Bokksu: Discover Japan Through Snacks – March 2019

Bokksu is the only Japanese snack box that sources directly from snack makers in Japan, so many of our artisanal products cannot be found anywhere else. Start your cultural journey through Japan by subscribing to Bokksu and receiving a curated box of premium Japanese snacks and teas delivered to your door every month.

They have two levels of subscription: the Tasting, which is smaller, and the one I have received, The Classic.Subscriptions are prepaid for one, three, six, or twelve months.For the Classic box they work out at $39 (around £30), $37, $35 , and $33 per month.As usual, they are priced in dollars, so GBP conversion is according to today’s exchange rate. Obviously this will vary, but it gives you some idea of cost.

The box is lovely, solid and sturdy, and would be perfect for reusing for a gift box.

Spring is definitely on its way, so this month’s theme, Spring Picnic, looks very welcome! 

I love the sound of lots of fruity snacks!

This strawberry chocolate is delicious.

The menu card includes you a map to show you the origin of each item in the box. It folds out with a list and descriptions all the various treats.

There’s even a listing of all the common allergens, which is incredibly useful (especially for me as I’m allergic to shellfish).

Honey butter has been common in the USA for a long time, but apparently it’s only a combination that has recently travelled to Asia. These Honey Butter Potato Sticks are a great example of the new popularity of this flavour, and the sweet salty taste is absolutely delicious.

Uni Fried Rice Crackers are crispy fried bites flavoured with soy and sea urchin, and apparently have a savory umami flavour without and overly fishy taste.

These are similar to potato chips, but Gobochi Yuzusco are actually gobo, which is burdock root. The flavour is a popular Japanese hot sauce made from yuzu vegegar and pepper. Definitely a spicy treat!

Our first fruity treat is Sapporo Chokoro. These are roasted soybeans covered in white chocolate with a strawberry coating. The nuttiness of the beans combined with the sweetness of the white chocolate and the sharp strawberry produces a delicious complex flavour.

Mogumogu Cranberry Chocolate is another flavour combination, this time tart cranberry and dark chocolate with a little crunch from puffed barley. Another flavoursome snack. Also the bag is conveniently resealable if you can manage not to eat them all at once!

These pretty,colourful Mocchan Dango Mochi are sweet chewy rice cakes in three colours traditionally eaten during flower viewing season. You might be familiar with these threaded on a wooden skewer.

Gourmet Edamame Chips are bitesize crackers with edamame baked into them. They’re salty and delicious with a tiny hint of edamame sweetness.

These Gourmet Shrimp Chips are smilar to the chips above, except this time they have shrimp baked into them. The light pink colour represents the coming spring, and they are often eaten at flower viewing time as well.

The Japanese version of Langue du Chat is the familiar thin and crispy butter biscuits but square and sandwiched with various chocolate fillings. This 20th Century Pear Langue du Chat is flavoured with pear, which is one of the oldest fruits in Japan.

We’ve seen White Strawberry in Bokksu before, and it’s always welcome! This incredible snack is a freeze-drie strawberry that is then soaked in white chocolate to give the most incredible taste and texture, sweet and rich from the white chocolate with tartness from the strawberry. Really, really spectacularly good.

Finally, the most unusual tea I’ve ever seen! This is Kuromame Tea, and is whole soybeans which you soak in water before drinking the earthy liquid. It’s entirely free of caffeine, and you can also eat the softened soybeans themselves.

This month has a really lovely selection of different flavours and textures. The tea is particularly unusual, but having looked it up it seems it is also supposed to have lots of health benefits, so I’m really excited to try it out.

I have to pass on the two shellfish items this month, but I don’t really mind as the other things are so delicious.

There’s a particularly good mix  of traditional and seasonal flavours, and I love the fruity theme. The pear cookies are particularly delicious, and not a flavour commonly associated with biscuits.

I love sweet and salty honey butter sticks as well, they’re incredibly moreish!

 

 

Our score: 9.4/ 10

Bokksu always does a terrific job sourcing a mixture of traditional items and unusual flavours. While I'm not totally sure UK weather will be quite ready for picnics, given the recent snow, these lovely flavours will be a great taste of Spring to come!

  • Quality of products9
  • Originality10
  • Packaging and delivery10
  • Value for money8
  • Selection of products10

How would you rate Bokksu ?

Rating: 3.3/5. From 38 votes.
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