Snakku – November 2016 Review

Snakku is a monthly subscription that delivers traditional Japanese treats selected from local snack shops and curated around a theme.  They offer two types of subscriptions: a smaller Tasting Box with 5-7 snacks, and an expanded Signature Box with two pounds of snacks.  This is a review for November’s Signature Box.

$38.95/month including shipping.  Snakku recently relaunched their boxes, and now offer free shipping internationally as well!  The Signature Box is also available in 3 and 6 month prepaid plans with a slight discount.

The tasting box is available for $15.75/month including shipping, but it is only available in the US.

Snakku’s Signature Boxes are wrapped in a gorgeous washi paper furoshiki, a traditional cloth used to hold goods or clothing.  The furoshiki has a different pattern each month, and I adore this month’s cherry blossom print.

The theme for this month’s box is matcha and azuki.  Considering this is my first Snakku box, I cannot think of a more appropriate theme!  Matcha green tea and azuki (Japanese red bean) are two of the oldest and most popular ingredients in Japanese cuisine.  They have histories dating back to the 800s for matcha and to 4000 BCE for azuki!

Snakku included a lovely card to give some information about each snack.  This card also provides a lot of background information regarding matcha and azuki, and it’s very well written!  Just reading about the different types of azuki paste made me very excited to try all the snacks in the box.

Tea Ogura Manju

These manju buns are made with real green tea leaves from Shizuoka, which have been kneaded into the dough itself!  They are filled with azuki paste and are available only in Shizuoka.  I haven’t had too many snacks before that contain both green tea and azuki, so this was certainly new.  There was a generous filling of red bean paste, which tasted the most authentic of all the azuki pastes in the box: there wasn’t too much sweetener so the natural azuki taste could come through.  The green tea bun didn’t have a lot of flavor, but it added a little touch of freshness after the sweet from the paste.

Matcha Azuki Cake Roll

This cake is flavored with tea leaves handpicked in Kyoto, and filled with red bean paste from Hokkaido!  It came wrapped in aluminum foil and a plastic outer wrapper, which kept it very moist and fresh.  The cake had a delicate flavor and wasn’t overly sweet, but the azuki paste did overwhelm the green tea taste a little to the point where it was all I could taste.

Kinenishiki Azuki Wafer

These little wafer sandwiches have a jelly-like azuki paste and come from the prefecture of Tochigi.  The outer wafer is made from sand ground premium rice biscuits, and have a very simple sugary taste.  Even though the wafer is sweet and the azuki paste is sweet, they’re both very mild so it isn’t overpowering.  This was delicious!  The edge of the wafer was the perfect amount of crumbly, and the middle was soft and moist from the jelly.  The azuki taste wasn’t overpowering, so I think even people who aren’t crazy about red bean will enjoy this one.

Azuki Sandwich Kit Kat

Japan is well known for its whimsical Kit Kat flavors and these are certainly no exception.  They’re flavored after a local snack that puts azuki bean paste on top of toast.  Azuki toast is common in the Tokai region, where this Kit Kat flavor is exclusively found.  The wafers are covered in dark chocolate, and they have a light floral taste, although I can’t put my finger on where it would come from since azuki is not floral.  The red bean gives it a sweet flavor that plays nicely with the dark chocolate.  I shared these with my parents, who love Kit Kats, and they both enjoyed these even more than their go-to flavor: matcha Kit Kats!

Matcha Roll Crepe

This is a walnut cookie roll filled with matcha cream from Kyoto.  The paper packaging is gorgeous and so traditional.  When you first bite into it you get the crunchy nuttiness of the walnut cookie, followed by the sweetness from the crème, and finished off with the slight bitterness of the matcha.  It’s a very well-balanced pairing, which surprised me because I hadn’t thought to pair walnut with green tea.

Matcha Koala no March 

These little cookies are shaped like koalas and are printed with different designs of koalas doing various activities.  The outside is a sweet crunchy cookie, and the inside is filled with a smooth white chocolate crème flavored with green tea.  The matcha blended with the white chocolate emphasizes the sweetness of the tea, rather than the bitterness it’s known for.  I remember eating these as a kid from my local Asian mart, so this is very nostalgic!

Look how cute the little designs are!  This was a full-size box, so there were a good amount of koalas in there.

Yokan 

Yokan is a traditional dessert made purely of red bean paste.  It has a jelly-like texture, and contains actual soft red beans in it.  It’s quite sweet, so it works well with tea.  Snakku recommends chilling in the fridge and slicing it up before serving, which is an excellent idea, but I love all things red bean so I just ate this straight from the box!

Fukkura Okoge

These are rice grain senbei glazed with soy sauce and baked.  It’s extra crunchy and the rice puffs are very reminiscent of rice krispies.  The senbei have a light toasted flavor, and the soy sauce adds the perfect amount of richness and saltiness.

Calbee Sapporo Potato 

These baked potato snacks come in thin strips like French fries and are flavored with vegetables from Sapporo.  They seem like a healthier alternative to potato chips, with a lightly salty flavor that really lets the vegetable taste come through.  I’m not entirely sure what potato chips have to do with matcha and azuki, but these were good so I can’t complain!

Blueberry Candy

These little hard candies have a sweet blueberry flavor and are high in beta-carotene (all the excuse I need to pop more of them!).  There’s no tartness to them, just a smooth jam-like taste.  The center has a chewy filling, which was a pleasant surprise!  It reminded me of those strawberry lozenge candies that you see everywhere, but better!

Overall, I loved my first box from Snakku!  The beautiful wrapping gives a wonderful first impression (and would make a fantastic gift!), making the whole thing an experience from the start.  Matcha and azuki are two very traditional flavors, and I thought Snakku curated the box well around this theme, although the vegetable chips were a bit of a question mark.  Japanese culture is well known for being detail oriented, and you can really feel that in every part of this subscription: from the quality of ingredients in the snacks, to the writing in the information card, to the beautiful presentation and curation.  While you can certainly find many of these snacks at a local Asian mart, Snakku really goes the extra mile and provides quality versions of them that are local to Japan, and you can really taste the difference.

 

PR Sample.  All opinions are my own, and no compensation was received for this review.