SAKURA COLA!
The colour and cuteness of the packaging was enough to win me over. Before I start reviewing this month's box of goodies, I'd like to make a comment that the people at Tokyotreat are very helpful and seem like actual people who care, not like some automated services. I've had to move addresses with finishing university and altered my delivery address.
A few days later I emailed them to ask if my box had already been shipped and to which address and within the day I had a reply which apologised profusely for sending the box to my old address (which was entirely my fault for not updating my address on time), then offered to resend the box if no one was at my old house to pick it up for me and it was sent back, as long as I paid for the delivery.
Very nice people and very understanding!
Now on with the show!
Tokyotreat offers three different subscription plans: the small, regular and premium boxes. The premium box, which I get, is $34.99 a month with no delivery costs no matter where you live, and offers between 13-17 different treats on average. Yum.
oOo
Let's start with what's in the small plan:
You get a lot in the tube, and after having one I wanted to take a break. This is another treat that can last a while.
And let's not forget about the packaging! It's a microphone guys. No more singing your favourite Jpop songs into a hairbrush; this treat has got you covered. I love this especially because it really hints at the culture of karaoke, which is a popular pass-time in Japan. It's not like our British karaoke where you sing to a crowd of people who probably don't want to hear you while they drink their pints. You can get private karaoke booths rented with friends just to sing with each other! Great for the shy guys!
Next, what you can find in the regular plan (plus all of the above):
In all fairness, I don't think Japan has actual Nestles Smarties so it's nothing against them. But it made me laugh. Too much. It's a nice idea for packaging though. There are two small holes, one on either side of the foil, so if you so wish you can transform your sweet packaging INTO A PAIR OF GLASSES. That's the goal.
The chocolates are actually really nice though. They have a crunchy coating and a rich, sweet chocolatey centre. It's a shame you only get fourteen, but you can't eat them all in one go unless you pop them all from the packaging at once. They're a treat to take on the go! Pop one out when you're fancying a sweet fix!
Finally, in the premium box you can find:
Sakura Cola
It's another sweet that's reminiscent of my childhood. Saturday mornings, straight after gymnastics I'd buy a handful of gummy snakes (back when they were still pretty long) and I'd sit and hold one in my mouth and tug it until it snapped and would shrink back to normal size. Though if I tried that with this treat, I'd run out of arm length before I could snap it!
Did I say finally before? It's not! The great thing about Tokyotreat is that they like to send a free, bonus item in the box each month. The item differs between boxes - so you could get one item, but someone else getting the same month's box might get something else. And my bonus item this month was excellent!
Another one by LOTTE. I've really learned to love this company. I've been meaning to buy and try the cute koala biscuits for ages (and by ages, I mean years and years. It could even be a decade...). They're tasty little biscuits filled with a yoghurt centre which sport a cute cartoon koala design on each individual biscuit. Inside the main box, they're sealed inside a wrapper much like the kind you find pocky in.
For such a large box, you don't get as many biscuits as expected, but there's still a good handful of them to snack on over time. What I loved, other than the adorable costumed koala on each one, was the rich yoghurt flavour. Really sweet and really yummy. I'm glad I finally got to try this snack!
Yaokin Big Ika
I will put my hands up and say that I did not try this treat. I don't eat fish, and definitely don't eat squid. However, my glamorous assistant (my poor, coerced boyfriend), tried them for me and told me his opinion.
Squid is a very popular snack in Japan, so to many people I bet it's a brilliant treat. This squid treat has a subtle sweetness of fish, mixed with sea salt. Texture wise, they're not slimy as I'd expected. More like a tougher strawberry lace. All in all, although my boyfriend couldn't eat one whole strip he said the taste was alright; nothing like the 'Yochan's "Sweating Spicy Snack"' from the May box! Yuck.
On the plus side, if you find yourself liking the taste, you get a LOT in the packet. You could be eating for days!
KitKat Otona Crush and Spread
I love when the box includes a weird flavour of KitKat. In Britain, KitKats have only ever been chocolate flavour. We don't seem to be an adventurous country. So extravagant KitKat flavours are always a win in my book!
I was really excited to try this KitKat. The sleek black packaging makes it seem like a deluxe edition. And it turns out, it is! This particular KitKat isn't a wacky tasting one, like the fabulous Raspberry one from the May box, but it's taste is a rich dark chocolate, with even more chocolate laced between the layers of wafer.
In the black box there are three mini biscuits, individually wrapped. Even if you lose the outer boxing, the treats will keep for ages!
Pine's Cola Lollipop
Mmmmmm, dippy cola-flavoured lollipop. This was right up my street! The lolly pop is about the size of a 10p and has that great artificial cola flavour associated with childhood. It's really sweet-tasting.
Once you dip it in the mixture though, the tastes changes quite drastically! It actually stops tasting like an artificial cola sweet and starts tasting like actual cola! It gets rid of the super sweet kick and tastes brilliant. Aside from the fact there's no way to reseal the packet, everything about this is great.
Fujiya Chocolate Pencils
This is a really cute treat. You get four life-sized crayon chocolates plus a small set of stickers. The chocolates are individually wrapped in foil too.
In my opinion, there are better chocolate treats in the June box. The chocolate used to make the crayons is a bit grainy like cooking chocolate. It's sweet but not as sweet as your typical British chocolate as well. Still enjoyable though and the fact there's four means there's more to enjoy. They're not sweet enough to be sickly so you can definitely eat them in one go. Which is probably not recommended but I'm a chocoholic.
Soda Bubble Candy
These are carbonated sweets. The packaging has a really cute design but if I'm honest, they look like a type of contraceptive. I got a bit weirded out when I looked at them. You get a strip of three tablet-like sweets which you can tear into three separate bits because they're individually wrapped.
I wouldn't exactly call this an actual snack. It's more like a fun experiment/prank which tastes quite nice. As the packaging suggests, when you put it in your mouth, its meant to foam up. Initially, I put it in my mouth and sucked on it and yeah, there's a bit of fizz. It has a nice cream-soda taste. Then I thought there had to be more to it. There is.
Be warned, as soon as you bite into the sweet, your mouth will fill with foam. It was brilliant! I've never tried something like this and it was such a weird sensation. Great fun though. There more you chew, the more it foams up. It would definitely be a great prank on a friend. The taste also lasts for a little while after you've finished it off, but not forever. Such a weird invention!
Chocolate Dipped Corn Puffs
This is a nice snack. A big one too! I opened the packet, expecting something like the breakfast cereal Coco Pops. But I think I like the star shaped chocolate puffs better. They've got a really rich taste. The chocolate is sweet but a little bitter and they are soft, almost moist when you eat them. Nothing like the crunch of a cereal!
You get a lot in the packet too. Believe me, you won't run out for a couple of days. Although, perhaps more because they taste so rich that you can only eat a few before you have to take a break (my best was four).
All in all, a great sweet snack, but not one for breakfast!
Karaoke Mic Ramune Candy
This was a fun one. It took me long enough to break into the tube (I thought it was an unscrew thing) but once I was in, I tried one and well... it was weird. I've not heard of a carbonated sweet/candy before. Basically as soon as I put it in my mouth if foamed up like a bath-bomb. A nice taste! Definitely reminiscent of the ABC 1p sweets I used to get on Saturday mornings after gymnastics.You get a lot in the tube, and after having one I wanted to take a break. This is another treat that can last a while.
And let's not forget about the packaging! It's a microphone guys. No more singing your favourite Jpop songs into a hairbrush; this treat has got you covered. I love this especially because it really hints at the culture of karaoke, which is a popular pass-time in Japan. It's not like our British karaoke where you sing to a crowd of people who probably don't want to hear you while they drink their pints. You can get private karaoke booths rented with friends just to sing with each other! Great for the shy guys!
oOo
Next, what you can find in the regular plan (plus all of the above):
DIY Mysterious Coris Syrup
This is the month's DIY-kit. The sweet treat that you make yourself. It's very unlike any of the DIY kits I've had before as it's literally just three sachets of syrup, a tray and a spoon.
In the end, it was alright but very messy. The sachets have easy-to-tear lids but I didn't notice on the first one and had to cut it open with a nail-clipper (no scissors on hand), then when I poured it into the tray it turned really stringy at the end and if you wait for it to stop... well, it doesn't. Dispose of the sachets carefully!
Taste wise, everything is very artificial. If you like artificial flavours, particularly grape, you'll love this. I love artificial grape. The three separate sachet flavours aren't all that different. There is a slight hint of strawberry, lemon and cream soda but they also already have a hint of the grape flavouring. When you mix them together, though, it's a really good, strong grape taste. And there's a lot of it. I just wish that it came with stuff to dip into it because as it is, it's just a tray of syrup. I'd suggest maybe dipping the cola lollypop in it or finding another sweet treat. Maybe even ice-cream! The limits are endless!
Smartphone Mochi
I absolutely love this treat. Smartphone mochi! What a great idea. Once you get past the packaging, the sweets inside are small hard jelly sweets. Not quite like the sticky mochi that you get in Yo!Sushi or Wagamamas. In all honesty, that's what I was expecting. Tiny, chewy, sticky flour sweets. But what I actually got was still very nice.
Though the sweets are really small, they have a lot of flavour. In one sweet you get a super strong taste of either peach, kiwi or strawberry. And there's even a little toothpick to help you pluck the sweets out of the packaging! And once the package is open, you can slot the toothpick between the two layers to close it shut between eating. It really thinks of everything.
Chocolate Umaibo
This was a tasty treat. The box came with three of these in it, and they're what I like to describe as giant Wotsits coated in chocolate. I think more accurately this particular umaibo is wafer biscuit in chocolate. The normal ones are more like Wotsits. Another aspect that's different to the normal umaibo is the chocolate one is sweet and smaller.
If you've had a normal umaibo before, you'll know it doesn't have a coating around it. If you don't carefully open it (the best option is with scissors), you get a crumbly mess and end up having to lick the packet and your hands very inelegantly. There's no worry of that with the chocolate version! Even if you break the snack up, because it's been coated in chocolate, the waffer is soft enough not to crumble and go everywhere.
Overall, it's chewy, sweet, with a lasting chocolate taste. I'm really glad there was three of these umaibos in the box.
Tohato's Neko Atsume Biscuits
If you haven't played, or worse heard of, Neko Atsume: Kitty Collector, you need to. It's a free game for smartphones where you put food and toys out for cats and wait around all day for them to come visit at their leisure, not yours. It's a waiting game, but you can close the app and come back to it minutes or hours later. You don't have to sit, wait and watch.
I adore Neko Atsume, so getting this box of biscuits in the June box was such a treat! I'm keeping the box forever and sticking it on my corkboard of geeky goodies. Now, inside the box is a sealed packet with the biscuits in. It's about half the size of the box, but it's full with treats, not air.
I hope your know your British biscuits now, because I'm going to have to compare it to others. I went in, expecting them to taste like standard Rich Teas or shortbread. Instead, they're more like Hobnobs with a slight taste of gingersnaps. I hope you followed that. They're thick biscuits and actually really nice, but I think I would have preferred a shortbread-like taste and texture. But who cares - I just hope Neko Atsume makes more food and distributes world-wide! It's so darn cute!
Hi-eight Chocolates
When I saw this, I laughed. I really, really laughed. What you can see here are fourteen smarties wrapped in a smart plastic wrapper to make them look cool.In all fairness, I don't think Japan has actual Nestles Smarties so it's nothing against them. But it made me laugh. Too much. It's a nice idea for packaging though. There are two small holes, one on either side of the foil, so if you so wish you can transform your sweet packaging INTO A PAIR OF GLASSES. That's the goal.
The chocolates are actually really nice though. They have a crunchy coating and a rich, sweet chocolatey centre. It's a shame you only get fourteen, but you can't eat them all in one go unless you pop them all from the packaging at once. They're a treat to take on the go! Pop one out when you're fancying a sweet fix!
oOo
Finally, in the premium box you can find:
I love everything about this from the bottle to the bright pink colour to the taste! It gets a lot of hype but there's good reason. It's beautiful. The bottle will sit on my shelf for years to come; I love the rope bow design on the label and the pretty Mt Fuji logo.
Now for the taste. I had no idea what to expect when I heard the phrase 'sakura cola'. Would it be a strong taste of flowers? Like the matcha cider in the May box. No! It's not! It's a really subtle flavour. Sakura cola is like regular cola (and you can taste the cola properly) but without the strong caffeine kick. It's a refreshing a mild flavour and not so carbonated that it's too bubbly to taste.
I would 100% buy again. If only to decorate my room with beautiful pink bottles that should really be in a fairy's bedroom.
I love my soft and cuddly toys so good choice Tokyotreat, he's perfect!
Chimokke Mascot
This cute little guy is this month's non-edible item. You get one item every month that you can keep and treasure forever. Isn't he cute? He was one of three designs and though he looks a little blue (hehe), his long arms are always up for a hug. I love the heterochrome eyes! He's made really well and as he's attached to a clip, you can use him as a keyring, phone charm or anything that can have something fastened onto it!I love my soft and cuddly toys so good choice Tokyotreat, he's perfect!
Koikeya's Potato Tiramisu Chips
The box promised weird, and it delivered. These crisps are meant to change from cheese flavour to sweet tiramisu in your mouth! Well. I tried a crisp before I added the powder and it was quite nice. It tasted a bit like sweet cheese.
Probably should have left it without the powder in hindsight. Or, maybe I shouldn't have added the whole sachet. If you ever try this, don't add the powder all at once; you get overpowered by the taste of bitter coffee. I don't like coffee so it wasn't great. But if you do like coffee... the more the merrier, I suppose! Either way, you get a great load of crisps even if they're very broken up.
PRO TIP: Do not do what I did and remove the lid entirely before adding the powder. You'll have a hard time shaking it all together and it will go EVERYWHERE.
Super Long HIMO-Q Gummy
With all the hype of being the longest sweet around, I was quite underwhelmed. It's a very long, thin gummyworm, basically. But! That's not to say it wasn't nice. It's strong and chewy so it takes forever to get through. And the flavour changes from (I think) cola to blueberry at intervals. I tried the two flavours together, it wasn't as nice.
oOo
It's another sweet that's reminiscent of my childhood. Saturday mornings, straight after gymnastics I'd buy a handful of gummy snakes (back when they were still pretty long) and I'd sit and hold one in my mouth and tug it until it snapped and would shrink back to normal size. Though if I tried that with this treat, I'd run out of arm length before I could snap it!
Did I say finally before? It's not! The great thing about Tokyotreat is that they like to send a free, bonus item in the box each month. The item differs between boxes - so you could get one item, but someone else getting the same month's box might get something else. And my bonus item this month was excellent!
For such a large box, you don't get as many biscuits as expected, but there's still a good handful of them to snack on over time. What I loved, other than the adorable costumed koala on each one, was the rich yoghurt flavour. Really sweet and really yummy. I'm glad I finally got to try this snack!
oOo
Overall, I really liked this month's box! There was a really good mix of items although I would have liked to have seen one savoury snack that wasn't fish-based, but that's only personal preference. I'd have to say my favourites from this box are the Koala Biscuits and the Sakura Cola! I would recommend them to anyone, and if I get the chance to, I'll buy them again!
July's theme has been revealed as Anime Characters! Argh, I can't wait! Hopefully I'll be able to pick up something Pokemon themed which I missed in the January box.
If you want to have a look at the various Tokyotreat plans and maybe sign up, have a look here.
Peace until next time.
Sarah~!
No comments:
Post a Comment