TokyoTreat — August 2018 Review

TokyoTreat

$25 – $35 per month

Free worldwide shipping from Tokyo

 

TokyoTreat is a monthly Japanese snack subscription box shipped straight from Tokyo. They recently revamped their subscription service, and they now offer two sizes. There’s the Classic for $22.50-$25 and the Premium for $31.50-$35. (The cheaper prices are for prepaid plans.) TokyoTreat curates a box of fun, seasonal snacks with the aim to share their love of Japanese treats.

This month’s theme is “Fruity Ninjas,” which includes a lot of fruit-flavored snacks that they promise will “all disappear in an instant—just like a ninja!” They include a paper booklet and there is also a digital zine on their website. The booklet includes all the information on the snacks and how to do the DIY kit. They also include fan photos, cultural info, contests, giveaways, and mini Japanese lessons. The Japanese lessons this month are centered around Japanese fruit vocabulary, which is appropriate.

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The Premium Box includes 12 full sized items: 4 popular Japanese snacks, 4 sharable packs, 2 dagashi, 1 DIY kit, and 1 kinosei (health-benefit) snack. The Premium box includes 17 full sized items: 5 popular snacks, 1 party pack, 4 sharable packs, 3 dagashi, 1 Anime snack, 1 DIY kit, 1 kinosei snack, and 1 Japanese drink. It’s rare to get seasonal Japanese drinks outside of Japan, so that’s always one of my favorite items.  There is also a smaller box available, called the “Classic Box.”

I’m reviewing the Premium Box, and items marked with an asterisk* are exclusive to the Premium Box.

Coca-Cola Clear *

This is a brand-new item from Coca Cola. It’s clear, zero calorie soda flavored with lemon. It’s bizarre to drink something clear at get a bit of that cola flavor! To me, this tastes like a diet coke with a bit of lemon. It’s not amazing, but I’m not a diet soda person. I’m still glad they included it with the box, and it’s fun to try.

Melon Bread Cookies Party Pack *

This month’s party pack includes individually wrapped melon bread cookies. Melon bread is a type of sweet bread with a crunchy outside popular in Japan, but it doesn’t taste like melon. It gets it’s name from the lines on top of the bread, which makes the treat look like the fruit. There are two types of cookies—one plain, and one filled with custard crème. These were a little too sweet for my taste, but should please those who like more sugary cookies.

Pocky Double Lemon White Chocolate *

This special Pocky is coated twice with white chocolate and has a lemon-flavored biscuit! The lemon flavor gives the sweet white chocolate a little zing, which makes this treat nicely balanced. As a note, this treat replaced the “Kinoko No Yama Chocolate Banana” item which is shown in the paper booklet. The online zine notes this replacement.

Disney Tsum Tsum Chocolate Bar *

This candy bar is a chocolate covered wafer with Disney’s Tsum Tsum packaging. The bar itself tastes mostly of milk chocolate, with the wafer adding a little texture.

Banana Man Marshmallow *

The last Premium Box exclusive candy is this banana marshmallow coated in a thin layer of chocolate. I’m usually not a fan of banana-flavored sweets, but the chocolate and the banana pair nicely together.

Chip Star Lemon Chips

These potato chips are similar in texture to the American brand Pringles. This particular flavor uses lemons from Setouchi, an area in Japan known for said citrus fruit. The chips start off with a salty flavor, but there’s a tangy aftertaste of lemon. They’re very addicting, and a good summer flavor!

Chocolate Mint Caramel Corn

Chocolate mint is one of my favorite summer flavors! Tohato Caramel Corn Puffs are a popular Japanese snack, but this time around they’re chocolate mint flavored. I was a little skeptical at how that flavor would taste in corn puff form, but I was pleasantly surprised. There’s a strong, sweet mint taste with a hint of chocolate.

Fruit Granola Black Thunder

Black Thunder is a crunchy chocolate candy bar that’s a favorite of my family, and this version includes a fruit granola. It’s not as rich and chocolatey as the original flavor, but the fruity taste gives the candy bar a lighter feel.

Cheese Rice Puffs

These airy puffed snack is supposedly cheese flavor…to me, they taste exactly like salted Bugles, and American snack from my childhood. It does list “natural cheese” in the ingredients, so it’s in there somewhere I guess. That being said, they’re quite tasty!

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Melon Jelly Drink DIY Japanese Candy Kit

This month’s DIY kit is very simply. You can make a melon jelly drink by mixing the water with the included power. The physical and digital zines have the exact instructions. The drink DIY kits aren’t my cup of tea, but they’re simple enough for everyone to try, which is nice.

Cinnamon Apple Pie Umaibo

Umaibo is the ever-popular puffed corn stick. Usually, you see kind of the same Umaibo flavors in all of the Japanese snack boxes, so I was surprised to see a new flavor! Not only that, but this cinnamon apple pie flavor is exclusive to Tokyo! It’s covered in cinnamon sugar with a hint of apple, plus a little bit of a savory note from the puffed corn stick itself. I really enjoyed it!

Honey Apple Hard Candy

These hard candies are August’s kinosei (health-benefit) snack. They’re actually “throat candy” drops that people use for a sore or dry throat. I haven’t tried them yet, but apple and honey is a classic combination that I expect is yummy.

Shimi Corn Share Pack

This month’s share pack has four packages of Shimi Corn treats. They’re puffed corn shaped into stars and coated with chocolate. It has a sweet and savory flavor with a strong crunch.

Fruit Donut Gummy

The last item is a sweet and sour fruit gummy shaped like a ring donut. Unfortunately, I did not receive this candy, so I can’t review it.

All and all, I liked the fruit theme this month. It’s a good theme for a summer box, and as always I appreciate how many limited edition and/or season items them include. My favorites were the Chip Star Lemon Chips, Chocolate Mint Caramel Corn, and Cheese Rice Puffs. I must ding them on the missing gummy. I reached out to their customer service, and they did apologize, which I appreciate.

Make sure to check out their for contests, coupons, and sneak peaks of upcoming boxes.

If you want to get your own Classic or Premium box, you can do so here. Prices range from $25 – $35 per month and boxes are shipped from Tokyo through Japan Post. Shipping is free worldwide!

 

PR sample. All opinions are my own, and no compensation was received for this review. Affiliate links are used.