December Snakku Review

Snakku always delivers delicious Japanese snacks and treats, but December's box was even better than usual for me! I love being able to try the authentic snacks in each box and learn more about the history behind them.

*Disclaimer: This box was sent to See, Shop, Love! in exchange for an honest review.

Snakku is different from other snack boxes because they send authentic Japanese snacks that are straight from Japan. The only downside is that when I love an item so much, sometimes it isn't even for sale in the U.S.!

The boxes cost $38.95 per month with free shipping and are packed with 20-25 expertly curated snacks totaling two pounds of food. They're also wrapped in a beautiful reusable washi furoshiki cloth, which I failed to take a photo of this time around, but you can see examples in my past reviews.

They also have a Tasting Box available for only $15.75 that comes with 5-7 seasonal snacks, but this box is only available to U.S. customers at this time.

December's box featured snacks from the Nagano and Gifu prefectures. Nagano is a snowy, landlocked prefecture in the middle of Japan and Gifu is also in the center of Japan. Gifu is home to some of the oldest villages in Japan, and the city of Takayama is considered one of Japan's best preserved old towns.

I always enjoy reading the information that Snakku includes about all of the snacks and the places they are from. It really adds to the enjoyment of the box. Each box contains featured snacks and popular snacks. The featured snacks are the special ones from the featured regions and cities, and the popular snacks are ones that are more readily available across Japan.

Here are this month's featured snacks:

• Snow Rabbit Manju - Rabbits are my favorite animal so I was so excited to receive these! They are absolutely adorable little puffs that are shaped like rabbits. They're infused with Shinshu apple juice and filled with white bean paste. Keep scrolling for a photo of what they look like outside of the package.
• White Birch ChocoCrunch - I've had these before and they are delicious! They're a crunchy cookie that's coated in chocolate and are from Nagano.
• Apple Sable Cookies - These are made with the famous Shinshu apples from Nagano and are light baked cookies.
• Miso Wheat and Miso Ginger Crackers - These crackers are made with premium Koji rice and homemade miso and are glazed with artisanal soy sauce and either a sugar or ginger topping. They've been made by a small snack maker in the rural Hida region of Gifu for almost 100 years!
• Midori Nobunaga - Oops, I accidentally included these in the photo with the popular snacks below (bottom right hand corner). They're a mini green tea castella cake made by a 60 year old snack shop. They use locally-grown Mino green tea from the rural Gifu region. The cakes were made popular by Oda Nobunaga, a famous Daimyo warlord from the 15th century who loved green tea and Portuguese castella cakes.

The box also contained five varieties of popular snacks:

• Kinako Candy - These little candies are made with roasted soybean flour and brown sugar. I haven't tried them yet, but the soybean flour definitely has me interested to see how they taste.
• Salad Hope - These are lightly-salted crispy rice crackers made with rice from the Niigata prefecture.
• Natto Soybean Okaki - These remind me of little sushi rolls, probably because they're wrapped in seaweed. The other ingredients are popped rice cracker mixed with fermented natto. They're salty, but I like a good salty snack.
• Alfort - These cookies are delicious! They're chocolate-covered Japanese-style English biscuits. The cookie is nice and buttery and of course the chocolate is fantastic.
• Shrimp Senbei - Senbei are rice crackers and these specifically are infused with dried shrimp and sea salt from the sea of Japan.

Clockwise from top left: Miso Cracker, White Birch ChocoCrunch, Snow Rabbit Manju, Apple Sable Cookies

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Bottom Line: I always love Snakku's boxes, but this one was especially fun for me because of the Snow Rabbit Manju! All of the other snacks were a lot of fun to try and the box had a good mix of sweet and savory treats.

July Snakku Review

Snakku is a premium Japanese snack box and one of my favorites. They send authentic snacks that are only available in Japan, along with some more popular ones. This month's box featured snacks from the coastal town of Kamakura!

*Disclaimer: This box was sent to See, Shop, Love! in exchange for an honest review.

Snakku stands out from other snack boxes because they send items that are only available in Japan. Purchasing a box helps sustain local stores and businesses and provides an authentic Japanese experience! They have a few pricing options:

• Tasting Box: $15.75 per month
• Monthly: $38.95 per month
• Three Months: currently on sale for $115.50 every three months
• Six Months: currently on sale for $227.70 every six months

Shipping is free to U.S. addresses, $5 to Canadian addresses, and $15 for all other international countries. Currently the Tasting Box is only available to U.S. customers.

Snakku has the best packaging. Every box is wrapped in a beautiful design; this month's reminded me of Easter because of the pink color and circles (they reminded me of Easter eggs).

As previously stated, this month's snacks were from Kamakura, a small coastal town less than an hour south of Tokyo. It was the capital of Japan from 1181 to 1333, when warlord Minamoto Yoritomo chose it to be the center of his rule. Today, it's called the "Kyoto of the East" because of its numerous temples and shrines. It's famous for the Kamakura Daibutsu, a bronze statue of Buddha that stands over 43 feet tall!

The featured snacks are the special ones that are only available in Japan and are from the featured region/city.

• Hato Sabure - These cookies have been made by the Teshimaya snack store since the Meiji period in 1868. Kyujiro Kubota, the first owner, started making them when butter became available tin Japan. These are simple and absolutely delicious! They're nice and buttery and perfect with my morning coffee. The dove shape is really cute, too.
• Kurumiko - This is the little bar on the bottom right of the photo with the squirrels on the packaging (so cute!) and was probably my favorite snack this month. It's a caramel and chestnut bar made by Kamakura Beniya, which has been making snacks since 1954. This is their most popular snack and it won the 27th National Japan Snack Award!
• Kintsuba - These are the square above the Kurumiko and are a traditional snack made in Japan since 1600. They're composed of red bean paste wrapped in thinly-stretched flour dough that is then baked on a copper plate. Bean paste is common in Asian snacks and at first I found it hard to wrap my head around it, but it's so good!
• Apple Honey Pie - These are in the yellow packaging on the bottom left of the photo. They're a delicate cookie made with Japanese apples and honey from the Ishii beekeeping garden. They're really light and crispy wafers and I loved them.
• Kamakura Hydrangea Cookie - These little cookies are made from hydrangea essence. Hydrangeas bloom during the rainy season in Kamakura.

Each month you'll also receive more popular snacks to compliment the featured ones.

• Saya Wasabi Snow Pea Crisps - I love wasabi and crisps, and these were perfect! They're not actually dried snow peas, but more like puffed snacks shaped like them. They are infused with snow pea and traditional Japanese dashi flavors, though.
• Fukkura Okoge - These are rice grain senbei lightly glazed with soy sauce and baked in a clay kiln. I could eat senbei all day, every day and the soy sauce glazed kind are my favorite!
• Bakauke Aonori - These are also senbei, but they're covered in aonori (blue seaweed). I love the flavor of seaweed and these had a nice light touch of it.

• Flower's Kiss Candy - I haven't tried one of these yet, but they're creamy, apricot-plum flavored candies made with flower essence.
• Matcha Azuki Cookie - I don't really like the flavor of matcha so I'll probably pass these along to a friend, but they're made up of a Kyoto matcha green tea cookie filled with Hokkaido red bean cream.
• Bourbon Baum Rolls - These are delicious! They reminded me of Ho-Hos (but way better) and are made up of vanilla-glazed mini baumkuchen rolls.

Bottom Line: The July Snakku box was another home run for me! Not only do I love trying yummy new snacks each month, but I also enjoy how much information about the snacks and the history behind them that they include.

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April Snakku Review

Spring is cherry blossom season in Japan, and April's Snakku box celebrates that with sakura-themed snacks! Sakura is the Japanese word for cherry blossom, and this box did a wonderful job of celebrating the season.

*Disclaimer: This box was sent to See, Shop, Love! in exchange for an honest review.

Snakku is a unique Japanese snack box because they feature authentic foods that are only available in Japan. And they really mean it! I fell in love with the Tirolian snacks in January's box and was so bummed when I couldn't find them for sale in the U.S.! They also include more popular snacks, like Pocky, so it's a nice and well-rounded selection.

Boxes cost $38.95 per month, and while that may seem high at first glance, consider that they're sending snacks you can't really get a hold of anywhere else. They also package everything up beautifully and include lots of information about all of the snacks.

Here are the authentic snacks for this month. As you can tell from the pretty pink packaging, there's lots of sakura going on here! The snacks are listed clockwise from top left:

• Sakura Senbei - These are seasonal senbei (rice crackers) made with real sakura flowers, cooking sake, dried squid, and wheat. I am not a fan of seafood and I could taste the squid right away, so I didn't care for these, but if you aren't seafood-averse like me then I think you'll love these!
• Sakura Mochi - Mochi are very popular Japanese snacks that are made with a fluffy, jelly-like exterior. These have a sakura blossom and red bean paste filling.
• Japanese Sake KitKat - These are extremely limited edition KitKats celebrating "Hanami," the Japanese tradition of enjoying the blooming cherry blossoms. They're made with real sake, white chocolate, and wafers (with a .8% alcohol content, so not for kids!).
• Kobe Sakura Cream Sandwich - These are so good! The wafer is so light and fluffy and the sakura cream is delicious. I wish I had more of these.
• Morihan Roll Crepe - These cookies are made by Morihan, a tea shop in Kyoto that's been in business since 1836. The pink cookies are made from a mixture of cream and sakura blossoms, and the green is chocolate and premium, hand-picked green tea from Uji Kyoto. I preferred the sweetness of the pink cookies the most, but the green tea ones were great, too!

There was also a really good selection of more widely-available snacks this month!

• Niigata Salt Senbei - I love savory rice crackers and these were absolutely delicious. They're mini sea salt rice crackers from the rural farm prefecture of Niigata.
• Kusugai Peach Gummy - These little gummies are popular in Japan, and I can see why! They're delicious and have a really juicy peach flavor.
• Vegetable Yasai Boro - These are soft wheat cracker balls. The green are spinach and the orange are pumpkin. They're filled with beta-carotene and calcium.
• Baka Uke Sesame Cracker - I loved these! They're twice-toasted soy sauce rice crackers embedded with baked black sesame seeds. The soy sauce flavor was delicious.
• Bourbon Green Tea Cookie - These bite-sized matcha cream filled chocolate cookies are made with high-grade green tea from the Uji Kyoto region.

Here are the Sakura Senbei, Morihan Roll Crepe, Sakura Mochi, and Kobe Sakura Cream Sandwich outside of their packaging.

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Bottom Line: I loved getting to try these sakura-flavored treats! I think this box had a good mix of savory and sweet snacks and it was fun learning more about the cherry blossom season in Japan. 

February Snakku Review

If you aren't already aware, I am obsessed with Snakku! I've reviewed their boxes before and they're consistently one of the best snack boxes out there, in my opinion. February's box featured snacks for Valentine's Day!

*Disclaimer: This box was sent to See, Shop, Love! in exchange for an honest review.

Snakku sends authentic Japanese snacks that are only available in Japan! They also include more popular foods like Pocky, but my favorite thing about this box is that it gives me access to things I wouldn't be able to try otherwise.

Boxes cost $38.95 per month, which may seem a little high, but consider the beautiful packaging (as seen above) and the fact that you get authentic snacks that you can't just find in the grocery store, and I think it's well worth the price!

Each box comes with an info card that describes the snacks but also gives background information on Japanese culture and the snacks' significance. February is strawberry season in Japan, and this month's selection featured strawberry-flavored snacks from the snowy city of Kanazawa.

• Chocolate Arare - These are from a rice cracker store in Kyoto and are chocolate-covered mini rice crackers. The two pouches (far right of the photo above) come in two varieties: bitter and sweet. The bitter pack has matcha green tea, dark chocolate, and white chocolate covered crackers, and the sweet has strawberry, milk chocolate, and white chocolate. I tried the sweet pack so far and I love the salty/sweet combo!
• Chocolate Fruit Crunch - These were my favorite snack in the box! They're made by a boutique store in Hakata, an old merchant city in southern Japan. They're made from locally-sourced fruits, cocoa from Madagascar, and cream from Hokkaido. The two flavors included were strawberry and blueberry, and they reminded me of a strawberry/blueberry crunch ice cream pop.
• Pururun Strawberry Mochi - Mochi is kind of difficult to describe to someone who's never tried it before, but I'll do my best: it's a soft snack that kind of looks like a gummy candy on the outside and has filling on the inside. These are also made by Hakata Fuubian and are made with the finest rice in the area and stuffed with strawberries from the island of Kyushu.
• Chocolate Senbei - These adorable senbei are shaped like hearts! They're covered in rich milk chocolate from Hokkaido and were absolutely delicious.
• Gold Okaki - These snacks are so pretty! They're crepe crackers that are baked and then dipped in a ginger emulsion and topped with edible gold foil. They're hand made in Kanazawa, where they've been in production for over 500 years. I found the cracker really hard to bite into, but it had a great ginger taste.

Pururun Strawberry Mochi, Chocolate Senbei, and Gold Okaki

Chocolate Fruit Crunch

This month's box also had a good number of more popular snacks, all of which I loved!

• Strawberry Heart Pocky - Pocky is just so good and I could easily eat an entire box in one sitting! The strawberry flavor is my favorite. If you haven't had these before, they're wafer sticks that are dipped in strawberry cream.
• Umaibo - I love the cartoon on the packaging for these! They're airy corn puff sticks and were the perfect salty snack.
• Ichigo Milk Candy - These have been popular since 1970 and have a multi-layer strawberry and milk filling.
• Senbei - Senbei are rice crackers, and these came in two flavors: plum (the smaller one) and soy seaweed (larger ones).
• Green Tea KitKat - I've always heard that Japan has a bunch of different Kit Kat flavors so I was excited to try these. They had a nice creamy flavor and were very good!

Bottom Line: Snakku is such a good box and I loved February's selection of snacks! The Valentine's Day theme was really cute and I loved all of the strawberry foods.

January Snakku Review and Giveaway

Snakku has quickly become one of my favorite subscription boxes for a number of reasons! They have beautiful packaging and delicious snacks that are sent straight from Japan. Their January box is the best one yet!

*Disclaimer: This box was sent to See, Shop, Love! in exchange for an honest review.

Snakku is a Japanese snack box that is unique in that they send authentic foods that are only available in Japan. They also include more popular and easier to find snacks, but my favorite part is that the box lets me sample things I wouldn't normally have access to.

Boxes cost $38.95 per month with free shipping to U.S. addresses. While that might seem like a high price at first, I think it is well worth the cost because you'll get nearly two pounds of snacks that are only available in Japan. Without Snakku, I would have no access to these types of snacks!

Snakku's packaging is absolutely gorgeous. Each box is wrapped in a colorful cloth, which I would love to share with you but I must have accidentally deleted the photo I took of the box before opening it! You can see examples in my previous Snakku reviews, though.

This month's box features snacks from Chidoriya, which is a boutique snack company based in the southern island of Kyushu. It was established way back in 1630 near the port city of Nagasaki, which was the only place in Japan that had access to western goods at the time. Chidoriya was also one of the first snack shops in Japan to put sugar in their products. Even today they still hand make all of their snacks using traditional methods and high quality ingredients!

Here are the Featured Snacks for January:

• Hanachidori (top left in pink and yellow packaging) - These little cakes are called manju cakes, which I had never heard of before. They're filled with finely-milled bean paste and come in two flavors: mellow white bean paste and rich yellow bean paste mixed with egg yolks. When I first read the description I thought, bean paste? I wasn't sure what to expect, but these are delicious! I associate beans with savory in my mind, but these were soft and sweet.
• Tirolian Hat - This is the second most popular snack that Chidoriya makes. They're wafer sandwiches with a thin layer of creme in the middle. They come in lemon, strawberry, and coffee. I loved these but I wish they had more creme inside.
• Tirolian Chococrunch - These. Are. Amazing! They're little mini-waffle crunch cookies that are made with locally-produced milk and butter, baked for hours at a low temperature, coated in milk chocolate and then baked again. The chocolate taste is heavenly and the crispy texture is perfect!
• Tirolian - These are Chidoriya's most popular snack. They're roll cookies that are made using the same recipe that was used when the store opened in 1630. They're filled with creme and come in chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, and coffee creme flavors. I honestly can't pick a favorite flavor because they all were so good!

Here are the Popular Snacks for January:

• Pretz Corn - These pretzel sticks are very popular in Japan and are in the seasonal Hokkaido winter corn flavor. They have a nice savory flavor that really does taste like sweet corn.
• Happy Turn - The informational card says that these are hard to describe but that the Snakku team loves them, and I agree! They're kind of airy, like a popped chip, but have a good sweet/salty flavor. I love the kawaii packaging, too.
• Lemon Yogurt Candy - These are dual-layered candies with lemon on top and yogurt on the bottom. I haven't tried them yet but the combo sounds yummy.
• Yaki Imo - These are made with stone-baked Japanese sweet potatoes, and I am assuming that they have a creamy filling like the bean paste cakes. I haven't tried them yet, though, so I'm not entirely sure.
• Kuromame Senbei - I love senbei and this one was very tasty. It's a rice cracker with black beans baked in and an earthy yet slightly sweet flavor.

Bottom Line: This was my favorite Snakku box yet because I just loved all of the Chidoriya snacks! I tried to find Tirolian roll cookies (and really all of the cookies featured this month) online but couldn't find them anywhere, which just goes to show that Snakku really does send items that are only available in Japan!

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Want to win a January Snakku box? Snakku has kindly offered two boxes for my readers to win! Enter using the Rafflecopter below. The sweepstakes is open to residents of the U.S. and Canada aged 18+. Please see the Rafflecopter for full terms and conditions.

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November Snakku Review

Back in September I wrote my first review for Snakku (read that review here) and I was incredibly impressed by everything about their box! Their November box is just as great and filled with delicious treats.

*Disclaimer: This box was sent to See, Shop, Love! in exchange for an honest review.

Snakku sends hand-picked, authentic Japanese snacks that you can only find in Japan (and more well-known favorites) to your door each month. Here are their pricing options:

• Monthly: $38.95/month
• Three Months: $115.50 every three months ($38.50 per box)
• Six Months: $225.00 every six months ($37.25 per box)

Shipping is free to U.S. addresses. Every subscriber is also automatically entered to win a deluxe box valued at over $100!

As you can see, Snakku takes great care with their beautiful packaging! I loved the pink wrap on this month's box. The snacks are all well protected inside with paper strip padding. Even though the snacks are delicate, I've yet to receive one that was broken or crushed.

This month's box featured snacks from boutique shops in Tokyo. Here's what was inside, moving clockwise from top:

• Mukashi no Senbei - This is one of the "popular snacks," meaning it's more widely available outside of Japan. They're old school rice crackers that have been grilled in a fire kiln. I love rice crackers and these had a great crunch and simple flavor.
• Double Anzutsumi - Another popular snack, these are stuffed mochi cakes. They came in the sweet potato and red bean flavor.
• Kinesha - These are seasonal folded butter biscuits and they are amazing! They're from a lesser-known snack store in Ginza and come in three flavors (plain, maple, and chocolate) to represent the autumn foliage in Japan. I can't even describe how delicious these were--perfectly buttery and full of flavor. The maple one was my favorite!

• Tokyo Banana - How adorable is the packaging on these? They're found only in Tokyo and are very popular there. They're fluffy sponge cake made from real banana with a banana maple custard filling. I am not the biggest fan of bananas, but these are pretty good!
• Nidoage Mochi - This is a double grilled soy glazed mochi cracker. I absolutely loved these and I wish I had more! The soy flavor is so good. These are also one of the popular snacks.
• Tokyo Banana Pie - This is a delicate biscuit made by Tokyo Banana, also with very cute packaging! I liked these better than the Tokyo Banana because the banana flavor was less strong and the cookie was crisp and light.

• Mame Yakko - These are the three white/clear packaged treats on the left hand side of the photo. The snack in the red packaging is actually one of the Kinesha cookies; I accidentally included it in this photo instead of with the other Kinesha. Anyway, the Mame Yakko are made by a small shop in the Ginza neighborhood and are made from a mixture of edamame beans and rice. The cracker is doused in a secret broth before it's baked, lending a crisp, clean, savory finish. These have a great crunch and tasted great! The flavors include edamame, spicy dashi broth, and traditional roasted kinako soybean.
• Season Meiji Horn - These popular snacks are a delicate biscuit sandwich made with Japanese purple yam. I haven't tried them yet, but I love the purple color!
• Sweet Sake Soft Candy - These are the last of the popular snacks and are a mellow candy made with real rice sake. I haven't tried these yet, either, but I'm very interested to see what "mellow" candy tastes like.

Bottom Line: I really enjoyed the November Snakku box! I love trying snacks that can only be found in Japan, and I like that they include so much info about the shops that make them.

September Snakku Review

I love trying international foods and snacks, and subscription boxes have made it so easy to do so. Snakku is a new service that sends Japanese snacks right to your door in some of the most beautiful packaging I've seen from a subscription!

*Disclaimer: This box was sent to See, Shop, Love! in exchange for an honest review.

Snakku sends hand-picked, authentic Japanese snacks that you can only find in Japan, along with a few others that are more well-known and widely available. Here are their pricing options:

• Monthly: $38.95/month
• Three Months: $115.50 every three months ($38.50 per box)
• Six Months: $225.00 every six months ($37.25 per box)

Shipping is free to U.S. addresses, and each month you'll be entered to win the $100 Deluxe Box with any subscription level!

I love Snakku's packaging! The box arrived in a USPS Priority Mail box and was beautifully wrapped in the green fabric pictured above. I ended up using it to cover a little table I have at my doorway that I set my keys on. The box itself also has a beautiful, simple design.

Each box has a theme, and the snacks for September were centered around Senbei. Senbei is a traditional Japanese rice cracker that has been a staple of the country for over 400 years. They come in all different shapes, sizes, and flavors and are traditionally eaten with green tea. I love rice crackers so I was excited to try all of the different varieties in this box!

• Ogurasansou Senbei: The three packages in the bottom row of the above photo have mini senbei inside. There were 10 different shapes and flavors, all randomly mixed into the packages. Each senbei represents a season, region, or feeling, which I think is really interesting. Salty flavors represent the ocean, leaf shaped ones represent autumn, and spicy ones represent summer.
• Bourbon Roanne: The yellow package in the upper right corner is one of the "popular snacks." It's a crispy light vanilla wafer sandwich and it was delicious! It was two wafer cookies with vanilla cream in the middle.
• Glico: Another popular snack, Glico is a caramel candy that was first made by this popular brand.

• Kyoto-style Senbei: These larger senbei are handmade and have a crispy, airy texture. Each one is grilled over charcoal and then brushed lightly with oil and soy sauce. The three flavors were shrimp, Kyoto-style salt, and sugar glazed. I liked the sugar glazed the best because I love salty/sweet combinations.

These three snacks make up the remaining popular snacks included in the box.

• Shiawasedo Milk Cake: This is a soft cake made with local Hokkaido milk. It was a little dry for my tastes; I was hoping it would be softer and creamier, but it was still pretty good.
• Green Tea Dorayaki: This is a baked wheat cake filled with matcha red bean paste.
• Pejoy: Pejoy is similar to Pocky, except the cream filling is on the inside instead of the outside. This box was Green Tea Cream flavored.

Bottom Line: I think Snakku is an excellent box and I love that they send traditional Japanese snacks that aren't readily available near me. I also like that they include so much information about the history behind the snacks!

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What do you think of Snakku?