Snakku – August 2017 Review

Snakku’s theme for the month of August is Hokkaido!  All of the featured snacks come from this beautiful northernmost Japanese island.

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.  My poor box got a little beat up in shipping this month.

Snakku wraps all of their Signature Boxes in beautiful furoshiki, made from delicate washi cloth.  They used to send a different design every other month or so, but this is the third month in a row we’ve gotten this pattern.  I love the vibrant design, but I look forward to collecting some new furoshiki in future boxes.

August’s box focuses on the island of Hokkaido.  Most people know it for its rich, creamy milk and the wide variety of dairy products derived from it.  With its clean, crisp air and cool mountains, Hokkaido has the ideal climate to produce some high quality natural ingredients.

The information card gives a brief blurb about each snack along with any key allergy information.

Kinotoya Milk Cookies

These cookies are made in Hokkaido’s Sapporo Agricultural University, and have won the international Monde Selection award three years in a row!  They’re made from natural organic milk, and have a smooth, almost buttery flavor.  The texture is like a shortbread or a biscuit, and you can really taste the quality ingredients.  I’m a little sad mine arrived broken, but that didn’t affect how delicious these cookies were!

Sapporo Curry Senbei

These rice crackers are the result of a collaboration with a local Hokkaido curry restaurant, and use local ingredients and spices.  They have an intense Japanese curry flavor, which tastes a little sweeter than Indian curry, and pack quite a punch in terms of heat.  I like the little French fry shape, which gives them more of a snap so it feels more like a chip than a rice cracker.  These were definitely addicting, but go slow because that spice has a slow but dramatic burn!

Jaga Pokkru

Speaking of French fries!  These little fry chips are baked (so you don’t have to feel as bad about eating the whole package in one go, ahem), and made with local organic Hokkaido potatoes and sea salt from the Saroma inlet sea.  Even though they’re baked, they still have a great chip-like snap to them, and the sea salt provides the perfect amount of simple flavor.  Delicious!

Toukibi Chocolate

These little guys are like strawberry rice krispy treats!  They’re made from puffed corn and freeze-dried Hokkaido strawberries, with a Japanese chocolate drizzle.  Unfortunately, mine melted from the heat of my mailbox, so they pretty much fell apart instantly upon opening the package.  But they were still yummy, with the sweet chocolate providing an interesting contrast to the tart strawberry pieces.

Melon Langue de Chat

These limited edition cookies are available only a few times a year in Hokkaido!  Langue de chat cookies are a traditional Japanese snack that has a sweet creamy center sandwiched between two white cookies.  In this special version, the cream in the middle is flavored with Yubari melon, a rare delicacy!  This sweet orange melon (a type of cantaloupe) has a rich syrupy flavor that is both fragrant and heavy, definitely more of a sugary-sweet rather than the light citrus flavor of a lemon or orange.  This makes it a great companion to the sweet cookie outside of a langue de chat – combined, they’re a very decadent treat!

Jaga Butter

These sweet potato cakes are filled with a sweet bean paste made in Hokkaido, and are very popular in that region.  I’m not sure where the “butter” part of the name comes from, but if I had to guess I’d say it’s from the buttery fluffy texture of the outside cake.  I couldn’t really taste the sweet potato, mostly just the bean paste that added the traditional flavors and textures I’ve come to expect from a Japanese snack.

Milk Caramel

This is a caramel candy that’s been around since 1913!  It has a creamier taste than most caramels I’ve tried, with less of an emphasis on sugar and more on milk (that’s not to say it isn’t sugary sweet though!).  At first I thought they were delicious, but didn’t think too much of them.  I left them on my nightstand for late night sugar cravings (a horrible habit, 0/10 do not recommend!), and before I knew it the package was gone!  And now that I’ve finished them, I’m really starting to miss them and I wish I had more.  Sticky chewy caramel goodness, come back!

Melon Thunder

Wow, what an intense name for this snack.  It’s a chocolate wafer snack covered with a melon-flavored drizzle.  Again, this one did not survive the heat and completely melted in my mailbox, but I ate it anyway (#yolo).  The chocolate wafer was simultaneously chewy and crumbly, almost like when you crumble up oreo cookies and put them in a brownie or as a cake topping.  The melon drizzle added that sweet flavor to the chocolate.  It was a little too sugary for me, but I can definitely see kids loving this snack.

Melon Jelly

Childhood throwback – I love these little jelly cups!  The jelly inside is flavored like melon, very sweet and a little creamier than the jelly cups I’m familiar with (almost like a creamsicle: fruity but creamy).  I was hoping there would be some fruit pieces inside, but alas just smooth jelly.  The melon flavor really comes through here, and the jelly melts in your mouth.  I just noticed that the instruction card suggests refrigerating or even freezing them, so I might have to try that with my last cup!

Yubari Caplico

The final victim of the warm weather is these little wafer and cream snacks.  They’re meant to look like little ice cream cones, with a dollop of freeze-dried melon puree on top.  Sadly, mine melted into an orange mess that was unsalvageable but still delicious.  The puree was very sweet, almost like frosting, but it paired well with the milder wafer.  And like a true ice cream cone, there was a little plug of chocolate at the bottom to finish off with the perfect bite.  Yum!

Overall, I enjoyed exploring Hokkaido this month!  I’ve only really known it for its milk products, so I’m glad to be introduced to some new flavors like the Yubari melon.  There was a good variety of sweet and salty this month (I need more of those fry chips!), and I feel like all of the snacks were either artisanal/high quality, or limited edition.  My only issue with this box was that the shipping seemed a little rough this month: many items melted – which is not necessarily the box’s fault, but it is summer so maybe chocolate and cream require some extra handling – and the box itself looked a little more beat up than I’ve seen before.  Hopefully when the temperatures cool down these issues will resolve themselves.  Can’t wait to see what they do next month!

 

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