Reviewed by
Mary
TokyoTreat is a monthly box of Japanese candies and snacks from Tokyo. It is part of the TokyoTreat subscription box group which also includes YumeTwins and nomakenolife.
This month TokyoTreat has launched a new and improved box! There are a few changes, including two box options instead of three, and a slight re-jig of the contents.
Here are the new options:
Premium $35 (£26.48) per month: 5 popular Japanese snacks, 4 share packs, 3 dagashi, 1 anime snack, 1 DIY candy kit, 1 kinose snack, 1 Japanese drink.
Classic $25 (£18.92) per month: 4 popular Japanese snacks, 4 share packs, 2 dagashi, 1 DIY candy kit, 1 kinose snack.
Worldwide shipping is free.
I’ve been sent a Premium box!
The box design has been slightly changed. It’s still orange, and the size is the same, but the pictures and branding have been tweaked.
Very snazzy.
Instead of the menu booklet, we now just have a flyer, just like in the YumeTwins redesign.
So now you have to head to their website to see the full range of goodies.
Now, let’s have a look at the new range of snacks.
These Koikeya Scone Japanese BBQ are corn snacks with a mild Japanese BBQ flavour.
This is a pretty big bag of Koikeya Savory Salt Potato Chips! Apparently these are pretty popular in Japan. They’re not just salted, they combine salt with the taste of mellow seaweed. Well, seaweed is savory and delicious, so sounds great to me!
Oooh, an Umaibo! I love these crunchy corn tubes. This is their Corn Potage flavour, in a festive package design! Perfect for Christmas snacking.
This has a funny name: Sour Cider Paper Candy. It’s not paper at all, but it’s a kind of very thin gummy and is both sour and sweet, and quite refreshing!
I’ve seen these Dondonyaki Kimchi Rice Cake in previous boxes. They are bite-sized kimchi-flavoured rice cakes. I don’t eat them (I can’t eat kimchi) but apparently their savory flavour is very moreish!
Wild Strawberry Path Hard Candies are lovely and fruity. The package is also resealable, which is good, because it means I don’t have an excuse to eat them all at once!
These are interesting. This Lotte Memory-Enhancing Gum contains ginkgo biloba extract, which claims to have memory-enhancing properties. It’s a pleasant mint flavour, though I can’t say whether my memory has improved with chewing!
This is fun for Pokemon fans: Pokémon Gummy and Moonlight Series Card. It contains gummy candy, plus a trading card from the new TGC Moonlight Series!
I’ve had the chocolate version of these before, and if these Mini Strawberry Flavored Corn Crisps are anything like as good they’ll be gone in seconds! They’re small and crunchy and dipped in lovely creamy strawberry. Delicious!
Another fruity corn snack, these are Grape Chocobi. More little crunchy corn snacks, the grape flavour represents the Japanese Autumn season. They also contain a bonus sticker!
This month’s DIY candy kit is a Puchi Puchi Art or Sherbet DIY Kit. This version is the Art Kit, and you mix various gummy liquids to create your own designs! The instructions are on the TokyoTreat website, which is just as well because this one looks pretty complicated.
Here we have a Rich Matcha Kit Kat Party Pack, a sharing bag of mini KitKats. If you know anything about Japanese candy you’ll know they have a ton of weird and wonderful KitKat flavours, and this is one of the nicest. I like the pack of miniatures, because it’s great for portion control!
Kameda Seika Happy Turn Rice Crackers come in a four-pack of mini bags, perfect for sharing or portion control! They are a combination of sweet and salty.
Finally, this month’s Japanese drink is Premium Pear Fanta. Fanta is another product that is way more interesting in Japan than in the West, and this new pear flavour is delicious and unique.
Well, there you have the new-style TokyoTreat Premium box!
One thing I like about this box is the sharing-type of snacks. Seventeen items is the same as before, but they are definitely more generous, especially the bag of KitKats.
The price is the same, and I think it’s a good idea to have gotten rid of the Small box, because it’s just never going to be as good value.
I also like they are much more specific about the types of snacks: the introduction of the Kinosei snacks (meaning snacks that claim to have some kind of health benefit) definitely makes it more interesting!
On the minor downside, I’m sad they no longer do the menu booklet. I really liked the additional information about Japanese culture and seasons, so it’s a shame they no longer have it. On the other hand, I do realise that less paper means more snack value! So I guess it’s worth it.
The one thing I would like to see on the online menu is the different snack categories. I can guess that the Pokemon Gummy and Trading card is the anime snack, and I know Umaibo is dagashi, but I’d like each one to be labelled with its category. This is especially important, I think, for new subscribers and people who aren’t so familiar with Japanese snacks.
After all, one of the wonderful things about this box is trying new flavours and learning new things! That’s part of the reason I’ll miss the bonus information in the booklets, I don’t feel I’ll be able to learn so much about Japan.
I also miss the monthly themes. I was kind of hoping that the December box would be a bit festive, as I’d be interested to know a bit more about Christmas in Japan. Oh well, at least I’ve got a Christmas Umaibo!
Anyway, griping aside, I really like this box. I think they’ve done a great job upgrading the snack selection while keeping the price the same. I’ve yet to decide whether I’ll be sharing the things that are supposed to be shared, but in the meantime I’m going to enjoy my delicious snacks and candy!
By Evelyn 
