few other pricing options, but it seems like it’s all between $30-35 a month. Within the box you get: one drink, a rare Kit Kat flavor, some full-sized candy, and about 2.7lbs of snacks. After looking over everything, going through the snacks, and discussing things with my husband and coworker, I think this box would work best for people with: (a) a large family, (b) a lot of friends to share with, or (c) a club or group focused on Japanese culture or food. I’m not sure the price point and amount of snacks works for just one person. I think it can get pricey very quickly and I think the amount of snacks every month may get overwhelming.
What I noticed when we started going through everything sent in the box was that there were definitely a few different things I’ve never seen before and quite a few different flavors to try out. I have to say though, that if you’re expecting everything to be full-size, you’ll probably be disappointed. There were about four things I would consider full-size snacks and the rest were trial-size to airplane-size. It definitely seems like they put a lot of emphasis on the Kit Kats, the Pocky, and the chips. There was also one full-size bottle of Fanta included. In terms of flavors, we felt that there was definitely a wide variety of fruity ones, but a lot of the savory flavors wound up tasting too close to one another and all very similar to a BBQ flavor.
I would say that the most of the flavors invoked fall for me, but some like the Peach-flavored Fanta, the Blueberry Pocky, and the strawberry ice-cream kit were a little too Spring/Summery that they felt a little out of place in this box even though it was “Fruity Fall.” The savory flavors were more in line with the theme, with okonomiyaki, chestnut, peanut, and mont blanc. Obviously, with a mix of so many different kinds of snacks, you’re bound to have some that are hit and miss or ones that appeal to some people but not others. My coworker and I aren’t a huge fan of nutty flavors or the mont blanc flavor, but my husband seemed fine with them. On the other hand, I was more fine with some of the sweeter flavors than him.
But, there were also a few that we could agree on as stand-outs in this pack:
- The Crunky bar: It literally tasted like cookies and cream ice cream and was basically a better Crunch bar alternative. I would highly recommend seeking this one out on its own. Not only that, but it came with a special Demon Slayer package art.
- The Koalas: Besides being adorable, the butter and white chocolate cookies were pretty delicious. I’m kind of interested to see what other flavors I may be able to find of these guys in the Asian shops around us.
- Karamucho Kumamoto chips: If you’re a fan of BBQ chips, I think you’ll like these. They definitely tasted like a slightly more spicy version of a typical BBQ chip.
- The Texas Corn and DonDon Yaki: these two were very close in flavor for me, and I’m a huge fan of corn puffs. These had a BBQ and soy-sauce flavor to them that wound up being very addicting.
Some ones we weren’t huge fans of:
- Peach Fanta: It was okay for the first few sips, but the sweetness just got to me after a while and I wound up not being able to finish it. It basically tasted like ramune or a peach hard candy. It’s good in small doses, but not a full bottle of soda.
- Strawberry Ice Cream DIY Kit: This was just not for us. Part of it may be because I probably added too much water to the mix, but neither my coworker nor I were really into having to work for our snacks. I think these are great for small kids, but just not for us.
- Porickey: These were notable only in that they were so not notable. They were kind of like pretty dry, savory breadsticks. They were just kind of dry and boring, and I think the only reason they were included was because they were potato flavored.
I think this box is definitely good to maybe get a couple times a year, just to scope out some new snacks or if there’s a themed box that really looks appealing one month. I would also say that if I still ran an anime club, I’d definitely order one of these for members to snack on during watch-times. Maybe if there was a smaller version of this box with like three snacks, I might consider subscribing month-to-month, but as of right now, the price is a bit too steep for me to subscribe at this point.
If you’ve gotten one of their boxes in the past, be sure to let me know what you thought in the comments below! I’d love to know what you all think or what other snack subscription boxes you love.
~~Thanks for Reading!~~
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