Snakku – April 2017 Review

It’s springtime in Japan, and that means cherry blossoms!  The theme for this month’s Snakku box is sakura and spring, and it celebrates the idea of mono no aware, or the impermanence and transience of life!

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.

The Signature Box is available in 3 and 6 month prepaid plans with a slight discount, and has free international shipping.

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

This is a review of their Signature Box, which is $38.95/month including shipping.

Snakku’s Signature Boxes always come wrapped in a beautiful furoshiki, or washi cloth.  These can be reused to wrap gifts or carry items.  This month’s furoshiki is a gorgeous blue color with a kaleidoscopic pattern.

The theme for April is sakura and springtime!  The cherry blossom season goes from March to May, and is celebrated with hanami, or sakura viewing parties, where people bring snacks and sit under the trees to enjoy the flowers.  The sakura season is so huge in Japan that a lot of companies (and snack makers!) release special seasonal items to celebrate.  Snakku’s information card features a beautiful blossoming sakura tree.  Their art is always so gorgeous!

The information card provides a description of each snack included, along with important allergy information.

Japanese Sake KitKat

Part of hanami culture is enjoying delicious, refreshing sake while viewing the beautiful blossoms, so these sake flavored KitKats are released just in time for sakura season!  They have a white chocolate covering that contains real sake to make a 0.8% alcohol content.  I mostly taste the white chocolate, with just a slight hint of sake at the end.  Unfortunately, with the flip-flopping weather these last few weeks, my KitKats arrived a little melted so they didn’t take a very nice picture.  But a quick pop in the refrigerator brought them back to normal and they tasted as delicious as ever.

Toukibi Strawberry Chocolate

The info card says this is a puffed corn snack that has been drizzled with Japanese chocolate and contains freeze dried strawberries from Hokkaido.  The second you open the package, you’re hit with a wave of delicious strawberry fragrance.  I don’t taste much regular chocolate, so I think the description is referring to the strawberry-flavored white chocolate that binds the puff pieces together.  It’s like a delicious rice krispy treat!

Sakura Monaka

Monaka are little rice puff cakes that have a bean paste filling.  The monaka I received look a little different than the ones depicted in the info card photo (which are sakura shaped and pink), but they taste just as delicious.  There is one red bean and one chestnut filling, and the outside puff pastry has a beautiful imprinted pattern.  Snakku includes a lot of monaka in their monthly boxes, so if you enjoy them like I do, this is a good box for you!

Spring Assortment Okaki

These little rice crackers are shaped like blossoms and come from the Miyagi prefecture.  They’re a delightful mix of salty and sweet, with ingredients like seaweed and sugar crystals.  I love the little butterfly cracker – it’s so adorable!

Sakura Gaufre

Gaufre are little wafer cookies with a cream filling.  These particular gaufres have a wheat wafer and are filled with sakura cream.  The cookie is sugary sweet, with a nice filling that has a lightly fruity/tart flavor.  I’m not normally crazy about gaufres (I find the vanilla cream and the sweet wafer to be an overly sugary combination), but these are wonderful!

Ototo

These little puffed crackers are shaped like sea animals!  How fun!  They’re hollow and lightly salted, with a slight cheesy flavor.  They’re almost like a milder Cheez-it, with more of a crunch.  I can see kids loving these!

Kuboyama Isa

These rice crackers are handmade by a small snack store in Kyushu – it doesn’t get more authentic than that!  They’re baked and topped with Japanese ao-shisho leaves from the Seto Island Sea.  They have a light seaweed flavor from the leaves and a sugary note from the frosting, plus a sweet plum-like taste from the rice cracker itself.  The cracker has a delicate crunch to it like a caramelized sugar layer.  This snack is so complex and hard to describe!  It’s an amazing blend of very different flavors and textures, and I so wish I had more!

Triple Senbei

These three senbei (rice crackers) are flavored with nori seaweed (green), baby shrimp (red), and yuzu salt (white).  They’re some of the puffiest, lightest, airiest senbei I’ve ever tried – and I’ve tried quite a few thanks to subscription boxes!  They’re so perfectly seasoned, with just the right amount of savoriness and buttery texture.  My favorite is probably the yuzu salt – it’s a nice balance of tart and salty!

Strawberry Yogurt Pocky

This classic snack gets a seasonal Hokkaido makeover with this strawberry yogurt flavor.  It’s a delicate and sweet taste, almost like strawberry milk.  And the packaging is extra cute with the sweet light pink color!

Sakura Candy Box

What an absolutely adorable box!  I wonder what’s inside…

Equally beautiful hanami candies!  These hard candies are made with real cherry blossoms and have a sweet, perfume-y floral flavor.  They’re so delicate and sugary, and would be refreshing as an after-dinner candy.

I love sakura-themed anything, so overall this was a great box!  Snakku did a wonderful job of combining seasonal sakura items with traditional treats that evoke the hanami viewing party vibe.  My favorites this month are the senbei, the green rice crackers, and the lovely hanami candies!  If you love traditional Japanese snacks, this is a great box to try!

 

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