Japanese Snack/Candy Boxes, Part 2 – Snakku

Snakku

Snakku has a very lovely web site, and is run by a Japanese guy who moved from Tokyo to NYC and wondered why all the best Japanese snacks are only available in Japan. Seriously, while you can get a lot of tasty stuff at your local Asian market, there are a vast multitude of other snacks that you’ll never see in the US.

With that in mind, Snakku sends out authentic snacks made in local shops – all manner of traditional and regional specialties, some dating back over 100 years!

It sounded extremely promising, so I signed up right away.

Cost: Month-to-month subscriptions are $38.95. You can, as with most other subscription services, also pay for a 3-month or 6-month plan.

There’s also a smaller Tasting Box, with different treats than the ones in the standard box, for $15.75.

Shipping is free within the United States, $5 per box for Canada, and $15 per box for every other country.

The price is definitely a little high if you’re not in the US, but the big question is whether it’s worth it.

Variety: I was definitely pleased with the variety of snacks. Like Tokyo Treat, Snakku offered sweet snacks, salty snacks, chewy snacks… I think the only other thing I could ask for would be a drink, like what TT includes.

What’s inside:

Well, the first thing I was struck by upon opening the standard shipping box was how elegantly presented Snakku is.

The whole thing is wrapped in a cute cloth…

…which encompasses a nicely-designed box (which was only a little damaged from my cat stomping on it)…

…in which you find an array of snacks nestled in paper shreds (possibly my only complain. So messy, and an eensy bit wasteful…).

Of course, there was a little insert describing this month’s theme and the snacks included. March’s theme was Osaka, one of the largest cities in Japan. It’s a cultural hub and widely known as a foodie paradise. I’ve always wanted to go there! I guess a box full of local snacks is the second best thing, and this box didn’t disappoint.

I received:

Two little takoyaki-flavoured crackers. Takoyaki are balls of octopus meat wrapped in dough and covered in sauce. Created in Osaka, they’re infamously addictive, but I must confess that I’ve never tried them! I’m a huge softy and I don’t eat octopodes because they’re extremely intelligent creatures. Also, um, takoyaki is typically served with mayonnaise and, well, mayonnaise is an atrocity. I do not touch what mayonnaise has touched. I don’t want its dark mark upon me.

That said, I obviously had to try at least a little bit of these, right? So, I geared myself up and took a bite. They’re…pretty good! There’s a bit of a smokey-sweet flavor, and the smell brought my cat Chicken Nugget running for a sniff. I suppose I might steel myself and try real takoyaki one day, provided it hasn’t been sullied by the touch of mayonnaise…

Anyway, there were also…

Two small bags of Calbee vegetable-flavoured wheat chips (way better than I expected, and the green ones really do taste like green peppers)

Four of these tiny, perturbed-looking Mayo Friends (Mayonnaise-flavoured rice crackers! I will give these to a friend who actually, y’know, likes mayo)

Three little caramel pudding cakes, made by a small store which was established in 1924. They’re all hand-made!

Two little packs of senbei (rice crackers) glazed with black molasses and sweet cream, two specialties of Hokkaido

Two little ‘Couque D’asses’ (Name aside – my boyfriend was at least as amused as I was – these little vanilla-flavoured biscuits were great)

Four rusks – two chocolate and two vanilla (Rusks are twice-baked biscuits, basically)

A dorayaki – a little pancake filled with azuki (sweet red bean) paste

Four little azuki candies

Two molasses-filled, kinako-covered mochi (Mochi are little dumplings of glutinous rice flour, and kinako is roasted soybean flour) – very excited to see mochi in here!

Two Choco Eggs – little egg-shaped cakes covered in chocolate. Apparently very popular in Osaka

And finally, two matcha-filled cookies. These weren’t on the list of snacks, so I can’t tell you much more about them.

Availability Outside of Japan: Oh hell yeah, these are almost entirely things you won’t find at your local Asian market. I’d say they definitely delivered on this promise.

Overall: Well, I’m happy with it! Lovely packaging, timely shipping, unique snacks – sure,maybe they don’t pack the box as full as Tokyo Treat does, but they definitely give you a fun little food experience. If you live outside of the US or Canada, whether you want to spend $15 on shipping is up to you, but it’s probably worth at least a one-time splurge.

Grade: 9/10