Dagashi Box – October 2018

Dagashi Box is a monthly selection of Japanese dagashi sweets and snacks, plus small toys and exclusive items. It costs $39 per month (around £29) and shipping is free. Dagashi are rather like pocket money sweets or penny candy.

It’s called Dagashi Box, but it’s actually a jar stuffed full!

As well as the snacks you get some extra goodies. On the right is a branded file folder, which comes with the second order. They send out a different gift each month.

Here’s the menu, which was folded up inside the other package, It’s not actually a complete menu, but it shows some of the featured items. As it’s the October box there are quite a few Halloween-themed items! There are also some traditional illustrations, and an explanation of why Dagashi Box comes in a plastic jar.

A few extra treats, such as a lovely origami bird, a couple of stickers, and what looks like a retro Japanese manga collector’s card.

Also included is an allergen list. This is very useful, especially for milk/wheat/soy allergies. I’m allergic to shellfish, but I have to be careful with the guide, as not all seafoods are included in their list, as I worked out last month. However it’s still handy to have, and I’m just very careful of the savory items and make sure I find out as much about them as I can online!

Now for the goodies. These are in no particular order, they are just as they came out of the jar. Some of them are small, so I’ve grouped them into two or three. The names are always left to right or top to bottom. As there isn’t a full menu there are a few that I don’t know, as they are all from Japan and don’t tend to have anything in English! But I’ll do my best.

On the left is a bag of little candies, though I can’t quite work out what! On the right is Zombie Gum that turns your mouth blue!

Above is a pop-out packet of chocolate candies with a crisp sugar shell. In the middle is a fruit gummy donut, and right is a Halloween cat candy.

Ramenyasan Taro noodle snack and Choco Chip Cookie.

These are two little jelly pots, and as far as I can tell they are apple and possibly custard flavours.

More Halloween Snacks! On the left is a soft mochi, rather like a marshmallow, and the rest are Konpeito, traditional Japanese sugar candies.

This is called train chocolate in the menu, and it is indeed chocolate in a box shaped like a train.

On the left is Monster Stamp, a ramune candy shaped like a coloured stamp that you can lick and stamp a design. Right is Halloween Fugashi, which is a Japanese wheat gluten snack. It’s rather like compacted cotton candy and softens when you eat it.

This is a toy and snack in one, a plastic strawberry with strawberry candy inside.

Little ramune candies (I think!) on top, and a watermelon lolly on the bottom.

A little box of strawberry candy, and a little tube of mini peach candies.

In the menu these are called Usuyaki but I’m not sure that’s right. Usuyaki is a kind of pancake. These are crispy, so they may be a kind of senbei.

This is a Halloween version of Chocoball, a popular candy. They are little light crispy balls covered in chocolate.

Left is Hiya to Suruyo candy, which are hard candies with a ‘cold’ taste. On the right is, I have no idea. Candy!

Peach Gummies and Jyaga Shio Butter. These are light crispy potato snacks, rather difficult to describe!

Left is, I think, a large Ramune Candy Teddy,  and on the right is Maeda Cricket, little sweet miniature cookies.

Back to Halloween we have Halloween Milk Senbei (crispy rice cakes) and Baby Star Ramen Snack. I’m not sure what flavour this is, but the allergen list says it contains fish.

These are Umaiwa Cheese. They’re cheesy corn puff slices, like pieces of Umaibo stick. Really yummy.

And here are the Umaibo! Two Halloween versions. They’re both corn potage flavour.

Here are four little hard candies.

A little retro toy here, a blue pull-back car.

This is a large bag, on the menu it’s called Dagashiyasan Curry. I can’t find an English name, but I can see it’s crunchy corn snacks, probably with a curry flavour. I love corn snacks but I can see that the ones with tiny squares on them, and that shape usually indicates something squid-flavoured. It doesn’t say so on the allergen list, but I’ve seen similar things before.

These are two little tubes of jelly candy. 

Zombie Maker Gum, which comes with stickers and a collectible card, and a Pandoro  cookie. On top is a tiny chocolate candy.

Finally, this card. 

I’m a little scared to try this out!

OK, there are a LOT of snacks here!

These are all 100% genuine straight from Japan. Quite aside from the interesting shapes and flavours, all the packaging is in Japanese, and the ones I managed to find on Google were all on Japanese sites. Some of the English translation on the menus is definitely a little odd, so I have every confidence this is the genuine article.

The one warning I would give is that they are not great for allergy people. I’m OK with shellfish, though I have to be careful with the savory ones (I give away the ones I can’t eat, though there are never very many) but there are always things with wheat/soy/dairy etc.

But if you don’t have any food issues this is a fantastic selection!

I really like that everything is so little (with a couple of exceptions such as the curry snack) because it’s great for portion control! It’s lovely to have just a little something, a sweetie or savory snack, without feeling like you have to open a big package of something. It also means you get a lot of different things to try.

The Halloween themed items this month are really fun, and certainly different from anything you’ll find at home!

It costs around £29 per month, which isn’t super cheap but it includes shipping, and it’s coming all the way from Japan. These are items that you are unlikely to find anywhere else, so you’ve got a huge exotic factor. It’s a lot more interesting than your average pick and mix! And the little toys are a nice bonus.