Snakku – June 2017 Review

This month, Snakku takes us on a tour of Japan’s beautiful Aomori Prefecture, which is famous for its serene forests, clear seas, and delicious apples!

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 beautiful washi cloth covering has such a bright pattern this month!  The pink color is playful and perfect for summer, and the cute little balls remind me of both apples (from Aomori!) and kemari balls.

Aomori is a prefecture in northern Japan whose name literally translates to “blue forest.”  It is known for its snowy mountains and green forests, and is surrounded on three sides by the beautiful blue sea.  From the forests come lovely apples (Aomori is the number one producer of apples in Japan!), and from the sea comes fresh seafood, both of which Aomori is famous for!  It sounds like a lovely place to reconnect with nature!

Aomori also celebrates the Nebuta Matsuri in August, where giant washi lanterns are painted with vibrant depictions of mythological figures.  Snakku has done an amazing job representing this on their information card!

The card also has a cute apple design in a nod to Aomori’s most famous export.  Product information is listed for each snack, as well as major ingredients should you have allergies!

Nebuta Gaufre

These crème wafer snacks have the most delightful apple fragrance that wafts out the second you open the package.  The apple cream inside is locally produced, and has a lovely pink color.  It’s sweet with just the slightest perfume of apple – not quite the typical candy apple taste you expect, but more of a fragrant hint – and goes well with the crisp of the wafer.  The packaging is a special nod to the Nebuta Matsuri!

Ringo Financier

“Ringo” is the Japanese word for apple, and these delicate financier cakes do the flavor justice.  The light fluffy outer cake surrounds a mix of Aomori apple puree and sweet red bean paste.  The cake comes wrapped in two layers: the cute apple packaging seen in the photo, and an inner layer of foil to maintain moisture so the cake is never dry!  It’s light and refreshing, and a great summer afternoon snack.

Aomori Apple Rusk

If you’ve followed any of my reviews before, you know I love rusks of any kind.  A rusk is a sweet baguette slice that has been twice-baked to crispiness and then covered in sugar crystals.  This one is infused with Aomori apples and coated with organic sugar.  I couldn’t really taste the apple flavor, but the rusk was sweet and buttery with the perfect crunch.

Aomori Ringo Cookies

These apple-flavored cookies were a favorite of a famous poet named Osamu Dazai, who was actually from Aomori.  They have a bit of a smoky apple flavor, kind of like burnt sugar, with a buttery snap like a shortbread.  Mine arrived slightly broken, but the taste was still delicious and a perfect complement to tea.

Ringo Chip Senbei

These handmade senbei are rice crackers that have bits of dried apple chips baked into the top.  The bottom has tons of black sesame seeds baked right in as well.  The apple chips were fantastic – sweet and slightly tart.  Unfortunately, I’m not a fan of sesame, and the taste was a bit overwhelming for me.  I would have liked more apple and less sesame, but that’s just a personal preference.

Wari-Sen Peanuts

This little bag contains a mix of pieces, kind of like trail mix.  There is sesame senbei infused with cod roe, salted peanuts, and wasabi-covered mini rice crackers.  Again I don’t really enjoy sesame senbei or peanuts, so I wasn’t crazy about this snack.  However, the senbei were actually redeemed by the cod roe, which balanced out the sesame flavor, and I really liked the wasabi rice crackers, so it wasn’t a total miss.

Karintou

These handmade wheat crackers are a traditional snack made at a local hot spring.  They’re baked in a clay kiln and drizzled with organic honey.  Again we have black sesame here, but I didn’t mind it as much this time because the smoky flavor went well with the sweetness from the honey.  I always love when Snakku includes local finds like these that have so much unique history.

Shubara Candy

Shubara is a citrus fruit native to Aomori that is said to help with seasonal allergies.  I didn’t have allergies until I moved to Pennsylvania, and they’re in that sweet spot where they’re mild enough to not need medication, but still strong enough to be a nuisance.  I don’t know if the candies actually helped, but they have a fresh sweet flavor with the slightest tartness.  It tastes like a lemony grapefruit, and reminds me a bit of a ramune candy with a hint of soda-like sweetness.

Tsuba Matcha Mix

These little mini rice crackers are covered with a variety of flavors, including matcha powder, dried seaweed, and freeze dried cream.  They’re delicious!  They have a crunchy texture and the perfect amount of salt (even the sweet flavors – in a good way!).  I couldn’t really taste matcha powder, but the seaweed crackers were fantastic and probably my favorite.

Ebi Mayo Cracker

These baked senbei are flavored with sweet shrimp and Japanese mayo, which is sweeter and richer than western mayonnaise.  They’re so good!  A little salty, but with a sweet butteryness and a hint of seafood flavor.  They’re kind of like an upgraded shrimp cracker, like the kinds you can find in every Asian mart.

This month’s Snakku was high highs and low lows for me.  I love apple flavored anything, so I’m so pleased that that was a featured flavor this month.  But there was also a lot of black sesame, which I am considerably less thrilled by.  Regardless of personal preference though, the curation on this box is always amazing.  Aomori is famous for its apples, seafood, dark forests, and Nebuta Matsuri festival, and every snack in this box tied into that theme somehow.  I’ve traveled to Japan before, but we didn’t stay long and could only hit the major cities like Tokyo and Kyoto.  Snakku is a great way to experience all the places I didn’t get to see (and a good way to start planning my next trip!).

 

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