Reviewed by
Mary
This month TokyoTreat is celebrating the Japanese convenience store (konbini) with the Konbini Snack Surprise box!
As snacks are what TokyoTreat is all about, it’s a a really cool theme, especially as the konbini is a staple of Japanese life.
The menu booklet as always contains terrific descriptions of all the goodies inside the box, and also includes an allergy guide. This is especially useful if you can’t read Japanese!
You can also read all about konbini. They’re remarkable shops, as they don’t just sell snack food, you can get hot food too, personal essentials, plus all kinds of services including buying tickets and collecting orders. They also frequently offer special limited edition goodies, which I think we’re going to see in the box this month. They’re usually open 24 hours, and really are a fantastic one-stop-shop.
Fanta Iyokan Citrus & Ace Cook Curry Udon
This Japanese Fanta is one of those special limited editions. Iyokan is a citrus fruit grown in the Ehime prefecture, and only during spring and winter, which makes it perfect for a limited seasonal flavour. It also associations with good luck because of how the same sounds is Japanese. It looks a bit like an orange but the flavour is a little more tart and sour, somewhere between and orange and a grapefruit. It’s pretty delicious in soda form!
The curry udon noodles are one of those quick snack pots that can be so useful when you’re in a hurry. The traditional Japanese curry flavour is perfect for the chilly months.
Sour Paper Candy Apple,Sour Soda Surprise Gum, Pandaro Butter Cookie, Saquette, Umaibo Mentai
These are little snacks that are so popular in konbinis! The Sour candy paper isn’t of course actual paper, just a thin gummy with a super sour sugar coating. There’s more sourness in the gum, as it contains three pieces, only one of which is sour! But you don’t know which one.
Pandoro cookies are very cute, a little butter cookies in the shape of a panda face, and very light and crisp. The Maquette is a bit more classy than the usual pick&mix-type snacks. It’s a crispy pastry with a rich chocolate filling. The pastry is slightly salted which give a lovely contrast to the chocolate inside.
Umaibo are one of the most famous Japanese snacks. Umaibo means ‘delicious stick’ and it’s a crunchy corn puff that comes in many different flavours. This is Mental, which is spicy cod roe, a very popular flavour in Japanese cooking.
Mini Melon Pan, Osanpo Cotton Candy, Carrot Arare
Melon pan is so called because it looks like melon, and is often flavoured like it too. These are tiny melon pan buns that are filled with a lovely melon cream.
Cotton candy is always fun, this this is a puff of strawberry flavour, along with very cute packaging!
The carrot aware is so called because of the shape of the packaging, not the flavour! Arare is actually sweet puffed rice, and has been favourite with Japanese children for generations.
Seito Salt & Yuzu Senbei, Yamato Anki Curry, Umiwa Cheese
Senbei are rice crackers, and these are fried and super crispy. The flavour is yuzu, another Japanese specialty citrus fruit, and have a remarkable sour and salty flavour.
The little curry sticks are another spicy and tangy snack, which are incredibly moreish. Umiwa cheese are rather like slices of the Umaibo snacks, little rings which taste deliciously cheesy.
KitKat Choco Banana Pouch & KitKat Melon
Double kitkats this month! Rather than the familiar kitkat fingers, the pouch contains little bite-size round chocolate-covered wafer pieces, filled with delicious banana cream. The porch is resealable, but I’m pretty sure there won’t be much need!
Back to the more traditional fingers, these melon kitkats have a double melon flavour, both in the creamy wafer filling and the melon white chocolate coating. Another lovely and unusual kitkat flavour from TokyoTreat!
