Reviewed by
Mary
We’re still in the beautiful springtime, which in Japan means sakura season! This month’s box of goodies has another cherry-blossom theme, this time for night, with the Sakura Starlight Snackfest.
Once again there’s a special box design for this month, and as it’s all about night time snacking the colour of the box is dark blue with sakura petals.
Inside is the excellent menu booklet. There’s a complete list of all the items inside the box, which also includes an allergy list. You can also read lots more about the various traditions in Japan around this season, including evening picnics under the trees.
KitKat Banana Caramel, Sweet & Salty Spring Chips
Japanese KitKats come in all kinds of varieties, including limited editions like this. The caramel and banana chocolate coating and filling tastes a lot like a banoffee pie, and is really delicious!
Some of the best potatoes in Japan come from Hokkaido, and it’s where these lovely crisps are produced. They’re flavoured with soy for and salty and umami flavour, simple but yummy.
Yamato Curry Sense, Wasabi Potato Snack
Little rice crackers are spiced up with the flavour of Japanese curry, perfect for a savoury snack. The wasabi potato snack has a real kick, and work beautifully with a cold beer in the warm sunshine!
Puka Puka Tai Strawberry, Mini Peach Ramune, Ghana Matcha Truffle
Pastries shaped like fish are a common street food at Japanese festivals. This sweet snack has the same shape but with a crispy wafer shell filled with bubbly strawberry chocolate. They are light and very tasty. Ramune is Japanese soda pop, and it also comes in a range of popular candies. These little ones are fruity peach flavour, which go beautifully with the spring theme.
Matcha tea is another Japanese tradition, and the unique, slightly bitter taste goes brilliantly with chocolate. These candies have a chocolate centre, and green tea outer and the are dusted with matcha powder for the perfect flavour combination.
Sakura Cherry Bouchee, Piccola Sakura Matcha, Mini Cherry Mochi
Bouchee are soft cake-like pastries. They consist of two rounded sponge layers filled with sweet cream. This version has a cherry flavoured centre, and is printed with a cherry blossom decoration for extra seasonal cheer.
The Piccola biscuits are another pairing of matcha with sweetness. The sakura-flavoured wafer tubes are filled with matcha cream, which is a surprisingly delicious flavour combination, the matcha meaning that they are not too sweet.
Mochi, soft rice cakes, are a perennial favourite in Japan. These tiny chewy cherry bites come with a toothpick to serve straight from the pack.
Strawberry Choco Pop-Out Fortune, Bisco Mini Strawberry Cream, Umaibo Mentaiko
These tiny crunchy strawberry candies have a fun bonus on the packaging. You pop them out like pills, and then there is a fortune on each package! The menu booklet includes a QR code so you can translate what your fortune will be. The Mini Strawberry Cream are a little package of yummy sandwich biscuits with a strawberry cream centre. They’re lovely with a cup of tea, and super cute too.
Umaibo is one of the most famous Japanese snacks, especially for children. It’s a crunchy puffed corn stick that comes in many different flavours. This one is Mentaiko, which is a traditional flavour of spicy marinated cod roe. It’s actually much tastier than it sounds, having a deep savoury flavour with a nice kick from the spice.
Nyumen Soy Sauce Ramen, Kobe Sparkling Apple Juice
This ramen isn’t just soy flavoured, but it contains tiny sakura-shaped fish (mackerel) pieces! While the combination of a savoury flavour with a flower shape is a little unusual, it tastes amazing, perfect for a quick lunch.
The sparkling apple juice is made from Kobe apples, and is a lovely fruity sweet beverage to enjoy on a warm day, or night!
