Reviewed by
Mary
October is here, and that means one thing – Halloween! And TokyoTreat is celebrating with their Spooktacular Snacking’ box of tasty snacks and sweets from Japan.
As it’s a holiday month we’ve got a specially designed themed box, which looks really fun. The menu booklet, as always beautifully designed, gives you information on all the goodies inside, including a useful allergy list.
There’s plenty more in the booklet too, they’re really outdone themselves this month. There’s lots of fun stuff about Halloween in Japan, It’s not a traditional holiday but it’s been very much embraced with costumes, food, and even haunted houses – which sound terrifying.
Halloween Tomato Caramel Corn, KitKat Halloween Sweet Potato
Japanese caramel corn isn’t like caramel popcorn, but rather delicious puffed corn snacks with incredibly crispy caramel coating. Tomato Caramel Corn comes in all kind of flavours, but this is the traditional Caramel in special limited edition Halloween packaging.
KitKat gets into the Halloween vibe with another limited edition item – this seasonal bag of mini KitKat bars is sweet potato flavour with a dusting of purple taro. Taro is a type of yam, and this is incredibly delicious, not to mention orange and purple being classic Halloween colours!
Peyong ‘Squid ink’ Yakisoba, Purushu Jelly X Sparkling Grape Soda
Squid ink has been a popular ingredient in Japan since the 70s. It’s found in all kinds of recipes – there’s more info in the menu booklet – and has a salty, earthy flavour. The fact that its a deep black colour gives it an extra spooky feel. This month’s noodle dish features yakisoba noodles with a squid ink sauce.
Grape is another popular flavour for soda and candy in Japan. This grape soda is extra special because it also contains little chewy pieces of nata de coco, which is a jelly made from fermented coconut water. It tastes a lot better than it sounds, and it gives a really fun extra texture to the fizzy soda,
Umaibo Tonkatsu Sauce, Halloween Fugashi
Umaibo are massively popular snacks, a puffed corn tube that comes in many flavours. This one is the classic tonkatsu sauce flavour.
Fugashi are a classic Japanese snack, also crispy and crunchy corn that is coated with a layer of delicious molasses-like brown cane sugar from Okinawa. It’s got a special seasonal packaging too!
Halloween New Mochi Taro, Halloween Pizza Corn Snack, Crackle Panic Grape
Mochi taro are light and crispy roasted rice crackers, with a simple salty taste. The Pizza Corn Snack is exactly what it sounds like, crunchy corn puffs that really do taste remarkably like pizza! As for Panic grape, there’s no need to actually panic, as I suspect something may have been lost in translation. It’s actually grape-flavoured popping candy that crackles and pops in your mouth.
Blue & Green Colour Changing Gum, Sour Monster Gum, Mini Monster Candy Strip
More Halloween themed candies here. The gum has one stick of each colour, and really does turn your mouth startlingly colourful. It would be a great addition to a zombie or monster costume! The sour gum won’t change the colour of your tongue, but it really has an intensely sour flavour, perhaps a trick and treat in one? There’s a little more sourness in the gummy candy strip which is striped and multi-flavoured.
Tokyo Layer Loaf Maple Pumpkin, Sakeru Gummy Halloween Apple, Tiroi Choco Madame Gelee
TokyoTreat has done a special limited edition of its delicious layered bread roll for Halloween, light and fluffy and layered with delicious maple. The apple gummies are your classic sweet chewy candies but with a twist – like the colour change gum they will turn your mouth a crazy colour. I think it would work for a Dracula costume!
The Tiroi chocolates are really rather special. Apart from the cool Rocky Horror – type packaging, these raspberry chocolates have a delicious raspberry filling and seem really quite sophisticated.
By Evelyn 
