Snakku – February 2017 Review

Snakku’s theme for the month of February is “fan favorites!”  They’ve picked the most popular snacks from the past year according to subscribers and compiled them in one box.  I’m curious to see what other people have enjoyed!

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 of their Signature Box, which is $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 still only available in the US.

Apologies for February’s review being so late!  My work has had me traveling for nearly all of March, so I’ve got a backlog of reviews.  This box also arrived at my apartment a little late – after I had started traveling in March – so I didn’t receive it for quite some time.

This month’s information card gives a brief description about each snack, as well as any important allergy information.

Yakitoukibi

These little puffed rice snacks are pretty amazing – I can see why they made the fan favorites list!  You can only find these at the Sapporo Ohdori Park, where they are made from locally grown rice and sweet corn.  The puffed rice and corn kernels are grilled and glazed with soy sauce for a lightly salty flavor that really brings out the natural sweetness.  I definitely recommend these!

Glico Collon

These little cookie rolls are such a blast from my childhood.  They’re filled with a sweet cream that I absolutely adored when I was little.  Now they’re a little too sweet for me, and the cream can sometimes come across a little grainy from all the sugar.  It would pair well with a fresh tea, and I love the nostalgia factor.

Shiroi Koibito

Whenever I travel to Japan, my mom always asks me to bring back these cookies.  Made in Hokkaido, the name translates to “white lover” in reference to the white chocolate sandwiched between two butter cookies.  This cookie is delicious and delicate, like something that would be served at a fancy high tea.

Wa Fusen Candy

These little soda candies are so cute!  They’re colored after traditional striped Japanese balloons.  Snakku included four flavors: grape, lemon, strawberry, and watermelon.  They do have a light fizziness to them that really made it taste like a fruity soda!

Happi Turn

This bag of rice crackers was really good!  Normally rice crackers have a delicate, light salty flavor.  There was nothing delicate about these!  They packed a ton of salty flavor, and had a sweet aftertaste as well.  They seem like the chips version of rice crackers, if that makes sense.

Kobe Cream Sandwich

These sandwiches were filled with cream between two wheat pastry puff cookies.  Snakku provided two flavors: chocolate and vanilla.  The cream was really good, with a lovely buttercream texture.  I can’t say I’m a fan of wheat pastry puff though.  The texture of wheat doesn’t really play well with the lightness of pastry puff, in my opinion.  The chocolate sandwich disguised it a little better, but it was still odd to me.

Bourbon Raisin Sandwich

Snakku describes this as a “super delicious puff baked cookie filled with rum soaked raisin.”  I was pleasantly surprised by how moist the outside cookie was!  It had a light crumbly texture, and the rum raising filling was a little thicker than a jelly with real raisin bits in it.  All in all it reminded me a bit of a mooncake.

Shiro-ebi Brown Rice Senbei

Whew!  These senbei had a very shrimp-y flavor to them – like shrimp chips x100.  I personally love shrimp flavor, but I can see how it would be off-putting to some.  These crackers also contain organic brown rice.  I couldn’t really taste a difference in the brown rice, but it lets me pretend like I’m eating healthy.

Shiogama

Cards on the table, I didn’t actually get to try this one – both the included snacks were snatched up by my family before I could get to them!  These shiogama are a favorite of the royal family, and are made in a Buddhist temple in Sendai from a recipe passed down from the 1600s!  The outside is a mixture of finely milled rice from Miyagi, Japanese basil, and premium sugar from Tokushima.  The inside contains lightly salted adzuki red bean paste.  General consensus on these was that they taste delicious, but the outside is quite dry.  They would probably be perfect served with hot tea!

Ogurasansou Mini Arare Senbei

This Kyoto-based company has been hand-making senbei for over 60 years.  This packet is a sampler of their mini senbei.  Look at those adorable shapes and colors!  There were a variety of flavors as well – some were salty, some were a little sweet, and some had flavors like shrimp or seaweed.  All of them are made with high quality ingredients, and you can really taste it.   These would be great to put out for guests!

 

Overall, I continue to enjoy my monthly Snakku box.  I haven’t been receiving this subscription long enough for any of the fan favorites to be repeats, but I’m sure other subscribers were thrilled to revisit their favorite snacks!  I really liked the idea of doing a fan favorites box: a lot of the time, the snacks in here are locally sourced and very difficult to find outside of Japan.  Even within Japan, some of these are only produced in one town or village!  So for Snakku to pick their most popular snacks and send them again is a great way to get another taste.  I do love this box and appreciate the effort that goes into selecting these high quality snacks.

 

PR sample.  All opinions in this review are my own.  No compensation was received.  This post contains affiliate links.