TokyoTreat

Spring is here, and in Japan that means cherry blossoms! And to celebrate TokyoTreat has brought us the Sakura Matsuri Snackfest box of sweets and snacks from Japan.

Night is a special time for sakura festivals, and there’s lots to enjoy here.

The menu booklet tells you all about the traditions and celebrations of the season, and the best place to see them! There’s also a comprehensive list of all the goodies inside, including a very useful allergy guide.

Sakura Karinto is a sakura version of a traditional Japanese snack. Karinto is crunchy fried dough with a sweet coating, and this version is made with sakura leaves, which have a distinctive and delicious aavory-sweet flavour. For a proper savoury hit, Koikeya Nori Shio Chips are flavoured with salty nori and chili oil for an extra spicy kick.

A few little candies here: Strawberry Yogurt Hard Candies are a little nod to the candied strawberries that are a popular festival food at this time of year.Another strawberry treats is a Glico Bisco Cracker,a sandwich cookie filled with strawberry cream. Another filled cookie is the Sakura Waffle Cookie, which is as it sounds, a crunchy waffle-style cookie filled with delicious sakura cream. Squid Rice Cracker is a rice cracker coated with squid powder for a salty contrast. The Mini Caplico is a candy take on the ice cream cone – a cone wafer filled with strawberry cream.

This month’s soda is Acerola Cherry Juice. This is delicious juice, sweet with a lovely sour edge, and as a bonus it’s full of vitamin C. The ramen is Yakisoba, frequently seen at food stalls at festivals and events. It traditionally is topped with meat and vegetables, but the fantastic umami sauce is right there with the pack, and is still delicious on its own.

Sakura Cream Cake is a lovely teatime snack with a cup of tea. It’s rather like a whoopee pie, two cakes sandwiched together, and filled with a rich cream made with cherry juice. Another sakura pastry is the Platinum Sakura Sweet Tart, which is a pastry filled with traditional white bean paste that has been flavoured with salted sakura leaves. It’s another snack with the wonderful combination of sweet and savoury that the sakura leaves provide. The Curry Senbei Crackers give a nice contrast to the sweet pastries – spicy curry rice crackers have a great kick.

It wouldn’t be TokyoTreat without a bag of the fantastic Japanese KitKats. This month we have KitKat Strawberry, which have a fruity cream filling and coated with strawberry white chocolate. These are seriously good! Finally, Premium Ghana are rich chocolate squares with an amazing creamy truffle filling. They taste extremely decadent, and are individually wrapped so you can at least attempt portion control!

Our score: 9.8/ 10

I'nm a big fan of fruit flavours, especially strawberry, so this month's box is a real bonanza for me. I also love all the different sakura treats, from the soft pastries to the crunchy karinto. It's very interesting seeing how the flavour and texture combinations differ, especially when they are in more of the traditional types of snack. I love the idea of a nighttime festival, and which the eweather here isn't great for nighttime eating, there's nothing wrong with an indoor picnic, and just imagining the beautiful blossoms! This is another great selection from TokyoTreat, and a great combination of the familiar and unusual traditional.

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